Hang Tight to the Promises

The nation of Israel had a complicated relationship with the ancient people of Tyre, or at least their kings. David and Hiram, the king of Tyre, cooperated at one time. 

2 Samuel 5:11 (ESV) And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house.

But Tyre, as an ancient people, was interested in its own glory far above anything else. Bible historians point out that Tyre was a political mastermind, playing Assyria and Egypt off each other to enrich itself, becoming one of the great merchant marine nations of ancient times. 

Ezekiel spends a lot of time addressing this nation. Later, he will refer to the king of Tyre in satanic imagery in Eden, which elevates the content of his prophecy against this people even more. 

Ezekiel 26:1–3 (ESV) In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,’ 3 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

Tyre, ever the political and material opportunist, sought personal gain out of Israel's judgment. This is something the Lord would not allow. The same hand of judgment leveled against Israel will be the hand against Tyre. 

Ezekiel 26:7–8 (ESV) “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers. 8 He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you.

God promises total destruction of this ancient people from which they would never recover. 

Ezekiel 26:14 (ESV) I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.

History tells us that while Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, eventually, that ran out, and it would not be until Alexander the Great's conquest that Tyre experienced such destruction. But the Lord's prophesy through Ezekiel did come to pass. Yet Tyre would rebound and last through the time of Christ and even to the Middle Ages, finally becoming desolate in 1291. 

Ezekiel stipulates that the nations would be shocked at what would become of this once proud empire. 

Ezekiel 26:17–18 (ESV) And they will raise a lamentation over you and say to you, “ ‘How you have perished, you who were inhabited from the seas, O city renowned, who was mighty on the sea; she and her inhabitants imposed their terror on all her inhabitants! 18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall, and the coastlands that are on the sea are dismayed at your passing.’

These lines from verses 17-18 form a funeral dirge in the original language. God has decreed Tyre's death, even if it would take some time. Those who set themselves up as gods are simply awaiting an inevitable doom to come.

At the same time, God promises beauty for His people. 

Ezekiel 26:20 (ESV) then I will make you go down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you to dwell in the world below, among ruins from of old, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set beauty in the land of the living.

It's yet another sign that Israel's darkest days in exile were numbered. God was about to turn their fortunes around and return them to the land. 

When you consider Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's prophesies regarding the nation's return to the land, you find it odd that very few in proportion to those scattered would actually return. How easy it was to forget the land of their fathers and ignore the promises of the prophets. But in the same way, many Christians will be caught sleeping and unaware when Christ returns to claim His bride (see Matthew 25). 

Will we hang on tight to His promises so as to not attach ourselves to our spiritual exile below when heaven is being prepared for us above? Lord, come quickly! Amen.