Ezekiel 26 - 1.13.26
Scripture: Ezekiel 26:1-6
In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Observation:
Tyre is a kingdom with ties to the Israelites as far back as King David. We know that King Hiram of Tyre made a covenant with King Solomon in 1 Kings 5:10-12 the scripture says:
“ So Hiram gave Solomon all that he wished of the cedar and juniper timber. Solomon then gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of pure oil; this is what Solomon would give Hiram year by year. And the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.”
We later see in scripture how this covenant was broken by Tyre in two places in the pre-exilic scriptures of Joel and Amos.
Joel 3: 4-7 “Moreover, what are you to Me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me with retribution? But if you are showing Me retribution, swiftly and speedily I will return your retribution on your head! Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples, and sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory, behold, I am going to stir them up from the place where you have sold them, and return your retribution on your head.”
Amos 1: 9-10 “For three offenses of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they turned an entire population over to Edom and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. So I will send fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will consume her citadels.”
Tyre was a place of commerce with towering walls surrounding it’s cities. They rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem thinking they would be able to get the business that was going to Jerusalem now that she had fallen and been taken over by Babylon. Little did they know this prideful boasting would cause their ruin and they would never return to their former glory.
Application:
We can learn much from this scripture about rejoicing over others when they fall. Even when we have people in our lives that may seem like enemies to us or seem to have been in the way of us getting what we wanted we should seek justice and restoration for them not gloat over their fall. We must remain humble and rely on God, ultimately vengeance is His and repays each person accordingly. Proverbs 16:18 reminds us Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Another lesson I see in this is God’s sovereignty because though the people of Tyre did not serve Him, He was able to destroy them because He IS GOD. Psalm 33: 10-11 “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” this applies to us today to remind us that though we may be in a world surrounded by people who do not choose to serve the Lord they are all inevitably under His lordship whether they submit to it or not. In the parable of the wheat and the tares the Lord allows all of us to grow together but ultimately in the end He will separate out those who were faithful till the end from the others and they will not escape His wrath. We would do well to remember that we serve an almighty, all-knowing God and by His name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Gloating over those who fall will never bring us any joy but may make us look like fools in the end if we don’t remain humble.
Prayer:
Lord, Thank you for your divine protection that guards us on every side. Remind us every day to remain humble and help us to guard our hearts from pride and seeking the downfall of others. Help us to pray for our enemies and seek the good of others even when they don’t seek it for us because our blessings flow directly from you no one can take them away and our treasures are stored up in heaven where no thief can take them. Let us therefore pray for our enemies with fervor resting in the knowledge that the precious treasure we hold is more valuable than our pride. Amen.
- Shanese Hamilton
