The Tabernacle in Isaiah 14:12-14

The “fall of Lucifer” is the height of irony because it runs the pattern of the Tabernacle backwards. The king’s climb from the lowest realm to the highest is in vain because the house is upside down.

This passage is the Leviticus/Ascension step in what would be a sevenfold sequence if it had not been denied its Sabbath rest. For the introduction to this section (Isaiah 14:3-23), see Isaiah’s Kill List – Part 2.

The Taunt of Israel (Isaiah 14:3-23)

CYCLE 2B3
Ascension/Firstfruits – Leviticus
The Falling Star

(Isaiah 14:12-14)

SUCCESSION
How the morning star has fallen,
(14:12a)
(Abyss – Court of Sacrifice)

OATH/SANCTIONS
having been cut down to the ground,
the one who weakened the nations
(14:12b)
(Sea – Laver)

ETHICS
Babylon said in its heart that it would
reign above the stars (14:13a)
(Land – Holy Place)

HIERARCHY
It would exalt its throne and
sit in the heavenly court
(14:13b)
(Firmament – Veil)

TRANSCENDENCE
above the heights like the Most High (14:14)
(Heaven – Most Holy Place)

The three Cycles of the Ethics triplet (2B3, 2B4, and 2B5) constitute a single process: Priesthood, Kingdom, and Prophecy. The king of Babylon is removed from office in three stages that recapitulate the domains of the sacred order: things above (the fall of the morning star), things beside (the humiliation of the king), and things below (his body left for the scavengers). These are the domains in the prohibition upon idolatry in Exodus 20:4, so the overthrow of the dynasty is a purging of the idols from the Gate of God.

The same threefold pattern is seen in the removal of Satan from his office as the accuser of Man after the ascension of Christ. He is cast from heaven to earth (Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:9 – Garden: Priesthood); then he is cast from the earth to the abyss in AD70 (Revelation 20:1-3 – Land: Kingdom); and at the conclusion of this current age, he will finally be destroyed (Revelation 20:7-10, World: Prophecy). Satan was the spiritual builder of all three Babylons: the priestly Babel of Nimrod (Ascension), the kingly Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar (Testing), and the prophetic Babylon of the Herods (Maturity). As a counterfeit Jerusalem, the true nature of this final city could only be discerned by a revelation from heaven.

The “fall of Lucifer” is the height of irony because it runs the pattern of the Tabernacle backwards. The king’s climb from the lowest realm to the highest is in vain because the house is upside down. What Babylon perceived as exaltation to a throne in heaven was a descent into a grave on earth. As in Eden, it is impossible to tell the snakes from the ladders without the light of the Word of God.

• (14:12a) The shining one is the morning star, the “firstborn” of the day. Like Cain and Esau, the one who claimed the nations as his inheritance was rejected by God and denied the blessing. Moreover, the inverse Tabernacle structure of the Cycle puts this “son of the morning” on the altar for sacrifice. Babylon would pay for its child sacrifices with the life of its king. Isaiah 30:33 is even more explicit. It calls for the preparation of an altar of child sacrifice “for the king,” which puns melech (“king”) with Molech.
• (14:12b) The Laver pictured the crystal sea, the court of heaven. These “waters above” corresponded to the Gentile “Sea” as the wild “waters below.” The dynasty that prostrated the kings of the nations in its “divine” court would itself be felled like a great tree.
• (14:13a) The brightest star is the ruler of the stars, that is, the king of kings. But the Dominion pattern runs backwards for the same reason that the Tabernacle order is reversed in the Cycle. The “rulers” in the Holy Place were the Table (priest), Lampstand (king), and Incense Altar (prophet). These represented the Lamb, the Seven Spirits, and the Elders as revealed in Revelation 4-5.
• (14:13b) The mount of divine assembly is Ararat, the spring of the seventy ancient priest-kings, of which Babel was the original counterfeit. From this region flow the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two mighty “legs” that watered the Mesopotamian basin. The king would enter the realm of the gods through the Veil of clouds.
• (14:14) The Ark-throne is an empty trophy because the Kingdom Line is missing. “I will be like” in Line 6 is the sin of Adam (Genesis 3:5). “Most High” was the name for God used by the Noahic priest-kings, such as Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20).

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