Advent.

For me an essential part of every Advent season is the celebration of my birthday on December 21. I've always loved my birthday for some reason. Even now at 35 I have to put on an act to make it seem like I hate getting old. In a sense it's true since I don't enjoy the decline of my physical body. But emotionally and spiritually the past seven years have been my best, because of the overwhelming blessings I have received through Noah and his mother. Of course now the anticipation of Christmas' arrival is especially sweet since we get to watch Noah experience it all for the first time. And because we have the privilege and responsibility of influencing and shaping his experiences.

I need to write more on that particular subject, but right now I have something else on my mind.

On December 20 in the early evening I had the blessing and privilege of being completely alone for a period of time, out in the Texas Hill country. A friend (who gave me the cigar I am now smoking, only the 5th or 6th all-time and the first in 2 years) and I were discussing theology and he mentioned a passage in Isaiah that he had heard was Satan attempting to indict the Lord for His unjust governance of the universe, somehow. Our schedules did not permit us to delve into the passage itself, so during this episode of solitude I determined to perhaps find the chapter he referred to. I didn't think this was quite what he had meant but I turned to another chapter I've read several times before:

(Isaiah 14:4-21, ESV)
...you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has ceased,
the insolent fury ceased!
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.

7The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8The cypresses rejoice at you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
'Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.'
9Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10All of them will answer
and say to you:
'You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!'
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
and worms are your covers.

12"How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart,
'I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'
15But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.

16Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?'
18All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;
19but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like a loathed branch,
clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.

20You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people."May the offspring of evildoers
nevermore be named!
21Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities."

I do not claim to have any superhuman powers of interpretation nor an advanced degree in Old Testament studies. It's just me and my Book of God and the Holy Spirit. And I absolutely believe that Isaiah wrote this as a prophecy against the Babylonian empire of his own day. But.

v4: 'how the oppressor has ceased' -- Saddam has been removed from power in Iraq.
v6: 'that struck the peoples in wrath' -- Kurds, Shia, Kuwaitis, Iranians, Israelis; all peoples Saddam lifted his hand against.
v11: 'your pomp is brought down to Sheol' -- Sheol is Hebrew for "the grave". Saddam's spider hole was 8 feet underground. No more pomp there.
v14: 'I will make myself like the Most High' -- Saddam demanded worship and thought of himself as invincible and immortal.
v15: 'you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit' -- Saddam will either get the death penalty from his Iraqi judges, or he'll get death some other way. It's coming. And again, the spider hole!
v16: 'Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: "Is this the man...?" ' -- this is what the entire Arab and Muslim world is going through right now. We thought he was a Lion who would fight the USA to the death! He looks like he's been begging for change on a street corner for years. Arabs just can't get those images processed.
v20: 'You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people.' -- Who deserves this indictment more than Saddam Hussein?
v21: 'Prepare slaughter for his sons...lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.' -- this is where I really began to feel funny. Udai and Qusai. Dead. Was there a divine plan involved... would these guys have been worse than their father if allowed to rule the nation?

And then, once I had pondered all this, I returned to the fact that all these words were written as a rebuke against the king of ancient Babylon. Babylon. Whoa.

One more caveat: I don't think this passage is a divine mandate for American presidents to invade Iraq in the past, present, or future. Just want that absolutely clear. I don't consider myself an orthodox Perle/Wolfowitz/Kristol neocon, although I think in the case of Iraq, invasion and regime change was justified.