“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.

Isaiah 14:12-15

Isaiah 13 and 14 were likely penned about the fall of Babylon in around 732 AD. That was over 200 years before Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian armies in around 516 AD. (Remember AD years get smaller, not larger, as time moves forward.) In fact, Isaiah wrote chapters 13 & 14 before Babylon was even a super power. When these chapters were written, Assyria was the super power in the near east. Assyria defeated Israel in the North in 722 AD, and then fell to the Babylonians in 616 AD. Years later in 586 AD, Babylon conquered Judah in the South—who after 70 years, were liberated and allowed to return home in 516, when the Medo-Persians sacked Babylon.

Why the history lesson including dates?

First, what is written in God’s Word is true and it happened in history, not fictional fantasy.

Second, only God knows the future and He had prophets write the future before it happened to verify that these are not the writings of mere men.

Third, Isaiah 14:12-15 foretells of God’s plan to wipe Babylon off the map and why. And why did God decree the destruction of Babylon? As judgment on their pride—thinking they were greater than God Himself. Foolishness!

But that prophecy is also written in a manner that looks back to the fall of Lucifer from being an archangel to the devil. Again why? Pride.

Let us not only learn our history, but a most valuable lesson about what lies ahead for the prideful.