Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Isaiah 14:18

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Isaiah 14:18ues

18 All the kings [melek] of the nations [gowy], even all of them, lie [shakab] in glory [kabowd], every one ['iysh] in his own house [bayith]. KJV-Interlinear

18 "All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb.  NASB

The comparison is made between the kings of human history, and the one king who is Satan.

In the contrast and difference between the two, are that, from all of human history, every human king or celebrity or person of status, that has ever lived, eventually went to the grave and to a peaceful rest.

Any of those that were unbelievers, did not go to a rest that was peaceful, but Isaiah is making a comparison here between humanity and Satan, not between life and death.

All of humanity comes to the end of their life, and the burdens and stresses and problems, and even the glories of human life come to an end, and as they are placed in the grave there is a contrast between the activity of life and the peaceful bliss of the grave.

On numerous occasions, kings and wealthy people, poured volumes of money into the construction and care of their tomb.

From elaborate pyramids to tombs of all design, many of the rich and famous and powerful, lay in rest within their earthly burial site.

With memorials and historical records, these people live in rest, in places that they had designed and defined as their glory.

Needless to say, glory belongs to the living and not to the dead. But throughout history, elaborate tombs of been constructed to honor and memorialize, in an attempt to perpetuate the glory of a person who is dead, and has no real glory.

The contrast here is not between the glory of the living and the glory of the dead. The contrast, beginning in this verse and continuing in the next verse, is between humanity and Satan.

Humanity has acquired time, in a quiet place to go to, at the end of their life.

Satan does not. And that will be explained and described in the next few verses.