Up the Down Path: Power, Ambition, and Spiritual Leadership

Abstract

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." (Isa 14:13, 14) This egocentric upward focus is revealed in the use of the first person singular by the speaker, Lucifer (v.12).His goals are not authorized nor has he been ordained to such lofty achievements, rather he personally covets a position and a role to which he was never called.Lucifer journeyed counter to the direction established by the kingdom of God by climbing up the ladder of his dreams and from that ladder he fell with tragic results: 12 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! 15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.(Isa 14:12, 15)There are consequences revealed in this prophecy that validate the prohibition against self-ascendancy.Ezekiel continues this metaphorical message in his lamentation of the King of Tyre

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