Read Ezekiel
27-28 & James
4
To discover:
As you read note what led
the king of Tyre into his sin.
To ponder:
God’s
word against Tyre continues with a
lament. Her supremacy in trade is noted because of her location by the sea (the
western coast of modern Lebanon ).
And her pride is outlined: She considers herself perfect in her beauty, and is
described as a ship, built with materials from all over the known world. In
this, she benefited from the seamanship, skill and military service of those
from the whole earth, with all on the sea coming to her for trade, paying with
great wealth, slaves, animals, ivory and ebony, fabric, coral and jewels,
natural products, wine and wool, iron, spices, saddle blankets, livestock, rugs
etc etc (27v1-24).
This all proves that the prosperity
of a nation isn’t a sign of it being right with God. Rather, in his immense
grace, God may grant a nation the sort of glory that will only rightly mark his
kingdom. Yet when that nation takes pride in what they have, as if they had
gained it for themselves, they in danger of a judgement that will humble them.
So the metaphorical ship that is Tyre ,
is described as if in high seas, heavy with cargo. And here Ezekiel predicts
the east wind (Babylon in the east)
breaking her to pieces with her merchants and all the people and goods above on
board. She will therefore sink into the sea, with all shorelands and seamen
mourning her passing. Seeing the one who satisfied nations and enriched the
kings of the earth gone, the inhabitants of the coastlands and their kings are also
said to shudder in fear – no doubt because this could happen to them too
(27v25-36). It brings home again that no matter how secure the nations of the
earth assume they may be, their existence is subject to God’s will, and at
Christ’s return, all that the world esteems will be lost.
Next Ezekiel is to speak against the
ruler of Tyre himself. Whether the
ruler considered himself divine or not, he is said to presume he is equivalent
to a god in his arrogance at the wisdom he exercised in enabling Tyre
to prosper (see 28v4). Ezekiel is clear that he is not only just a man, but not
wiser than Daniel, because he is not privileged to revelations from the true God.
This description suggests the Daniel of our Old Testament is in mind (so also
14v14, 20), and was well known by this point, having been taken into exile in
605BC, twenty years earlier. Here God affirms the ruler’s wisdom and skill in
trading, but denounces the fact that his heart has grown proud because of it.
Because of this, he is going to bring the Babylonians against him, and they
will bring the city down to the pit in the heart of the seas – referring to the
geographical location of Tyre . The
sense is that the ruler will not then be able to claim divinity, seeing he is
nothing more than a man, dying like the uncircumcised that are not chosen of
God (28v1-10). Only at the final judgement will all see just how weak and
reliant on God they are.
What follows is a famous oracle that
seems patterned on the pride of Adam that led to his fall. This is wholly
appropriate as he was to be ruler over the creation, and so is the paradigm for
all human rule. God affirms the king of Tyre as a model of perfection, full of
wisdom and beauty, living in Eden, and adorned with jewels like Israel’s
priests (Ex 28v17-20), that were prepared on the day he was created. No doubt
this refers to the wealth he enjoyed and the luxurious nature of the city he
lived in and was to care for. He is therefore also pictured as the cherub from Eden ,
perhaps picking up his role of guarding his paradise-like city against invaders
as if it was God’s holy mountain. The “fiery-stones” may be the coals of the
altar in Israel ’s
temple, stressing this care was a priest-like role. Whether it is or not, he is
said to be blameless until wickedness found him. Obviously this is an
exaggeration to stress the pattern to Eden .
The point is that trouble started when the king’s trade led him to do violence
to others, no doubt in greed for more. This is described as corrupting his
wisdom, because it was a corruption of right ways to go about trade. We are also
told the king became proud at the beauty of Tyre .
And it is for these reasons that God expelled him from the city, reducing him
to ashes, and making him a spectacle of horror before other kings. The fall of
this ruler is a salutary lesson to all engaged in business of how a desire for
more and pride in achieving it can so easily lead to doing wrong to attain it.
Indeed, there is a sense in which this desire for personal gain and proud
assumption that we know best in how to achieve it lies behind all sin.
28v20-24 records an oracle against Sidon ,
further up the coast from Tyre .
We’re not told what their sins were. But Ezekiel declares God will gain glory
within the region as its people come to know he is the LORD when he displays
his holiness by inflicting punishment against them with plague and with sword.
This means that Israel
will no-longer have neighbours just to the north who will cause them harm like
thorns, and on witnessing this they will know the one who speaks through
Ezekiel is the LORD their God. This oracle seems placed here as God then speaks
of gathering Israel
from the nations, affirming that they will then be able to settle safely in the
land because God will have punished the neighbouring nations who spoke against
them (28v25-26). This is a key purpose to the many judgements we have read of.
At one level they justly punish sin. At another they protect the returning
remnant so that the Christ can eventually be born and God’s promise to Abraham
(Gen 12v1-3) be finally fulfilled. In the same way, the final judgement will
destroy the wicked so God’s people can live in safety within the new creation.
God says that the return will be a
means by which he shows his holiness amongst Israel
to the nations. This probably refers to how he will show his holy anger at sin
in his judgements on the nations and on Babylon ,
which will enable the people to return. But it may include him showing how superior
to the false gods of the world he is in having the power to work such a
deliverance. We should note his holiness in both these things.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for his
holiness seen in judging sin and securing an everlasting kingdom for his
people. Pray that you would not be tempted to sin by greed and pride.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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