Look Narrowly Upon thee

In a dual prophecy about both the king of Babylon and Lucifer, Isaiah wrote what would be said of them after their downfall: “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? And made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them, lie in glory, every one of them in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch” (2 Nephi 24:16-19). If Isaiah was referring to the last king of Babylon then it would have been Nabonidus who was king when Cyrus from Persia came and conquered Babylon. Apparently he wrote the following about himself: “I am Nabonidus, the great king, the strong king, king of the Universe, king of Babylon, king of the Four Quarters, the restorer of Esagila and Ezida, whose destiny Sîn and Ningal while he was in his mother's womb decreed for the lot of royalty; the son of Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, the wise prince, the reverer of the great gods, am I .” He clearly thought a lot of himself! But that pride indeed came before the fall, and ultimately his great kingdom was overthrown so forcefully that there was nothing left of Babylon, even to this day. Isaiah described it this way: “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there” (2 Nephi 23:20). And so it shall be for Lucifer—though he seems to have much power now, eventually there will be nothing left of his influence after the Savior returns and the devil and his angels are sent unto their own place where they will have power no more. These words of Isaiah suggest that the Babylonian king did not receive a proper burial and so his body was not preserved, similar to how Satan will never receive a physical body because of his rebellion. And whatever “lands” and dominions the devil obtains now will eventually be gone; he will have nothing left as he and those who first followed him are cast into outer darkness.

                And so, returning to the first verse I quoted from Isaiah, at some future day we will look upon the devil and say, “Is that it? This is the man that made the earth tremble with wickedness and shook kingdoms? But he is nothing now.” This highlights the fact that we need not fear the influence of the adversary even now if we are yoked to the Savior. The Prophet Joseph Smith said this: “We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. He is pleased when he can obtain the tabernacle of man, and when cast out by the Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, showing that he would prefer a swine’s body to having none. All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.” He added, “The devil has no power over us only as we permit him. The moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power.” And how do we resist the power of the adversary? The key, I believe, is prayer. The Lord urged us, “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (Doctrine and Covenants 10:5). When Joseph was in the Sacred Grove and was attacked by the adversary, prayer was what saved him: “But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me… I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me” (Joseph Smith History 1:16). Similarly, when Moses was face to face with Satan, and the devil commanded him to worship him and Moses began to fear, prayer saved him: “Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory. And now Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses received strength, and called upon God, saying: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan. And it came to pass that Satan cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and he departed hence” (Moses 1:20-22). And when the disciples of the Savior struggled to cast out an evil spirit from a child, He taught them this: “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). We need more faith in the power of prayer to protect us from the adversary and his temptations. At some future day we shall look “narrowly” upon him and wonder how he ever had so much power, and we need not fear him now if we put our trust fully in God.