SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2015
8:44 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Tyre PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
26:1-14
Message of the
verses: Just to keep us caught up on
what we are looking at lately in our Spiritual Diaries on Ezekiel we have seen
that chapter 25 has brought a new section to Ezekiel’s writing as the nation of
Judah has now been captured, the city and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed and
so Ezekiel turns his attention to judgment of Gentile nations, first those who
were actually related to Israel and no to those who were not related to Israel.
We first looked at the Philistines in
our last SD, and now we will begin a long look at Tyer. I want to quote Dr. Wiersbe in his
introductory comments on Tyre: “Ezekiel devoted
four messages to the sins and the fate of the capital of Phoenicia (vv. 1-21;
27:1-36; 28:1-10, 11-19). During their
reigns, both David and Solomon were friendly with Hiram, king of Tyre (2 Sam.
5:11; 1 Kings 5:1ff), and King Ahab’s wife Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal,
a later king of Tyre (1 Kings 16:31). The
message in this chapter contains four parts, each beginning with a statement
about the Word of the Lord (Ezekiel 26:1-6, 7-14, 15-18, and 19-21).”
Destruction announced (Ezekiel 26:1-6): “1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first of
the month, the word of the
LORD came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning
Jerusalem, ’Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I
shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’ 3
therefore
thus says the Lord GOD, ’Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up
many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 ’They will destroy
the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from
her and make her a bare rock. 5 ’She will be a place for the spreading of nets
in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD, ’and she
will become spoil for the nations. 6 ’Also her daughters who are on the
mainland will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am the
LORD.’"”
When I read statements that the Lord has made here and
made against the Philistine as seen in yesterday’s SD, I cringe when people do
not see that a part of God’s attributes is wrath, now I did not say revenge,
but wrath, and justice can also be seen here too.
We see in this section a storm approaching Tyre, for a
part of it was on the coast and a part of it was on an island. We will talk more about the island part in a
latter SD, The reason that God was upset with them was because Tyre was
rejoicing at Jerusalem’s destruction and then they saw their opportunity to
prosper even more. However the Lord saw
it different and pronounced judgment on them.
Dr. Wiersbe points out “The name ‘Tyre’ means ‘rock,’ so the statement ‘like
the top of a rock’ (vv. 4, 14) is significant.
Tyre did become a bare rock and a place where fishermen dried their
nets.”
He goes on to say “Tyre was able to survive the Assyrian
conquest, but when Babylon came to power, Nebuchadnezzar besieged the coastal
city for fifteen years (586-571 BC) and overcame it, but did not conquer the
island city. In 322 BC Alexander the
Great besieged Tyre for seven months, built a causeway to the island and was
able to conquer the city.” If memory
serves me correct we will see more about this later in the book of Ezekiel.
Destruction Accomplished (Ezekiel 26:7-14): “7 For thus says the Lord GOD,
"Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, king of kings, with horses, chariots, cavalry and a great army. 8 "He will slay your daughters on the
mainland with the sword; and he will make siege walls against you, cast up a
ramp against you and raise up a large shield against you. 9 “The blow of his
battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will
break down your towers. 10 "Because
of the multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you; your
walls will shake at the noise of cavalry and wagons and chariots when he enters
your gates as men enter a city that is breached. 11 “With the hoofs of his
horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with the
sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground. 12 “Also they will
make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your
walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timbers
and your debris into the water. 13 “So I will silence the sound of your songs,
and the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 14 “I will make you a bare rock; you will be
a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I the LORD
have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.”
We have already stated that the Babylonians would do God’s
bidding in destroying the city of Tyre and these verses describe how he did
this, and we can be sure that it happened exactly the way that the Lord described.
I know that the Bible ends with the book of Revelation,
and anyone who adds to it will receive the plagues that are described in that
book, but I can’t help but wonder as I read all about the nations that the Lord
judged how it would be scripted if we were to read about judgments on the
different nations that have been destroyed since the Bible was completed. Ezekiel will speak of how some of them will
be destroyed in the future, in our future in chapters 37-38.
2/23/2015 9:17 PM
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