The Pride of Satan - Glenn Conjurske
The Pride of Satan
by Glenn Conjurske
The fourteenth chapter of Isaiah gives us what is generally acknowledged to be a description of the fall of Satan. He fell by pride, and the description of his fall is in fact a description of his pride. We read,
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:12-14).
Five times he says “I will,” but there is nothing resembling reason in any of it. The Bible teaches us to say not “I will,” but “if the Lord will,” for we are all of us absolutely dependent upon him and his will. Therefore the old proverb wisely says, “Man proposes, God disposes.” He who says “I will,” without any recognition of the will of God, is a fool. His “I will” is a declaration of independence of God—-a declaration, that is, of independence of him upon whom he is and must be absolutely dependent for his very existence. Nor is the creature’s “I will” foolish merely, but wicked also. It is in fact the essence of sin. Yet in the present article I aim to dwell merely upon its unreasonableness.
All pride is unreasonable, “for who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (I Cor. 4:7).
We are obliged, however, to make a distinction here. Though all pride is unreasonable, yet some pride has at least a show of reason in it. The man who is proud of what he himself has done is much more reasonable than the man who is proud of what he is by nature. He did nothing to produce what he is, and he has no more right to be proud of this than he has to boast of the light of the sun or the beauty of the stars. What he has done, on the other hand, is the product of his own diligence and toil.
Again, the man who is proud of what he has done has a much more reasonable pride than the man who only crows of what he can do or will do. The one stands upon something real and substantial, the other only upon airy imaginations.
In short, the man who says “I have” is much more reasonable than the man who says “I am,” or “I will,” or “I can.” Nevertheless, even the most reasonable of pride is unreasonable at best, in a creature who is dependent upon God for his very existence. “Thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.” (Deut. 8:18). It is he that hath given thee power to do whatsoever thou hast done. One touch of his finger would make thee a drivelling idiot, or a helpless paralytic—-nay, a lifeless corpse. If thou art anything else now, “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” Why, then, dost thou glory?
But granting that some pride is more reasonable than other, we observe that the devil’s pride is of the most unreasonable sort. He does not say, “I have,” for he had done nothing. He might now say, “I have,” but the pride by which he fell was of a different sort. Neither did he say, “I am.” Even this would have been more reasonable than “I will,” for “I am” stands at any rate upon something which actually exists, while “I will” stands upon nothing. Why did Satan not say, “I am”? He dared to say, “I will be,” and why not “I am”? He went so far as to say, “I will be like the Most High,” and why not “I am”? What better way to demonstrate a likeness to the Most High, than to be able to say “I am”?
Ah! Satan, the very terms and expressions of thy pride do but demonstrate how unreasonable it is! Thy words do but proclaim thine inferiority! Why dost thou not say, “I am like the Most High”? Why must thou say, “I will be like the Most High”? Though there is no truth in thee, and though the unjust knoweth no shame, yet methinks shame itself must keep thee from so bold a flight of fancy as “I am like the Most High.” ‘Tis too humiliating for thee to say “I am,” for what art thou? Say now “I am,” if thou art something. Wilt thou dare to say “I am”? Methinks not, for thou fearest to draw the attention to what thou art in fact. Therefore thou must say, “I will be.” What speech is this, for the great Lucifer? It declareth thine ambition, but betrayeth what thou art. Small men love to see their names next to the names of great men, and so thou also. Thou lovest to put “I” and “the Most High” together in thy speech, that thou mightest shine in his glory, and wilt thou not dare to put an “am” between them? No, but “I will be”!
What is this that thou sayest? “I will be like the Most High.” Thy pride hath deceived thee. Thou speakest great swelling words, but they are words of vanity—-the veriest emptiness. If thou wilt be, then thou art not. What thou sayest is, I am not like the Most High. He is above me. I am beneath him. He is superior. I am inferior. He is infinite. I am finite. He possesses all things. I possess only what he allows me. I am not like him, and this I proclaim in the very declaration of my highest ambition.
“I will be like the Most High.” Ah! great Lucifer, swelling with thine own greatness, must thy greatest aspiration be limited to this, to be like thine enemy whom thou hatest? Canst thou aim no higher than this? Canst thou shoot no truer than this? Thy greatest aspiration sings the praise of him whom thou hatest! Is this the sum of all thine ambition, to be like him? Surely then he is worthy of all thy love, all thy service. Why dost thou not love him? Why dost thou not serve him? Thy words do but proclaim thy wickedness. Thy words do but declare how utterly unreasonable is thy rebellion.
But what is this that thou sayest? “I will be like the Most High.” And how wilt thou accomplish this? Wilt thou be infinite in power and wisdom? How wilt thou attain to this? Wilt thou be independent of thy Creator? Wilt thou be self-sufficient, self-existent? And if thou wilt be, why art thou not now? Surely it must be as easy to become self-existent today as tomorrow. Thou wilt be like the Most High! Where then is thy universe, which thou hast created? It must be as easy to create a world today as tomorrow. Why dost thou say, “I will be”? Why not, “I am”? How wilt thou be tomorrow what thou canst not be today? If thou canst, why art thou not? Surely thy passion hath carried away thy reason. Say “I would,” but not “I will.” Thou hast set thine ambitions too high, and thy very expression of them declareth that thou art not and cannot be what thou sayest thou wilt be.
But thou wilt be like the Most High. What, then, wilt thou be? Wilt thou be love and light? Wilt thou be full of mercy and truth? Wilt thou promise no more than thou canst give, and give all that thou hast promised? Wilt thou give thy life for thy sheep? Thou hast no desire for these things. The insincerity of thy pride is more than enough to prove it unreasonable. Say not in thine heart, “I will be like the Most High,” when thou hast neither the will nor the capacity for it. Say only, I will steal the place that belongeth to him, for this is all thy desire.
And as with thy crowning ambition, so with all the steps by which thou thinkest to ascend to it. Thine every word proclaimeth thy dependence upon him from whom thou declarest thine independence. “I will ascend into heaven!” And whose heaven is this? Is this not the heaven of God? Where is thine own heaven? Speak now the word, and create thine own heaven! But no. Thou must “ascend into heaven.” Then thou art beneath it, and beneath him who dwelleth therein. Thy words proclaim thy dependence, thine inferiority.
“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” But why the stars of God? Where are thine own stars? Canst thou do nothing but appropriate and use—-nothing but steal and usurp? And is it thus thou must think to be like the Most High? Thy passion hath overset thy reason. Thou speakest to thine own confusion of face. Be like the Most High!—-by appropriating and usurping what is not thine own! When hath ever the Most High done so?
“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.” And whose congregation is this? Who created these spirits? Who created this mount? “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” But whose clouds are these? Where are thine own clouds, floating gloriously above thine own world? Thine every word proclaimeth thy dependence upon God. Why thinkest thou then to cast off his yoke, and declare thine independence? Thou knowest not how! Thou canst not so much as speak the language of independence. Surely there never yet existed anything so unreasonable as thy pride.
But if such is the pride of him who “seale[th] up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty,” if such is the pride of the chief of the angels, who are greater in power and might than we, how unreasonable is the pride of puny man? Dependent upon God for our very existence, dependent upon him for every power which we possess, yet men swell with pride, which in essence is neither more nor less than an assertion of their independence of God. And this while they are unable to declare their independence of the inanimate globe which he created. They cannot exist without the air and the water. They are dependent upon the very earth under their feet, and yet think to declare their independence of the God above them. This is the unreasonableness of pride.
Glenn Conjurske