Pastor John,
After this morning’s reading in the Father and Son book, I was thinking about these verses in Isaiah 14:
13. You have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the Mountain of Assembly, on the far north side.
14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.”
Somehow I had not before clearly seen in these verses that Satan said these things in his heart. That he even conceived of such a concept as promotion, of becoming something more, or even just other than what he was created to be was the problem. These verses speak of nothing but thoughts and desires of the heart – not actions. He was instantly out of order with such thoughts. His actions after this were based on his assumption that such a thing was possible , and the deceitfulness of his heart led him to think that he saw God working it out for him to be promoted.
The only creatures that can become something else (you could say promoted from below angels to above them), are humans, but that was only possible through the Son.
Another thing I am pondering is the description of Satan found in Isaiah 14:12: “O weakener of the nations!” One of the puzzles to me of the Father and Son book is that even though nobody understood anything, and so, Satan was not seen as evil at that time, the influence of his ways can be seen on earth, especially contaminating Old Testament Israel to the point where the leaders were described as sons of Satan by Jesus. Somehow, as ruler over the earth, Satan’s wrong ideas about God’s government contaminated just about everything on earth, and that would seem to be indicated in the statement that he weakened the nations.
Things such as David’s attitude toward Saul portray the humble attitude of just being what God makes you.
Damien