Wednesday, August 3, 2011

2 Nephi 24

There is an interesting shift that happens around verse five, before which, the subjects are the actual nation of Israel and Babylon, speaking of the eventual return of Israel to their lands of promise and the demise of Babylon, thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased! and if you are not paying attention, the subsequent verses may seem to apply but by the time you get to verse 12, you'll note that the person being addressed is no longer the King of Babylon, but Lucifer. There are a number of things that will happen:
The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked staff clearly symbolizing power or authority,
He that smote the people ... is persecuted
the whole earth is at rest and a comment that the trees are rejoicing, perhaps indicating that in the millenial day, we will be better resource managers
Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee
[His] pomp is brought down to the grave - Lucifer will be cast out of the earth, and the denizens there will say, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! and that's when you realize that even though the chapter started out talking about the King of Babylon, it switched to speaking about Luciferin the middle.
24:12-15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to teh ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou has said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. Just as Isaiah sometimes speaks messianically, here he uses the king of Babylon to typify Lucifer. I like these verses because they are nearly identical to the verses in the book of Isaiah, and are one of the places in the Bible where you have reasonably clear support for our version of the pre-earth life, with the council in heaven and Lucifer, a son of the morning, existing in heaven, in God's presence, aspiring to ascend to the throne of God, and being cast out for his hubris until the residents of hell ask him, art thou become weak as we?

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