May 11, Ezekiel 27
"Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas. Your riches, your wares, your merchandise, your mariners and your pilots, your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise, and all your men of war who are in you, with all your crew that is in your midst, sink into the heart of the seas on the day of your fall."
- Ezekiel 27:26-27
Great Britain was once known as the power that ruled the seas. In the world of Ezekiel's day, it was Tyre who built a worldwide (in the world they knew) empire. Unlike Babylon and Assyria, whose empires were built with military might, Tyre built its empire on commerce. Doing business from Spain in the west to Armenia and beyond the Black Sea in the east, Tyre was a merchandising and shipping giant in the ancient world. Tyre’s cargo ships, with their own mercenary security forces, plied the waters of the Mediterranean. They delivered a vast and varied inventory, ranging from slaves, work horses and war horses to exotic luxury goods, to markets and customers far from their source.
Chapter 27 is a lamentation, a funeral song, wrapped around an extensive summary of markets and merchandise that made Tyre both wealthy and powerful. It aptly employs the image of a fine ship, loaded with cargo and passengers, sailing the open seas. But the song describes a powerful east wind that came and wrecked the great ship, sending everything and everyone aboard it deep into their watery grave in the heart of the sea.
The song is about a shipwreck, but the ship stands for the proud and prosperous city of Tyre. In Chapter 26, the LORD told Ezekiel that this great ruin was coming to Tyre because the Tyrians rejoiced when Jerusalem fell to Babylon. Why did they rejoice? They were glad because a competitor was no longer in business. Three of the main overland trade routes from the East passed through Jerusalem. The gatekeepers collected taxes on merchandise that passed through the city. When the city was destroyed, traders from the east would travel a few more miles to the Mediterranean coast to ship their goods at Tyre. Jerusalem's fall would make Tyre's profits rise. Their delight betrayed their cruel selfishness. More money meant more than someone else's misery. Increased wealth mattered more than their old treaties with Israel from the time of David and Hiram.
Nebuchadnezzar was the east wind that would sink the great ship of Tyre. The same Chaldean armies that besieged and brought down Jerusalem were coming for Tyre. Jerusalem's siege lasted only eleven months; Tyre's lasted thirteen years. The siege was like an embargo to all trade. No ships went out or in. Tyre’s economic empire crumbled. More waves of invaders would come, conquer and finally erase Tyre as a city and a people, just as Ezekiel prophesied.
Tyre was rich. She was "the merchant of the peoples to many coastlands." Tyre was proud. She proclaimed, "I am perfect in beauty." But when the song asked, "Who is like Tyre?", it wasn't talking about Tyre's riches or power. No, that line in the lament continued, "like one destroyed in the midst of the sea."
Tyre ruled the seas and knew no boundaries. Like the giant online merchant Amazon, they sold just about whatever one wanted to acquire, and could deliver it wherever as well. But when God pronounced their doom, they were powerless against his decree. Remember that these events were still in the future when Ezekiel spoke them. But he described their ruin in that strange "telling the future as if it were the past " verb tense that God's prophets often used. The last line of the song was not yet an accomplished fact, but it would be: "You have come to a dreadful end, and shall be no more forever."
What's here for you and me? We need this reminder that our love for God must come before and shape our attitudes about material things. Whatever we love or value more than God will be lost, and there is no one who can prevent that or save us from it. Tyre had an army of mercenaries who guarded them and their treasures. But they were defenseless when God unleashed the east wind of Babylon. Their protectors went down with the ship.
Let's also see this story as a reminder of what Solomon said about pride: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." We must not allow our wealth or our strength to deceive us. When we start trusting anything more than we trust God, we will forget him and suffer the consequences. Let’s ask God to save us from such self-destructive thinking and behavior.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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