This one is not in the Bible, and I’m not sure it’s even true. It’s a story our African friends told us and I’m going to tell it like they told it. And of course it may be true, because we know that God does do things like the Africans say He did to the Baobab tree.
Today the Baobab is probably the ugliest tree that grows in Africa. It doesn’t have pretty green leaves. Its trunk and branches are gnarled all out of shape, twisting this way and that in weird shapes. In fact, it looks like a big brown tree root sticking up of the ground upside down.
Long ago, the Africans tell us, the Baobab was the most beautiful tree in Africa. Birds loved to roost in its branches and sing there. It had lovely green leaves, and its shade was what all the animals craved to be under. All the other trees in Africa were jealous of the Baobab tree.
But then it became proud of its beauty, the Africans tell us. It was so proud and ugly in its character of pride, that God punished it. He pulled it up by the root (the Africans say) and then stuck it back into the ground, upside down! And indeed, it looks like that’s what happened to it.
I don’t laugh at the story, for the Bible does tell things like that. Lucifer was the highest of all the angels in heaven when there was no sin. His name meant “the morning star.” He was indeed the most beautiful of all the angels whom God had created. The Bible tells what God said to him: “Bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! … Now you have been thrown into the ground. You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. … You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. But instead you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead” (Isaiah 14:12-15). Lucifer was Satan’s name before he decided he wanted to sin.
God also told him something else: “You were once an example of perfection! How wise and handsome you were! … You had ornaments of gold. They were made for you on the day you were created. … You lived on My holy mountain and walked among sparkling gems. Your conduct was perfect from the day you were created until you began to do evil. … This led to violence and sin. So I forced you to leave My holy mountain, and the angel who guarded you drove you away. … You were proud of being handsome, and your fame made you act like a fool. Because of this I hurled you to the ground. … All who look at you now see you reduced to ashes. You are gone, gone forever” (Ezekiel 28:12-19). God can’t save Satan, but He can save you and me!
That explains why Satan is so bad; he was proud of himself. That pride is the door that leads to all kinds of bad ways to be.
Could we today have a problem with our own beauty, or what we think is our handsomeness? Yes, God Himself has made you look nice. Do we feel like we may be better than other children? Has pride made us think only of ourselves? Do we dress in such a way that we want to tempt other people? Do we like to look at ourselves in the mirror? If we do, everybody is that way, but it’s wrong. It’s something that we inherited from the fallen Adam, who gave himself to learn Satan’s ways.
A great king of Babylon learned his lesson about being proud
He was indeed handsome. The Lord loved him and warned him, but he never listened. Then the Lord left him alone, left him to himself, sort of turned His back on him.