“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:” (Isaiah 14:13)
No one alive knows exactly what this means or where the sides of the north are. We can infer, and only perhaps, that it refers to a place of eminence, of preferential authority, but I believe we can know one thing for sure, Lucifer did not sit there, but he wanted to, in fact, he felt, he believed he had the right to. “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” (Eze. 28:15)
I am pondering something in this short letter to you today, and I believe it is relative to the lost we seek and the wicked that will remain eternally lost, and it is this. Did pride or lust enter into the thoughts of our adversary first? Did he realize the enormous power he was created with first, a power that even Michael the arch angel would not attempt to stand against, or did the lust of what he wanted but could not have cause his first thoughts of rebellion against the Almighty?
One must consider why he was not granted a position in the sides of the north, and what comes to my mind is this, that place is reserved for only three individuals, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:14 means that if he was to sit there, in his eyes and perhaps the eyes of the other angels, he would be equal to them.
Did his pride, the wrongful knowledge that he was above his fellow servants, lead to a lust for what he was denied, or did the lust consume him to a point where pride entered into his heart?
Lust wants what it generally cannot obtain, pride says that it should be obtainable. It is what he did in the garden to our first parents, he created a lust for what they did not have and informed them that they were deserving of it. This is how the wicked think, they lust because they believe they deserve what they lust after, and their pride lies to them and tells them they do deserve it. The lust consumes them whilst the pride drives them.
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1) That war is in the soul of every person who denies that Jesus is Lord, they believe themselves to be autonomous, masters of their own destinies, not realizing that it is the lust and the pride that are their masters.
Understanding and recognizing as truth the Sovereignty of the Living God dispels all pride, understanding that we are heirs to the Kingdom of God removes all lust for the things of this world. Lust is covetousness, it is not being content, pride attempts not to make us greater than God, but to at least be His equal. It was enough to cast Lucifer and a third of the angels out of heaven with no hope of returning to their first estate, and it is enough for those who will not repent to never see the Kingdom of the Lord.
“The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.” (Prov. 21:12)
No matter which one entered into the mind of Satan first, these two, lust and pride, must be studied by the man of God, for it is how those who live in the world live their lives. If you can understand the lust that person has, you can assist them in seeing that they will never achieve it fully, and if it is pride that directs their lives, then informing them that their life will one day end may help them to see the error of their way.
These are the foundation of sin.
