Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 21
God gives Ezekiel 3 chapters of His word that deal with a city called Tyrus. Chapter 26 and 27 and 28. That is a large amount. I want to go thru this in a concise way, a big picture view that will hopefully give us a good overview and it will let us see some important principals.
This city was known by two different names. Sometimes it is called Tyre. So Tyrus and Tyre are talking about the same location.
First some History
1 Chron 22:3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;
1 Chron 22:4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.
1 Chron 22:5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
God did not let David build the temple because he had too much blood on his hands. David was a man of war. But God let David prepare by gathering materials. And David made a deal with Tyre for materials.
This is the first mention of Tyre in the Bible and as we know there is a Bible study principal called the law of first mention. The first time something is mentioned in the Bible there will be some foundational information given about it. So we always want to pay attention when something is mentioned for the first time.
And what we notice about the first mention of Tyre is that they had resources and that they made deals. They were merchants. As we learn more later we find that they are about buying and selling and money.
And later Solomon also made a deal with them.
2 Chron 2:3 And Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me.
And the deal was that Solomon would give Tyre 20 cities for it.
1 Kings 9:11 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
1 Kings 9:12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
Solomon got one over on Tyre. Tyre this time got the short end of the stick. Here is a principal. You can win a battle but lose the war. You can fight with the neighbors and win one or get one over on them, but mark it down you lose in the long run.
It comes back later. Many years later, I mean a long time later, after the return and after the revival in Nehemiah, and after it fell apart while Nehemiah was gone guess who showed up at the gates and encouraged the Israelites to sin on the Sabbath day?
Neh 13:16 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
So Tyre might have helped provide for the building of the temple but not because of any spiritual reason. It was a money thing. A deal.
Jump forward to the prophet Amos and we find that Tyrus was involved in some betrayal of the Israel captivity.
Amos 1:9 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom,…
In Joel we see the same kind of betrayal.
Joel 3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
Joel 3:5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
Joel 3:6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
They betrayed God’s people to the Greeks for money.
What was Tyrus like.
Ezekiel 27:3 And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. 4 Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
It was extremely beautiful. It would have been one of the most beautiful and ornate cities in the world at that time.
Eze 27:6 …the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
Fancy benches to sit on made of ivory.
Eze 27:7 Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
So the city had all kinds of flags and tapestries flowing. It was a city of color and beauty to dazzle the eyes.
Eze 27:8 The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
They had smart men who could navigate the seas. And they had music.
Ezekiel 26:13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
They had artists and musicians. What some would call culture.
Don’t underestimate how much value people put on such things. I did a workout series on my treadmill in the Yucatan. The man went on and on praising the Mayan civilization.
They had roads and sports and built buildings. Never mind that the captain of the winning team had the privilege of being sacrificed to some false god.
Then he went from the jungle to the main city and praised it for its fancy kissing benches and fancy ornate buildings and the color they had displayed everywhere. This is just a fact. Mankind and especially the lost put a high value and great esteem upon such things.
Art, culture, fancy buildings.
Merchandise Abounded
You name it they had it.
Ezekiel 27:9 The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
Ezekiel 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
Ezekiel 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
Ezekiel 27:14 They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
Ezekiel 27:15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
Ezekiel 27:16 Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
Ezekiel 27:17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
Ezekiel 27:18 Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
Ezekiel 27:19 Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
Ezekiel 27:20 Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
Ezekiel 27:21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
Ezekiel 27:22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
Ezekiel 27:24 These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
Ezekiel 27:25 The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
They were rich and made others rich
Ezekiel 27:33 When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
Here is another fact. Most of the people in the world will attach success with riches.
Tyrus was powerful.
Eze 26:17 …that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants,
Eze 27:10 They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
Eze 27:11 The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
What did people think of this city
You can tell by their reaction when judgment comes.
Eze 27:30 And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
Eze 27:31 And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
Eze 27:32 And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
They put such a high value on money and beauty and material things that when it is gone they cry bitterly and wallow in ashes and weep with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
Most people commonly lay up their treasures on earth in materialism.
Mat_6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat_6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Judgment pronounced and fulfilled
God does not place importance upon status, and culture, and buildings, and things and money like Tyrus.
With God the two main things are Love God and love your neighbor.
Ezekiel 27:27 Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
What brought on the judgment
Ezekiel 26:2 Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:
Ezekiel 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
Ezekiel 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Ezekiel 26:5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
Ezekiel 26:14 And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
They had a long history of going against the two main things Loving God and loving their neighbor. And they had a long history of dealing with Israel but only because it benefited them.
And because they said against Jerusalem Aha, she is broken. And because they thought they would make money on it. They said I shall be replenished, they said she is turned unto me. They wanted and expected to make money off of the destruction of Jerusalem.
In 333 B.C. Alexander the great wants to sacrifice to Hercules in the famous temple on the Island. They refuse to let a sacrifice happen to a different god than theirs in that temple. And tell Alexander that he can sacrifice to Hercules in the Old City on land that Nebacanezzer had already destroyed.
Alexander brings 223 ships and blockades Tyrus. And then orders a causeway to be built. And what does he use. Every scrap of rock and dirt he can find from Old Tyrus.
And what God said to Ezekiel came to pass.
Ezekiel 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Ezekiel 26:5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea:
Not all the people of Tyre are killed by Alexander and there are people there when Jesus walked the earth.
Luk 6:17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
God deals with nations and groups and also always with individuals. So it is important to mention that although Tyrus on the whole was completely materialistic and proud and all about themselves and culture and money.
There were a few individuals here and there that were not like that completely. Some came to Jesus to hear Him and get help from Him.
But overall Tyrus was all about money. In Acts chapter 12 they are the ones that sent people to Herod and the reason is given and it has to do with money.
Act_12:20 And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country.
While they rebuild some in the time of Jesus, it does not amount to much compared to what they were. And we see that Trye is still characterized by the same attitude about materialism and money.
What was the real driving force behind Tyrus
Eze 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Eze 28:3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
Eze 28:4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
Eze 28:5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
Eze 28:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
Eze 28:7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
Eze 28:8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
Down to the pit is a reference to the pit of hell.
Eze 28:9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
Eze 28:10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
Hopefully you all see that the heart of the king of Tyre was lifted up exceedingly high.
Now comes the shocking part. And there can be disagreement about this.
1 way some take the next verses is that the King of Tyre was a man who was possessed by Satan himself.
2 some people take the next verses as the King was not possessed but that his spirit was corrupted and heavily influenced by Satan.
Eze 28:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Eze 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Eze 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Eze 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Eze 28:16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Eze 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Eze 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
There we have the details of the fall of Lucifer. That was before the fall of man. And those details are clearly directed toward the king of Tyrus.
This is why you see that the number one important things in Tyrus were not loving God or loving your neighbor.
Under the direction of Satan the number one important things were materialism, money, culture, art, power, influence, opulence and so on.
None of that impresses God. None of that is what life is really about.
What does pursuing all of that get you in the end? Thrown in the pit.
Don’t misunderstand me. Please. Money in itself is not evil. It is a good and necessary tool. Having some things is not a sin.
But stuff and money and status and continually feeding the flesh is not what life is about.
The truth is that Satan who is the god of this world (who was the driving force of Tyrus) has millions upon untold millions convinced that materialism and money and art, power and opulence is what life is all about.