“Another World” No. 9 ” by Rev. Toru Asai

Davar Kingdom of God

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. The “morning star,” also called the evening star, is Venus, the second planet from the Sun. Since it is close to the Sun, we see it moving back and forth around the Sun. It appears in the eastern sky just before the sunrise, or in the western sky right after the sunset. In Sumerian myths, this planet is identified with Inanna, or Ishtar in Akkadian—goddess of war and fertility. In the city of Babylon, when coming into the city from the north on the east bank of the Euphrates, a visitor passed through a gate called “Ishtar’s gate” with massive towers beautifully faced with lapis-lazuli blue tiles and decorated with colored reliefs of animals before he/she emerged on the procession street. In the story of the Descent of Ishtar, this goddess, having been stripped off all her ornaments, went into the Land of No Return—the land of the dead and darkness. The words in the above poem reminds us of the story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11—bab-il(im) in Akkadian meaning “the gate of a god”—the name Babylon. Sure enough, in the center of the city stood a tower 280 feet high. The most civilized city on earth at the time, densely populated, magnificently built and beautifully decorated—a symbol of power and luxury—was conquered, and the gate fell opened before Cyrus king of Persia in 539 B.C. The fall of Tyre and the fall of Babylon are the type of the fall of Satan and his kingdom. These oracles reveal the reason for the fall—pride. But what is pride? Pride is not a sin which we commit in actions. Pride is a spirit coming from Satan himself. It is sneaky and hidden inside. On one hand, people with nice words and polite actions may look humble but can be very prideful inside. On the other hand, people who speak boldly in a straight manner may look arrogant, but really humble inside. Jesus who said, “I and the Father are one,” was the humblest person on earth. One day, Jesus was invited to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee together with many other guests. When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable (Luke 14:7). It was the guests themselves who “picked up the places of honor.” When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, “Give this man your seat.” Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place (vv. 8-9). If there were those who were invited, there was also the one who invited them. Jesus’ conclusion was: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (v. 11).