I. Isaiah's Foreview

I. ISAIAH'S FOREVIEW.

The Prophet Isaiah sees the Antichrist as the "ASSYRIAN." Isa. 10:5, 12, 24; 30:27-33. In Isa. 11:4, a chapter which is evidently Messianic, we read that among other things which the Messiah will do--"He shall smite the earth with the 'rod of His mouth,' and with the 'breath of His lips' shall He slay 'THE WICKED'." The

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word translated "THE WICKED," is in the singular number, and cannot refer to wicked persons in general, but to some one person who is conspicuously wicked. The expression is strikingly like that of Paul's in 2. Thess. 2:8. "Then shall that 'WICKED' be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the 'Spirit of His Mouth,' and shall destroy with the 'Brightness of His Coming'." It is evident that Isaiah and Paul refer to the same individual, who can be no other than the Antichrist.

In Isa. 14:4-17 there is a description of a "King of Babylon" who shall smite the people in his wrath, and rule the nations in anger. He is called "LUCIFER, Son of the Morning," and his fall is described. He is cast down to Hell (Sheol, the Underworld), where his coming creates a great stir among the kings of the earth that have preceded him, and who exclaim when they see him--"Art thou .also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? . . . 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?" There has never as yet been such a King of Babylon as is here described. It must therefore refer to some future King of Babylon, when Babylon shall be rebuilt, as we shall see it is to be. Verses 12 to 14 evidently refer to Satan, and are descriptive of him before his fall, but as he is to incarnate himself in the Antichrist, who is to be a future King of Babylon, it explains the source of the pride and presumption of Antichrist, which will lead to his downfall, as it did to Satan's.