Good Sunday July twenty third as we work through the judgments on the pagan nations.
Babylon’s army destroys Tyre- God said to Tyre, “therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.” The barrage against Tyre is seen as the waves in a storm crashing the shore destroying everything it its way. This powerful center for world trade will become a bare rock region. 4b “I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 5 It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD.” No more will Tyre be seen as a world trade center, here we are told left will be only a place to fish. God said Tyre would be destroyed and it was, and for years after, Tyre was beaten down by her enemies. Tyre means ‘rock’ and the reference to the top of the rock here is what happened to Tyre, she was ripped bare only the rocks left. Tyre was the commercial capitol of the day in the Mediterranean but after God’s judgment only a place for fisherman to cast their nets. “Also her daughter villages which are in the fields shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” This is speaking of all the small cities colonies scattered around that would be affected by the collapse of Tyre. These would have been Phoenicia, Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, Sicily, Sardina and the Baltic areas and Africa. God’s judgment would be complete destruction. Let us read together from Ezekiel 26:7-11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people. 8 He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you. 9 He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10 Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that has been breached. 11 With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground.” God had said that the same king that brought down both Jerusalem and Judah would attack and destroy them. Babylon held nothing back. Ezekiel says they brought battering rams, and axes to tear down the towers. They brought a large army with many horses so many that they kicked so much dust that it covered the whole city. Tyre resisted Babylon for some thirteen years. Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it.” Eventually Tyre was brought under Babylon’s rule. The strong pillars refer to most likely the temple of Heracles at Tyre. When Babylon finally entered Tyre they found no one there, they had snuck away. God does what it says in His word, believe it? Remnant