God's Response to Tyre

Today the whole chapter is one section, called prophecy against Tyre. Rather than print it all out, I've included a youtube video so you can listen to it being read. :)

 As always I will be using the ESV translation to actually do my study.  You can find that printed here.

Today it is Tyre's turn to face the Lord.  Why? "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"

In essence Tyre said "WOOT WOOT... here's our chance to grab some goods while they are down and out!!!"

Not good form.
Seriously.

Makes me think of looters after a city gets devastated by hurricanes or floods or fire.   How the nastiness just comes out of the wood work.


God's response is clear:  "Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves."

I've been to the lake.. and it's not the same as a sea I'm sure... but at the lake the waves keep coming.  Roll , after roll, after roll.  They simply don't stop.  The only thing that changes is their intensity.   Those waves change landscapes... rolling aside all the the loose stuff, making bare rock, depositing garbage, smoothing and changing the very land it rolls over.

Now image that it a country.. with nations rolling over it like the sea.. all those waves and changes that will be made as a result of it.

This whole chapter speaks to the devastation those waves will cause.

A land plundered, her people killed, the dust that will billow, riches gone, goods taken, buildings destroyed,  and more.

Finally God says:  "And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. 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."

The nations that surround the land of Tyre will be appalled at the devastation that will occur.  They will cry about it and raise a lamentation.
   ..... 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!
   Now the coastlands tremble
        on the day of your fall,
    and the coastlands that are on the sea
        are dismayed at your passing.’

 The Lord God promises "I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord GOD.”

 I have to admit, I read these words and I'm thinking to myself... I AM SO GLAD I didn't live in Tyre those days..but what can I take out of this?  Other than the addage of "don't kick a dog when it's down or laugh at his folly".

When God is angry....he acts.  He makes it really clear why things are happening.   Babylon didn't chose to fall upon Tyre... it was the Lord's directing.

Oh... when I think of that ... I think of some of the atrocities that are happening in the world today...and I wonder...how will God act out against them?   What will he do with the nations that slaughter believers?   Will he do the same?

What will he do with people who laugh when believers are taken down?   I think of Christian businesses who are deliberately targeted and put out of work because they won't support the LGBQT movement.   Of nations that mock those of faith.   How will the Lord response?

I have to admit... the idea of seeing total devastation, deserved or not... causes me concern...and I could see myself responding as that nations around Tyre did....with fear and trembling and lamentations of sorrow.

The Lord is God.  Oh... we must remember this.   Turn to him today.  KNOW who he is!!  It's rather kinda important you know?

 Find the rest of my devotional series on Ezekiel.