Isaiah 14:11 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.
Not long ago I was talking to a friend who had recently returned from Egypt. He and his wife had toured the Pyramids, those amazing wonders of the world, man-made objects that still exist millennia after they were produced by the mighty Egyptian Empire. They are essentially graves, the resting place of the Pharaohs. These Pharaohs had great pomp, great wealth, and great might in life, and wanted desperately to maintain that into the next world. The fact is that they did not maintain it into the next world. The most enduring thing the Pharaohs wrought was their tombs, which is ironic.
Furthermore, when you think about it, of all the graves you can visit on the face of the earth, do you honestly think those represent all the souls of all the people who have ever lived? No! The millennia have obscured the resting places of millions of people.
On the Ranch we have the Pioneer Graveyard. There are three headstones there that date back to before the Civil War, yet there are others buried at that spot that do not have headstones. There may even be natives who lived hundreds of years before the pioneers who now lie buried on the Ranch. None of us lives on this earth forever, yet that is something that is easy to forget.
In Isaiah 14 God is talking about the pomp of Babylon. “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency,” as we read in Isaiah 13:19. God pronounces judgment on the king of Babylon. He says in verse 9, “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming.” What follows is God’s condemnation of Babylon and her king, specifically for her pride, pomp, and arrogance.
In verse 11 God says, “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.” God is saying, “You used to have music at these beautiful feasts and you used to be covered with beautiful garments, but now you are covered with corruption.” God pictures this king of Babylon as he goes down to the grave and beyond that down to hell. God says, “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?” The answer is yes!
No matter what you do on this earth, death is the great equalizer. In Job chapter 3, Job wonders aloud why he is still living and says, “Why didn’t I go down to the grave with kings and princes? The wicked are there, prisoners are there, and the small and great are there. Everyone is there.” Ezekiel 32 talks about Pharaoh in a very similar way. Pharaoh would be brought down to the grave. Ezekiel 32:11 says, “For thus saith the Lord God; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.” Ironically, Babylon would destroy Egypt, but then Babylon herself would be destroyed. Death is a great equalizer.
The takeaway is that pride is the path to hell. You only have one life on this earth, and after that is eternity. There is an eternity, and there is a heaven and a hell. Pride, at its worst, is the path to hell. Why? When a person lives this life in pride, rejecting God as Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign, he does not see his need of God. The greatest manifestation of that is rejecting God even for salvation.
Humility, on the other hand, is a perspective that has eternity in view. Humility helps me to see that God has created me and given me what I have, my stewardship. God is the One Who provides grace because of the work of the Lord Jesus. It is my faith in Christ and not my work that God acknowledges for salvation.
Death is a great equalizer, pride is the path to hell, and humility brings us to the recognition of our need for the Lord Jesus and the forgiveness that He alone provides.