The Prophetic LAW OF DOUBLE REFERENCE
The Law of Double Reference is the tendency of Scripture prophecy (2 Peter 1:20) to sometimes refer to two things simultaneously — one relevant to the general time of the prophecy and the other relating to the distant past or far-off future. The first two chapters of Isaiah offer a good example: The prophet jumps from the restoration of Jerusalem to the Millennium and the New Earth and from a warning to the inhabitants of Jerusalem of impending judgment to a warning of God’s Day of Judgment of the entire world (Isaiah 2:12-22). In other words, what was about to happen in Jerusalem was just a foreshadowing of what will happen to the whole Earth. Just as Jerusalem was restored, so the Earth will be restored after God’s reckoning.
Why did the LORD hide prophecies concerning the distant future or past in ones that had a more immediate application? In other words, why is there a “Law of Double Reference” at all? Perhaps because the prophecies of Old Testament prophets had to be 100% accurate. If their words were proven to be false, they were to no longer be regarded as prophets and, in fact, were to be put to death (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). As such, their prophecies of the distant future or past required a more immediate application, not necessarily all the time, but often enough to verify that the prophet was speaking the truth. Another likely reason can be attributed to the proverbial “killing two birds with one stone.”
Now let’s consider several other examples of this “law of double reference”…
The fall of the King of Babylon paralleled with the fall of Lucifer
This double reference can be observed here:
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,
17 the man who made the world a wilderness,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?”Isaiah 14:12-17
The soon-to-come application of this prophecy applied to the king of Babylon, as shown in verse 4, whereas the far-flung application refers to Lucifer. As such, parts of this prophecy apply specifically to the king of Babylon while other parts obviously refer to satan; and some to both. Put simply, Isaiah prophesies the king’s doom and parallels it with the much earlier fall of Lucifer.
FYI: Assyrian king Sennacherib (suh-NAK-uh-rib) conquered Babylon and hence dubbed himself the King of Babylon.
Observe verses 16-17, which clearly refer to a “man” who “overthrew cities” and “made kingdoms tremble,” thus making “the world a wilderness.” This was true, of course, of the king of Babylon who infamously conquered surrounding nations and sacked Jerusalem in 586 BC, taking the Israelites captive (verse 17). Furthermore, verse 15 shows the end of this man — he would perish and be brought down to “the realm of the dead,” which is Sheol in the Hebrew (corresponding to Hades in the Greek), a term that refers to the “world of the dead” where the dead souls of unregenerate people are stored until their resurrection on the Day of Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). The “pit” is a synonymous word for Sheol, as shown in the second part of verse 15 (which is an example of synonymous parallelism). Why is this significant? Because Sheol (Hades) applies only to human beings and never to fallen angels. Lucifer was not a “man,” of course, and therefore this part of the prophecy does not apply to him.
Speaking of which, certain parts of this prophecy clearly apply to the devil. For instance, verse 12 shows Lucifer falling from Heaven, which could never be literally true of the king of Babylon. After all, did this infamous king literally fall from Heaven down to the Earth, like the devil? Was he nicknamed “morning star,” aka “Lucifer” (which is how the King James Version and New King James Version translate the Hebrew word for “morning star”)? Furthermore, Jesus partially cites verse 12 as a reference to the devil in Luke 10:18, which is reinforced by Revelation 12:7-10.
Why would the LORD draw a parallel between the king of Babylon and satan with Isaiah’s prophecy? The same reason Jesus rebuked Peter as “Satan” in Matthew 16:23 for being a mouthpiece for the devil’s ungodly agenda. Just as Satan was the spiritual force behind Peter’s rash words, so he was the diabolic authority behind the king’s oppressive reign.
The fall of the King of Tyre paralleled with the fall of Lucifer
Just as Isaiah 14 parallels the fall of Satan with the demise of the king of Babylon, so Ezekiel 28:9-19 parallels Lucifer’s fall with the fate of the king of Tyre, Ithobaal II. Why? Because the devil was the evil spiritual authority who pulled the strings of both of these pagan rulers. With this understanding, Ezekiel 28:12-19 is speaking of either Satan or the king of Tyre, and sometimes both, depending on the verse. Let’s look at the passage:
12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
16 Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
18 By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.
19 All the nations who knew you
are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end
and will be no more.’”Ezekiel 28:12-19
Verses 12-17 refer to Lucifer and could only be applied to the king of Tyre in a figurative sense. After all, the person addressed is described as “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (verse 12) who dwelled in “Eden, the garden of God” and is plainly called a “guardian cherub” — an angel — in verses 14 and 16. The LORD then throws this archangel to the Earth in disgrace after he’s corrupted by pride due to its beauty and splendor.
Verses 18-19, however, more clearly apply to the earthly king of Tyre because they show his body being “reduced to ashes” in the sight of spectators as he comes to “a horrible end” and is “no more.” Since we know from numerous other passages that Lucifer was not reduced to ashes when he fell to the Earth and didn’t become “no more,” these statements obviously refer to the king and not satan. The latter’s alive and not-well on planet Earth to this day. He dwells in the underworld, the dark spiritual realm that parallels or underpins the Earth and Universe, which you can read about here.
So Isaiah and Ezekiel prophesied the doom of the kings of Babylon and Tyre and paralleled them with the much earlier fall of Lucifer. Where some readers of the Bible have gone wrong is to suggest that every element of these passages apply to satan, even when it’s clear that they don’t. This is where some come up with the idea that Lucifer was reigning on Earth over nations of peoples before his fall and the later supposed judgment on a dubious pre-Adamic race. This is a clear case of unrightly dividing the Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15). (Anyone interested in reading more about this “pre-Adamic race” can do so here, just scroll down to the appropriate section).
Another interesting Double Reference
So the monumental event of satan’s fall (Luke 10:18) is chronicled in the Old Testament using the kings of Babylon and Tyre as types. The passage in Ezekiel shows that satan was once a “cherub,” an angel (28:14,16).
The New Testament offers a fascinating flashback to satan’s fall from Heaven:
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 12:3-4,7-9
This prophecy is actually a double reference and therefore has two applications: It refers to the devil’s last gasp attempt to conquer Heaven during the mid-point of the future seven-year Tribulation (Revelation 6-19), yet it’s also a flashback to his original fall. Verse 4 figuratively indicates that a third of the angels fell with the devil — the “red dragon” — to the Earth. Keep in mind that “stars” are a metaphorical reference to angels (Job 38:7).
The obvious difference between this double reference and the previous examples is that this passage refers solely to heavenly events. As such, there’s no soon-to-come application on Earth as is the case with the other examples.
By the way, the fact that the devil & his filthy spirits will again attempt to conquer Heaven shows that they’re hopelessly incorrigible. They never learn from their mistakes. It’s reminiscent of the saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again expecting different results.” If this is accurate, Satan & his minions are decidedly insane.
A more obscure example of the Law of Double Reference
While we could look at further obvious examples of the law of double reference, I’ll leave that for you to discover in your studies. Let’s close with an example of an Old Testament verse that you might not think contains a double reference, Proverbs 11:19. Here it is in both the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version (the NIV is more of a thought-for-thought translation while the NRSV is a literal word-for-word translation:
The truly righteous man attains life,
but he who pursues evil goes to his death.
Proverbs 11:19 (NIV)
Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live,
but whoever pursues evil will die.
Proverbs 11:19 (NRSV)
The verse is pretty unmistakable: The righteous person will attain life whereas the evil person will ultimately die, which shows that it’s prophetic in a general sense. These are the two polar opposites detailed throughout the Bible — life for the righteous, death for the unrighteous (see Romans 6:23, Matthew 7:13-14, John 3:16, Romans 8:13, Galatians 6:8 & Psalm 145:20).
Some theologians may scoff at applying this verse in the absolute sense; they would argue that the text strictly applies to the Israelites who were subject to the blessings and curses of Old Testament law (Deuteronomy 28). One of the curses of this law was premature death for unrepentant sinfulness (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Thus these religionists would contend that the text technically refers to earthly death, not eternal death, and only historically to the Israelites subject to the penalties of Old Testament Law.
If this is the case then Proverbs 11:19 has absolutely no relevance to us today. In fact, from the standpoint of our earthly life in this current era — the Church Age — the verse is a lie because many righteous people die prematurely while many evil people live to a ripe old age. The verse therefore has validity to us today only if we regard it in the absolute sense: The righteous will attain everlasting life, whereas the ungodly will perish (John 3:16), i.e. suffer “everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
This shows that Proverbs 11:19 is actually a double reference: It was applicable in an earthly sense to the Israelites subject to Old Testament Law, but it has always been applicable to all people in an absolute sense. Today, in New Testament times, we can only regard the passage in the absolute sense: Those who choose to pursue evil will ultimately die — they will be eradicated from existence via just execution (Matthew 10:28, Hebrews 10:26-27, James 4:12 & Luke 19:27) — for such is the ultimate wage of sin (Romans 6:23). Whether or not they live a long life on this earth is irrelevant.
Related Topics:
What are the Sources of Truth (Reality)?
Created in the Image of God — What Does it Mean?
Why is this World so Messed Up?
REDEMPTION — God’s Plan of Liberation for Humanity & Creation
Hell (Human Damnation) — Questions and Answer
What Does “Do Not Go Beyond What is Written” Mean in 1 Corinthians 4:6?
Prophets — New Testament and Old Testament (There’s a Difference)
Official Prophets (Ministers) and Independent Prophets (Ministers)
Hermeneutics — Proper Bible Interpretation
Berean Spirit — What is it? How Do You Cultivate It?
Who Wrote the New Testament Books? Who Authorized them as Scripture Canon?
Bible—Is it Full of Contradictions? Does it Promote Slavery, Tyranny and Discrimination?
Sectarianism — What is It? What’s Wrong with It?
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