"For I Will Rise Up Against Them, Saith the Lord"

“For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

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.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts,

and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.

I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?”

This painting depicts Isaiah 14.  I was very reluctant to undertake this as I do not feel my current skill is worthy (nor shall it ever be for such a subject), but the Lord laid it on my heart to do so now.  Some liberties were taken for the sake of expression and clarity.  I think its kind of realism has that Early Renaissance earnestness and Romantic spirit, even if it lacks the stronger naturalism of the French Academy.  This painting is much more important than any other I have shared with you up to this point.  May it encourage my brother and sister Christians. 

The painting is divided into two halves.  In the upper register, the heavens open and surround Christ with light.  Dramatic clouds billowing from the desolations below dim the light of the moon and render its light the color of blood.  Christ stands in a resplendently glowing cloud; His clothes whiter than any fuller on earth can make them. 

The Lord looks down with utter disgust upon the Adversary who tormented His children night and day for millennia.  His leg is moved forward as He finally stands up in judgement.  His left hand is clenched in rage and His arm is pulled back slightly in a gesture of pity withdrawn:

"For I will rise up against them,
saith the Lord"

I couldn’t resist a little
quote from Church…that
is, the other kind of Church.

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”

Christ forcefully thrusts His right arm downwards in condemnation.  In Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, Christ’s right arm is raised in the moment before the verdict is delivered.  Here the Day of the Lord is come: the judgement is underway.  The arm that stretched out the heavens, that divided the sea, the arm that the plagues followed behind, is now directed at Lucifer. 

"The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted,
and none hindereth."

In the lower register, the Arch-Fiend plummets to his eternal reward in hell.  The force of the Lord’s rebuke has broken his pitchfork and sent him twisting backward, his black cape trailing behind him.  The Fiend’s right wing has caught fire from its proximity to hell beneath.  His right arm, which just moments before was clutching his pitchfork still dripping with the blood of the saints, gestures upwards.  Perhaps he begs for a little sympathy.  Or maybe he’s just trying grab ahold of someone to bring down with him.  The Enemy of our Souls is thrust through with a flaming sword with a Cross-shaped hilt which he vainly tries to pull out.  This is a death blow, as Christ’s Sacrifice permanently redeemed His servants from the clutches of Satan.  The prince of this world is judged.  His fate is sealed.  Now that Old Serpent is rewarded for his ambitions against the Lord and the abuse of His beloved.

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”

The Adversary’s face is contorted in a mixture of anger, fear, confusion, and torment.  Forced to finally confront his long-time-coming punishment, he is utterly powerless, helpless, hopeless.  Of course the Devil never goes down without a fight, and he struggles, but it’s not like he can really do anything to escape. 

"...he that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword."

His person was modeled on the Augustus of Primaporta, the sculpture of the man who represented Rome, the nation that, like Lucifer, sought to replace God with itself.  It was for the refusal of Rome’s imperial cult and its other idolatries that my brothers and sisters were persecuted.  And upon rehashings of that principle of idolatry throughout history have we continued to be persecuted.  Therefore that statue is a fitting model for the Father of Lies.  The decoration of his armor in the painting is a simplified scene of the Serpent and Eve flanking the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

Christ actively rises against the Prince of Darkness.  The verse “For I will rise against them, saith the LORD” is absolutely bloodcurdling.  He who made the heaven and the earth and all the universe with a word, He who makes all the nations look like a drop in the bucket, He who conquered death itself, is personally rising up against them?  Jesus is far more terrifying and powerful than any devil.  Satan and all his allies don’t have a chance in hell. 

“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

So praise Jesus, who has chosen His children over the Devil.  He will not leave us in the teeth of the oppressor indefinitely but He will rise up against him.  That's the thing about Christianity -- we don't raise a finger against anybody but let God fight our battles.  May God be glorified.  God bless!