Isaiah 14:16
16 They that see [ra'ah] thee shall narrowly look [shagach] upon thee, and consider [biyn] thee, saying, Is this the man ['iysh] that made the earth ['erets]
to tremble [ragaz], that did shake [ra`ash] kingdoms [mamlakah]; KJV-Interlinear
16 "Those who see you will
gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, 'Is this the man who made the
earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, NASB
Our time period is the
end of the tribulation, and the events that occur immediately following the
second advent of Christ.
Satan is the ultimate
evil ruler throughout all of the ages. He is the great dragon, the principal
opponent of God, the one who has turned the world and history upside down.
When God created the
universe, it was created perfect. It was Satan’s rebellion that caused problems
to enter into the universe.
When God restored the
world, he created the Garden of Eden, perfect. It was Satan’s influence that
led to sin which was the choice of man, which resulted in man’s eviction from
the Garden, and led to the many problems that exist in the world.
When Satan was created,
and known as Lucifer, he was the greatest and brightest of all the angels.
When Satan rebelled
against God, his brightness turned to darkness, and the ugliness of darkness
became an integral part of his life.
After the second advent,
Satan will be taken into custody and put in chains, Rev. 20:2, and then hauled away
to the Abyss, in front of all to see, and that is where we find ourselves in
this verse.
In the previous verse,
Satan was, brought down, which means he was led against his will. It does not
refer to a leader or a king who has died and fallen in battle or at the hand of
some assassin.
Those who are present
at the second advent include all believers and all angels who will come out of
heaven with Christ, back to earth, and all believers who have remained alive on
the earth and rescued by Christ.
These will be the witnesses
of Satan’s arrest and incarceration.
In our verse, the
phrase, narrowly look, refers to a staring, as though one is closely examining
an object. And since none of us have seen Satan, then when this event occurs,
we will all be watching, staring, as though we can’t help it, while we look in
wonderment at the one person who has turned the world upside down throughout
all of history.
Satan, is the one who
would sacrifice everyone, in order to secure his own advancement. He is the one
who so wanted to be like or better than God, and actually believed, and still
believes, that he is capable of being better and doing better than God.
And yet if there is one
thing that we can learn from Satan’s life, it’s that when you reject truth,
when you defy God, when you presume that you can do better than what the Bible
teaches or that you don’t need the Bible at all, then you will have only one
destiny in life, which is utter and total failure.
And the sad thing is,
the more that you reject and resist God, the more that you reject and resist your
daily Bible study, the more that you are indifferent toward the correct aspects
of the spiritual life, then you will never see the error of your ways until the
very end of your life, and that of course will be too late.
