Ezekiel 26: 1 – 27
Wipeout
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.’3 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. 4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 5 It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations. 6 Also her daughter villages which are in the fields shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’ 7 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people. 8 He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you. 9 He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10 Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that has been breached. 11 With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12 They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water. 13 I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD. 15 “Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: ‘Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded cry, when slaughter is made in the midst of you? 16 Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and take off their embroidered garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment, and be astonished at you. 17 And they will take up a lamentation for you, and say to you: “ How you have perished, O one inhabited by seafaring men, O renowned city, Who was strong at sea, She and her inhabitants, Who caused their terror to be on all her inhabitants! 18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall; Yes, the coastlands by the sea are troubled at your departure.”’ 19 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you, and great waters cover you, 20 then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living. 21 I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”
Our Lord Is going to devote three chapters to speak against Tyre. A good question for us to ask ourselves then is ‘why’? I would say it is because of ‘Pride’. Because Tyre was successful as the world’s seafaring leader, it’s commercial accomplishments and military defense was second to none. This however all went to their heads. It even went so far as for them to think of them as beyond special even godlike.
Tyre was a famous seaport. There was an Old Tyre fortress on the mainland and a New Tyre city on an island which was located about ½ mile off shore. This island provided a natural and strong refuge against any invaders. Since its navy was the best Tyre stood invincible from attack. So they thought!
For a while Tyre was a friend of Israel. A well recognized king of Tyre was a guy by the name of Hiram. He was a good friend of king David and his son Solomon. We read in the book of 1 Kings chapter 5 how Hiram helped in providing timber fog the city of Jerusalem and its Temple, “1 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David. 2 Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: 3 You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the LORD put his foes under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. 5 And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to my father David, saying, “Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build the house for My name.” 6 Now therefore, command that they cut down cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there is none among us who has skill to cut timber like the Sidonians 7 So it was, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, for He has given David a wise son over this great people! 8 Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: I have considered the message which you sent me, and I will do all you desire concerning the cedar and cypress logs. 9 My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you indicate to me, and will have them broken apart there; then you can take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire by giving food for my household.10 Then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. 11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year. 12 So the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together. 13 Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel; and the labor force was thirty thousand men. 14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stone in the mountains, 16 besides three thousand three hundred from the chiefs of Solomon’s deputies, who supervised the people who labored in the work. 17 And the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the temple. 18 So Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the temple”.
However, over time the two countries were at odds against each other because Tyre became the leading trade route by sea and Jerusalem by land.
Our Holy Father is going to address Tyre through five oracles. They will cover the following topics;
1. Total destruction – chapter 26: 1 – 21
2. A floundering ship – chapter 27: 1 – 36
3. Pride, self-praise, downfall of its king – chapter 28: 1 – 10
4. A lament over Satan’s fall – chapter 28: 11 – 19
5. Destruction of Zidon – chapter 28: 20 – 26
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.’
The ‘eleventh year’ measures from the imprisonment of Judah’s king Jehoichin. Instead of rejoicing or relishing in the fact that she was number one in the sea trade, Tyre was jealous that Jerusalem was the major intersection by land. ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste’ conveys the words of the people as they heard of the destruction of Jerusalem. Tyre felt that she would be more affluent as the only viable source of trade now that her competition was eliminated.
It is natural to rejoice when our enemies finally get what is coming to them. Yet, our Precious Master, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, does not want us to react this way. He informs us in the book of Proverbs chapter 24 this, “17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him.” Our Lord makes it pretty clear that we should not be happy at any gain through the suffering and misery of others including those who have done us great harm.
3 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. 4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 5 It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations. 6 Also her daughter villages which are in the fields shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’
‘Behold, I am against you’ are the worst words you can ever hear. It is all over but the shouting after that - Doom city! The leaders of Tyre forgot the influence of their former king Hiram. There was a special promise that Adoni Yahweh gave other nations in regard to how they treated Israel. This is revealed to us in the book of Genesis chapter 12, “1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” King Hiram might not have known this promise from our Holy Father but because he became David’s friend, he along with his people were blessed. You turn against Israel God’s elect then things will not go well for you.
Look at our country today. We have started to show signs of not supporting Israel. Many people do not know this fact but let me share it. First of all we read this in Genesis chapter 17, 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
The land of Israel belongs to God. He gave it to Abraham and his descendents. A few years back our government forced Israel to grant land concessions to the Palestinians. As a result of messing with the Jewish nation, our President from that point on could do nothing right. He became one of the lowest rated Presidents this nation ever had. The Prime Minister of Israel within a short time of this deal, had a stroke and was eliminated from ever representing God’s people again.
The Babylonian army laid siege to the land city of ‘Old Tyre’ for over 13 years. [‘And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers’] They were finally successful in destroying this city. However, the people still existed on their island fortress until a young ruler of the Greeks by the name of Alexander came along. He took the stones, timber, and even the dirt [scrape the dust] from ‘Old Tyre’ and built a causeway to the island city of ‘New Tyre’ and ultimately conquered this city.
What goes around comes around. ‘A spoil to the nations’ were the words spoken by Tyre regarding the destruction of her competition Jerusalem. Now Tyre along with the towns and cities [her daughters] who supported her policies and was dependent upon her would all suffer the same fate. You have heard the statement, ‘You might get what you asked for’ come true for the nation of Tyre. What she asked for and rejoiced over was the destruction of Israel. Tyre did not know that she would also would come under God’s displeasure.
A wise man once understood this principal when he was offered three wishes. However, his arch enemy would receive double of whatever he asked for. So, his first choice was one million dollars. His enemy then received two million dollars. He then asked for a beautiful mansion. His enemy then was given two mansions. With a smile on his face he asked for this third and final wish, He asked to be beaten half to death.
7 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people.”
Our Wonderful Holy Spirit brings about an interesting action. Many people just pass over this incident. In chapter 25 our Lord was proclaiming judgment against Ammon, Moab, and Edom. These countries are East of Israel. To deal with these nations our Mighty Jehovah Sabbaoth, the Lord of Angelic Hosts, He would allow their archenemies, ‘the men from the east’ to do them in. Now look at verse 7 of chapter 26 again. The nation of Tyre was located where in conjunction to Israel? – North. Now, our Lord Is going to deal with this country by using their archenemy, the men from the north – the Babylonians.
“8 He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you. 9 He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.”
In the beginning of this study I mentioned one of the reasons for Tyre’s destruction was her sin of Pride. She had expressed herself through the words of her leader as being god like. Thus, you see the Holy King of All express Tyre’s inferior standing. ‘I will bring Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings’. Our Holy Ruler was saying, You think you are a big shot, king of Tyre’, well I Am going to bring my king to wipe you out.’ In fact as stated in verses 8 and 9 He Is telling them exactly step by step how it will happen. Our God tells us of His uniqueness in that He plainly shares with us things before they actually happen as indicated in the Gospel of John chapter 13, “19 Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.”
“10 Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that has been breached. 11 With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12 They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water.”
Have you ever experienced this? Someone is talking to you about a certain movie. You haven’t seen it yet. After they talk to you, now you do not have to go see it because you pretty much know about the whole film. And don’t you love it when they tell you this midway through their description of the movie, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t tell you this, it will spoil it for you.’ So what do you say since they have already spoiled it, ‘No, no, go ahead and tell me’.
We see here in these verses a different example that is told to us by our Precious Lord. For the people of Tyre this actual film footage would be in the future. For us who now exist in the future and cannot go back in time, He describes to us some of the significant action.
We visualize here the actual breaking through the walls of the city of Tyre. The horsemen pour through its opening. People are fleeing in all directions and are cut down by swords, arrows, spears, along with being trodden down by the stampeding Calvary. There is no where to flee. They try to hide in corners or run into buildings, but to no avail. The soldiers follow them and slay them.
“ 13 I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD.”
For awhile the screams of slaughter could be heard throughout the city. Once the destruction was completed the eerie sound of silence was noticeable except for the crackling of the fires.
When our Holy Supreme King states a place or people will no longer exist, believe it! In the book of Joshua we read this interesting statement regarding the destruction of Jericho in chapter 6, “26 Then Joshua charged them at that time, saying, “Cursed be the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.”
We read in the book of 1 Kings chapter 16 a unique verse, “34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.” Our Holy Father means what He says, ands says what He means. Our Holy Spirit wanted us to know that the words of Joshua was supported by Adoni Yahweh. Hiel ignored these words and went ahead and built up Jerico again to the demise of his two sons. Today Jericho is in the possession of the Palestinians so hardly anyone travels to this location anymore. I was fortunate to see this area prior to the handover of God’s land. The former city of Jericho is only a big pile of dirt.
15 “Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: ‘Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded cry, when slaughter is made in the midst of you? 16 Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and take off their embroidered garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.”
In the corporate world when a boss goes down, so do many of his lackeys, that is, those who had tied their strings to his coattails. Tyre was the leader in commercial trade. She had established trading centers in various areas, which included Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, Spain, Sicily, and Africa. You can imagine their confusion upon hearing word of the destruction of their home headquarters. This news would spell economic hard times for these colonies of Tyre.
‘Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and take off their embroidered garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment, and be astonished at you” describes a visible way for leaders at this time period to express their sorrow. We see a similar display of this action in the book of Jonah chapter 3, “1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said; “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?”
“17 And they will take up a lamentation for you, and say to you: “ How you have perished, O one inhabited by seafaring men, O renowned city, Who was strong at sea, She and her inhabitants, Who caused their terror to be on all her inhabitants! 18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall; Yes, the coastlands by the sea are troubled at your departure.”
Our colleges have their own victory songs. Probably one of the most familiar is the rousing music from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. They were also songs of pride regarding the sea power Tyre. No one could defeat #1. So they thought. Our Lord in powerful words declares they will get a new song but it will be a funeral song not a victory song. Our Lord even tells them the lyrics of this new song.
19 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you, and great waters cover you,” 20 then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living. 21 I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”
There is a tale of a certain island that sank in the sea never to be found again. It is called Atlantis. It has been ‘sought for, you will never be found again.’ I do not know of any relationship Atlantis has with Tyre but in reality Tyre has experienced the same fate. If you visit the former site of Tyre all you see is rubble.
So, why did all of this devastation come upon Tyre? What did she do to deserve such destruction? Our Lord issued His Judgment because of Tyre’s ungodly pride and self-deification. She failed to recognize the Holy Magnificent and only Real God and secondly it was in regards to her behavior to God’s elect.
Here is a thought for all of us to think about. We are also an island country. We are doing things worse than what Tyre did. Will the Holy Righteous One continue to turn His head from dealing with our sins. May our prayers seek out His continued Mercy. Amen.
