The Really Great Fall

Series on Ezekiel

II. The Foreign Nations

B. Fall of Tyre and Sidon, Text:26:1-28:26

Title: The Really Great Fall

Introduction

Tyre and its lesser sister city Sidon which is mentioned only briefly at the end of this prophecy were cities of ancient Phoenicia. They occupied the sea coast along the Mediterranean to the far north of ancient Israel. They held territory originally assigned to the tribe of Asher. Their location is just above the region of Galilee in what is today modern Lebanon. Far from being great enemies of Israel Hiram king of Tyre helped Solomon build the temple in Jerusalem. I Kings five and seven tell how he sent the cedar trees of Lebanon, and his finest worker in bronze who made all the pillars and appointments of the temple. It further says that they had always been on friendly terms, and there were peaceful relations and they entered into treaties. So Tyre was not judged so much as an enemy of Israel but as an enemy of God for they were full of pride and so in love with the luxury brought by their worldwide success in trade that when Israel was conquered by Babylon they said according to verses 2 and 3, Good! this means more success for us, 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, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. God despised their confidence in their riches and self satisfaction, and so we read in verses 13 and 14, I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. There is a Moody Sermon from Science film on fulfilled prophecy that shows bare rock with fisherman spreading nets on the site of ancient Tyre. Three things may be noted in these three chapters: the sudden sadness, the sinners song, and the satanic significance, which is where i wish to focus most of our attention.

I The Sudden Sadness

The sudden sadness is not that Tyre is utterly and totally destroyed, but rather that the Lord has set his face against the Phoenician city so that it will never rise again. After Nebuchadnezzar’s armies destroyed the city it struggled to rise again, then in 322 b.c. Alexander the great overwhelmed the portion on the mainland and built a causeway from the rubble which transformed the island fortress portion of the city into a peninsula. The causeway remains. Then in 1124 it was invaded by crusaders after a five month siege and finally totally leveled by the Saracens of Islam in the beginning of the 14th century. God had set his face against Tyre to utterly and permanently obliterate it. And so a lament is taken up at the end of chapter 26 and continues in 27. The chief point of this lament is the great height from which the city has fallen.

II The Sinner’s Song

This portion is a lengthy poetic lament for the city. It emphasizes that Tyre was at the top and gives a very very lengthy account of all the trade that passed through this rich and powerful city. In verses 27-31 the island fortress is pictured as a ship at sea which is lost, and the mourners who sing the funeral hymns and laments are seen to be the sinners themselves, Your wealth, merchandise and wares, your mariners, seamen and shipwrights, your merchants and all your soldiers, and everyone else on board will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your shipwreck. The shorelands will quake when your seamen cry out. All who handle the oars will abandon their ships; the mariners and all the seamen will stand on the shore. They will raise their voice and cry bitterly over you; they will sprinkle dust on their heads and roll in ashes. They will shave their heads because of you and will put on sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and with bitter mourning. So shall it always be that when the proud and rich and famous perish that the world takes up a lament for them. This is a prefiguring of the final lament over worldly society which we find in Revelation 18 which describes the fall of Babylon which is a type of the world system. the language is amazingly similar. Note the sinner’s song in several verses from Revelation 18, The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more… They will say, “The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.” The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!”… When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, “Was there ever a city like this great city?” They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out. You can see here the similar emphasis on how Babylon like Tyre was commercially great and how far she has fallen. The economy is the symbol of her greatness, but in her 18:24 we read, In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth. You cannot serve God and money, and the moral imperative that comes out of this is found in 18:4 Come out of her my people, so that you will not share in her sins. A present day warning to the people of God not to get involved in the world system so that your Christian testimony is compromised.

III The Satanic Significance

There are just two places in the Old Testament where prophecies are directed against the rulers of guilty nations with language that seems to go beyond any mere human ruler to reflect on the principalities and powers of the heavenly realm and on satan who is the ruler of this present evil world system. One is in Isaiah 14 concerning the king of Babylon, and the other is here. Many Biblical interpreters like the able Patrick Fairbairn see nothing more here than a comparison between the king of Tyre and primeval man, a type of humanity in its most divine like form. Thus Fairbairn maintains that we see man pictured in Eden as if this were an example of how low man has become considering his exalted origin. I for one see more than that in this passage. To me the only adequate explanation of Ezekiel 28: 12-17 is that it refers to satan, the god of this world, behind the king of Tyre. We see here the renowned and deceptive beauty; his presence in Eden; his original sinless perfection; the reference to him as the anointed guardian cherub serving in the mountain of God which is reflected in other Scriptures such as Job; (Most likely he was one who dwelt in the most intimate relation to God and his throne and holiness) his perfection at the beginning; his fall; his expulsion; and his final judgment, Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.’” All of this is, of course a mixed metaphor, in which the earthly representative of satan, the king of Tyre is still present. Interestingly up to this point Ezekiel had referred to the ruler of Tyre as a prince. I indulge in this exposition not so as to develop an angelology or a demonology of the Bible, but rather to point out that these Old Testament enemies of God are to be seen as precursors of our enemies, the world the flesh and the devil. They remind us that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness 0f this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. No matter how successful, no matter how beautiful, no matter how wonderful human culture becomes it still remains under the control of the god of this world, the devil. Thus it carries within itself the seeds of its destruction and all of its good is ultimately perverted and feeds the well-spring of human depravity. Hear again the warning of Paul in I Corinthians 1:26-31, Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”