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Isaiah's soliloquy over the last
couple of chapters began with Babylon, center of the greatest land power in
history and ends with Tyre, the greatest sea power in history. Isaiah maintains
a common theme with all these prophecies: God hates pride.
Tyre believed she was something special. Because
of her commercial notoriety, Matthew Henry refers to Tyre as “the mart of the nations”. If he were
alive today Henry would refer to this prophesy as “the fall of Walmart!”
Wikipedia informs us Tyre, located on the southern
coast of Lebanon, originally consisted of two towns, Tyre itself, which was on
an island just off shore, and the associated settlement on the mainland. Alexander the Great connected the
island to the mainland coast by constructing a causeway during his siege of the
city. The original island city had two harbors that
enabled Tyre to gain the maritime prominence that it did; the harbor on the
north side of the island was, in fact, one of the best harbors on the eastern
end of the Mediterranean and is still in use today. Isaiah’s prophesy concerning the fall of Tyre was fulfilled…concurrent with the fall of Jerusalem. From 586-573BC Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar II until Tyre agreed to pay a tribute. In 538 BC the Persians conquered the city, and kept it under their rule till 332 BC, when Alexander the Great laid siege to the city, conquered and destroyed it. In 126 BC, Tyre regained its independence and was allowed to keep much of its independence when the area became a Roman province in 64 BC. Tyre remained a city of commercial importance until after the time of Christ.
But, or course, Isaiah saw it all coming…
“Men in the ships of Tarshish, cry out! The city of Tyre is
destroyed. Its houses and harbor are gone”. But, the desolation of
Tyre was not to be forever. We are told The Lord would visit Tyre in mercy. But
when set at free, she would resort to her old prideful ways.
God didn’t
punish Tyre because she was wildly successful or because she engaged in
maritime trade. God doesn’t care how much we have and…in most cases…what we do
with our lives. He does care that we honor Him as Lord of all creation. When
the Tyrians were given another chance to honor God as the source of their prosperity
they failed.
God constantly appears
to be interested in second chances. He wants His discipline to change “us” more than it changes the” things we do”. The next time we feel God’s
discipline, let’s not hurry to change jobs or states or investments or spouses.
That’s not the point. Let’s hurry to change our hearts. In America almost all
of us are unbelievably successful and wealthy according the world’s standards. In
itself, that’s fine with God. On the other hand, how long we remain this way
depends on us, not Iran, or China, or Russia, or Global warming.
Live boldly out there today…
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