This evening if you have your Bibles and will turn with me once again to Ezekiel’s letter and turn to chapter 27. The question is why would God lament over the city of Tyre? As I was looking at preparing the message for this evening, if you look at the history of the world and it’s revealed to us in Scripture. What was happening in a Tyre is not the first time that it had happened in the world.
We see that Tyre had developed an attitude number one of self-sufficiency, number two of the fact that they were really untouchable, they were respected and admired by the whole world, they pursued things that exalted them in the eyes of men and they were filled with pride and they didn’t need God. It’s not the first time that it happened in a city or a country or a nation or the world. As a matter of fact you can go back and you have a merely of a mere two generations after the flood when Nimrod created the city of Babel and was building the tower of Babel to unite the world and exalt man as God and himself to be the chief God of all and that all people should worship him.
One thing is in common when you see these attitudes develop in people, the force behind them is really a demonic force. It’s a force for evil and it’s a force that comes against God. The Bible talks about the fact that when sin entered the world Adam gave up his right to be the one who would be the caretaker of the earth because he yielded that authority to Satan by yielding to him and sinning against his creator.
The Lord could have stopped it all right then. He could have judged Satan. He could have judged Adam and Eve.
He could have started over his creation, but he didn’t and part of the reason he didn’t was he had put in place even before he created the earth the means of salvation that would be found in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians tells us that before the world was created the plan of salvation had been established. And we know this that God knew that men would sin and he wanted to redeem them and he wanted them to be able to tell him he loved them not because they wanted to tell him he loved them.
Well, what happens is as Satan gained control over the earth he placed before mankind all of these things which are temptations and which can draw our appetites both physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual away from God and cause us to worship other things but the true and the living God. As I was preparing this message tonight and I was looking at this as you go through chapter 27 of the book of Ezekiel you see the downfall of Tyre and the thing that Ezekiel is prophesying what is going to happen that there’s going to be this devastating destruction of this city. I’ve talked before about the fact that the city of Tyre stood as two cities one on land and the other on an island with a water straightway between it that was about 524 yards wide which would be about three football fields wide but it was enough to act as a giant moat around the smaller of the two cities and Ezekiel is prophesying the destruction of the land city first and later on the destruction of the city that is in the sea.
But even before Ezekiel proclaimed the destruction of Tyre if you go back and look at what you find in Isaiah chapter 23 Isaiah also declares the destruction of Tyre. Now why as I mentioned again the question is why would God lament over the destruction of Tyre? It gives us a picture into the heart of God and the love of God that even when for sinners God desires to send no man to hell God does not desire to bring judgment upon any man but He desires all men would turn to Him, repent and be saved. But these people were so self-consumed, prideful, arrogant and encapsulated by the world and all of its lusts and passions that they failed to see any significance in worshiping God.
And it all has been like that in Tyre as I shared with you a little bit before during the time of King David. Hiram was the king of the Zidonians and those of Tyre and he was the king of the Phoenicians in that area. And Hiram came and he was a friend of David and he brought supplies to David when David was going to build his palace and he brought the cedar of Lebanon for David to use.
He brought other things for David to use in the construction of his palace. And later on when Solomon constructed the temple Hiram was there to help as well and he sent craftsmen to help build the temple and to send again various materials from Lebanon in the area where he ruled for the use of God’s house. So it always hadn’t been that the people had been against Israel or against the God of Israel.
As a matter of fact, that one time their king Hiram had shown great affection towards the Israelites and towards the God of Israel. But something changed. And the thing that changed was the influence of this world system and Satan taking control of a culture and transforming it from one that appreciated Israel and the Jews and the God of the Jews to one that hated them.
Isaiah, in his letter, writes the following
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty,
and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down,
and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. Isaiah 24:1
And that’s in chapter 24. Who’s in control? God’s in control.
But if you go back to chapter 23 where he speaks of Hiram it says,
The burden of Tyre.
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish;
for it is laid waste, Isaiah 23:1
So there is no house, no entering in from the land of Chittim. It is revealed to them.
And Chittim would probably be one of the islands, maybe Crete or Cyprus.
so that there is no house, no entering in:
from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle;
thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor,
the harvest of the river, is her revenue;
and she is a mart of nations.
4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon:
for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying,
I travail not, nor bring forth children,
neither do I nourish up young men,
nor bring up virgins.
5 As at the report concerning Egypt,
so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. Isaiah 23:2-5
And as you continue to read in Isaiah’s Gospel, or Isaiah’s letter rather, and prophecy, you find very similar things to what Ezekiel speaks of.
Major cities of the Mediterranean area are in total shock and grief as Tyre falls. I want you to turn with me back, we may come back a little bit to Isaiah in a minute, but turn and look at Ezekiel chapter 27. And I want us to look at what Ezekiel says along these same lines.
And he says in the beginning in verse 1,
The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, 2 Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; 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. Ezekiel 27:1-4
And in those words, later on in next week, we’re going to be looking at the force behind Tyrus, and that’s Satan.
Those are his words. Those are the exact words that Satan saw and said when he realized he had been created, and all the beauty that God had given to him, and covered him with, and the position of authority that he had entrusted to him, and the position that Satan possessed, and really to be there to lead the worship of God. And he said, look at my beauty.
I’m the one that should be praised. I’m the one that should sit at the position of the most high. This was the same attitude that Tyrus possessed.
They said, look at us. Look at our power. Look at our authority.
Now I want you to understand what they had done. And you can go through, and I don’t know if we’ll have time to read it all, but if you read Ezekiel chapter 27, you’ll begin to see the beauty with which they had created everything that they did on this island. The very ships they built were built not like ordinary ships.
If you look at the ships that Europe was sailing at the time that they were crossing and discovering the various places going out on the ocean voyages, they were rather, for the most part, compared to the ships of Tyrus, very, very plain. I want you to see what it says here about not only their ships, but just everything that it says here. It says, The borders are in the midst of the sea.
O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.
In other words, the builders have made the city so beautiful that people come and they just want to admire the beauty of the city and all that’s there. If you go to some European cities today, you can probably admire the architectures, things that we can’t seem to do today in America.
We’ve got a lot more tools and all kinds of things to work with, yet we can’t replicate the craft of some of the craftsmen. This was Tyre. People would come from all these different countries to just look and to see the beauty of this city.
They have made all the shipboards of fir trees of Sinar and they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make the masks for thee. They took the best wood available. They didn’t take just ordinary wood.
They took cedar. They took the best fir. They took oak from Bashan.
Bashan would be over in northern Israel, up on the Golan Heights area is where they were getting the oak from. They get the fir from Mount Hermon, which is in northern Israel. They go great distances to get these woods that they wanted to make their ships and their ships were more than functional.
They were beautiful. He goes on and he says, Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars. The company of the Asherites have made thy breeches of ivory brought out of the isles of Chittim.
Their ships had inlaid ivory on them, if you can imagine. These were merchant ships to go about trading with. And yet they had these beautiful woods.
They had inlaid ivory. And not only that, it says here, Fine linen was broidered. Work from Egypt was that which they spread as forth to be thy sail.
Blue and purple from the sails of Elisha was that which covered thee. Their sails weren’t just white cloth. Their sails were a work of art as well.
Can you imagine embroidered sails in the color purple and blue and these beautiful, beautiful ships that would go out to trade. And then they come back to these cities where there was this tremendous craftsmanship that had been done in building the buildings. And everyone would look and just stand admiring it.
And then all the people of the earth would come and begin to trade of that region of the world. They’d come and they’d trade and they’d bring their stuff to trade at Tyre. And what happened is Tyre became really the economic center of the Mediterranean.
And it became the place that money was made and money was traded. And then later on, it became what was similar to what Switzerland was. Switzerland, countries of the world would store their money in Switzerland because it was the place everybody stored their wealth. That was Tyre. The wealth of the Mediterranean nations of Egypt, of the nations along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, of those of the Middle East were brought to Tyre and stored in Tyre or traded in Tyre for other things.
And it talks about all those nations in Ezekiel’s Gospel or Ezekiel’s letter rather. The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvid were thy mariners, thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee were thy pilots. And not only were they wise men, they were also princes or they were leaders or they were extremely wealthy people that would be the ones that would give direction to the world.
And they would have councils when setting the tone of what was going to be done, not only with the wealth of Tyre, but all of the trading that was going on in that part of the world. If you look at the world today, it’s much of what’s happening with these various gatherings of people that we have, the World Economic Forum that sets the direction supposedly of the world by the world’s standards, not by God’s standards. And they also have different groups like the Bilderbergers just had an emergency meeting in Washington, D.C. on what to do because things may not be going exactly the way they wanted them to go.
That is kind of what these guys did. They set the direction, they set the tone of everything that was happening. And all of a sudden God said, I’m going to judge you because your arrogance and your pride has exalted to the point that you have mocked Israel, you have mocked my people, you have enjoyed the fact that Jerusalem and my temple have been destroyed because now you view that one of the threats that would bring opposition to you is no longer there.
Now I want you to understand that behind this was more than just a physical observation and a physical decision, but there was really spiritual warfare. And there’s always been wickedness and evil behind various kingdoms. And as God has moved to exalt his name, there have been, Satan has brought forces of evil against the Lord and against his people.
Tyre had become one of those forces. And God said enough is enough and he’s going to judge Tyre. And what he does is he brings out of the east a wind that is going to destroy them.
Now this wind that is going to destroy Tyre out of the east is Babylon. Babylon is the same tool that God used to chastise Israel, but Babylon is going to be the tool to destroy Tyre. Now we talked a little bit before about the fact that there’s two cities, one on the land and one out on an island a short distance off the land.
You could not get to the island one because they didn’t have bridges, they didn’t have any means of getting there. And when the Babylonians came, they destroyed the land city and they totally ravaged it. And when they ravaged it, the people came and observed what had happened and they were in great despair.
Let’s just see what he says, let’s go down to, let’s pick it up at verse 14. They of the house of Torgamah traded in thy fares, and with horses and horsemen and mules. And the men of Dedan were thy merchants.
Many isles were thy merchandise of thine hand. They brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony. We see all the things they’re bringing from all these different countries.
Syria was thy merchant by reason of multitude of the wares of thy making. They occupied in the fares and emeralds and purple embroidered work and some linen and coral and agate, all these beautiful jewels and cloth and gold and silver. Judah was the hand of the island.
They were the merchants. They traded in thy market wheat and minneth and pen egg and honey and oil and balm. The same things that Israel is doing to Europe today and much of the Middle East.
They provided much of the food and also precious things that people needed to eat. Just a side note, another reason that God brought judgment against Tyre. Tyre was coming and desecrating in Israel.
They would come and trade on the Shabbats. They would open up their trade fares and they’d bring stuff up and sell it to the Jews when they were supposed to be not working and not trading and not doing that. And they just did things that mocked God and mocked what God was trying to have his people do and encouraged his people to become worldly.
And once they became worldly, then they were thrilled in their destruction. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making for the multitude of all riches in the wine of Hebron and the white wool. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fares.
Bright iron, cassia and calamus were in thy market. Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots. Arabia and all the princes of Kadar, they occupied in lambs and rams and goats.
These were thy merchants. And we see that all of these things were coming to Tyre. And it was a center of trade and a center of wealth.
The merchants of Sheba and Ramah And as we mentioned before, Sheba would be down across the straits from Saudi Arabia today is where Sheba was located. And it says, and they were thy merchants and they occupied in thy fares with chief of all spices and all precious stones and gold. So these people, they’d have trading fairs and all these people would bring their stuff.
And guess who’d get a cut and a piece of the action? Tyre. They’d be the ones that have put on these things. They’d be the ones that arrange the trades.
They’d be the ones that would be at the heart of making money off of all of the wealth that was going in there. Haran and Cana and Eden and the merchants of Sheba and Asher and Shomed were thy merchants. These were the merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, embroidered work, in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar among thy merchandise.
The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market. Thou was replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. Thy rowers have brought thee into a great waters to the east wind, have broken thee in the midst of the seas.
Now, there’s where you first get the glimpse of what’s God’s judgments coming. The east wind has broken thee. What’s the east wind dealing with? It says, thy riches and thy fares, thy merchandise and thy mariners and thy pilots and thy caulkers and the occupiers of the merchandise and all thy men of war that are in thee and all 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.
You look at all of this and you’re going, how could anything ever happen to this? This city, so amazing, all of this activity, all these riches, all these countries coming. And yet God says, enough’s enough. Judgment’s coming.
Your pride has shown your need for judgment. Now, you can look and read to the end of the chapter and we may come back to it, but we’re running out of time and I just want to look at one other thing just to show you this is not something that we’re going to see happen again. Not with Tyre, but if you would turn with me to Revelation chapter 18.
And it’s very interesting as you look at Revelation chapter 18, it talks about commercial Babylon in the last days. And as you’re looking at commercial Babylon in the last days, it talks about what happens in commercial Babylon. It’s very much like Tyre.
All these things are going on. It says, And after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily in a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
This is what happened to Tyre. Something very similar, but this is what’s going to happen to Babylon. And Babylon is going to be resurrected in the last days, which is the spirit that began at the Tower of Babel.
And it’s the same spirit was there when Satan caused Adam to rebel. It has gone throughout all history. But I want you to see that as the nations were just in shock when Tyre fell, I want you to see what it says here.
And he says, For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Now, we’re going to come back to verse 4, but I want to jump ahead to verse 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.
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.
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.
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. 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. Ezekiel 23:9-12
These were those that were involved in trading. The same type of thing that you can see and you can go back and read in Isaiah and he talks about that they traded in the same things and one of the things they traded in was the souls of men. And if you look at what the world is today, it’s very much like tires.
On the outside it has this beautiful appearance. It has this alluring deception to draw you in. In Pilgrim’s Progress, Pilgrim came and he was tempted on as he’s going to the celestial city.
He’s on a journey to the celestial city, which is his eternal life with Jesus and it’s his journey to get there. And he comes in one of the temptations that’s placed before him. He comes to a city that’s called Vanity Fair.
And when you come to Vanity Fair, there’s all these beautiful sights and beautiful sounds and alluring smells. And he wants to go in. But the problem is when you’re allured in, it’s so hard to get out.
Because you think that that’s…
Pilgrim came and what he was tempted on is he’s going to the celestial city, he’s on the journey to the celestial city, which is his eternal life with Jesus, and it’s his journey to get there. And he comes in one of the temptations that’s placed before him, he comes to a city that’s called Vanity Fair. And when you come to Vanity Fair, there’s all these beautiful sights and beautiful sounds and alluring smells.
And he wants to go in, but the problem is when you’re allured in, it’s so hard to get out. Because you think that that’s where you need to stay and you take your eyes off of that which is of great significance and of real beauty, the celestial city. That’s exactly what’s happened here.
It happened at Tyre, it happened at the Tower of Babel, it happened at the various kingdoms that we looked at in Daniel, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Medo-Persians, and the Romans. They all felt and fell into Satan’s trap of worshipping the creature and the creation rather than the creator. And they look at all of the things that God had given to us and they viewed that that was what their focus should be and that’s where their worship should be instead of the creator who made it all for us to have and to enjoy but not to worship.
And these people, as you look at what happens in the last days, these people become so consumed with materialism, they become consumed with power, they become consumed with the ability to trade and even trade in the souls of men. What they were doing, and you can go to Isaiah, and Isaiah talks about the fact in his lamentation about Tyre, he says that they literally traded in people, they traded lives. In other words, they had a slave trade going in Tyre as well.
And not only that, if you look at what’s happening in the world today, you know what’s happening in the U.S. A lot of people, you know how many children are missing in the United States? And we’ve literally got a human slave trade going in the U.S. amongst children and also young women that are either sold into all kinds of despicable positions or killed for despicable reasons. And you go to some of the countries of the world, and slavery is still an active deal where they trade in the souls of men. One of the things that you see that’s going to happen in the last days, it’s going to become more evident that that’s going to become a part of the world situation.
And if you dig in behind of what’s really happening in much of the world today, a lot of it is motivated by occultic, satanic activity and demonic activity. Just as you look at the city of Tyre, which on the outside possessed great beauty, but they worshipped the gods that were demonic and tore away the souls of men. Baal was a god of the Sidonians and of Tyre.
You have Astaroth, a god of the Sidonians and of Tyre. All of these wicked gods that came, really demons that presented themselves as god for men to worship, and came and were part of the thing that destroyed the culture and the people’s view of the true and the living God in Israel as they began to worship these idols and worship these false gods. In the last days, the people are going to lament not only all of the precious things that they’ve lost, but they’re going to lament the fact that they no longer trade in the souls of men.
Just stop and think about that. They’re going to be upset that they can’t trade in the souls of men. Did you know that right now there are ways that people are trading in the souls of men and you don’t necessarily have to kidnap somebody to do it.
Satan is stealing children’s souls through music and entertainment and various drugs and alcohol. And really, they are trading their souls for money they gain from putting that forth and enslaving them to Satan’s techniques and deals to keep the people away from the Lord. God said, enough’s enough.
He said, enough’s enough of Tyre. And her beauty was destroyed. Her power was destroyed.
And it came in phases. It didn’t all happen at once. The land city happened first with Babylon.
And then it says it would be 70 years later. And there would be further, the people would rise up again and there would become a Tyre who would once again do the things that they did. That’s spoken of in Isaiah.
And you see that that happened. And then Alexander the Great came after the Medo-Persians. The Medo-Persians were used to raise up Tyre on the island again.
And then Alexander the Great came and destroyed the island city. But the thing is, the spirit of Tyre is still alive in the world today. And it’s going to be here until the end of the great, until God comes to judge the world and he will judge this finally.
But we see in Revelation, when Babylon is destroyed, the last remnant of this picture of Tyre. Of trading for all of this that ultimately is trading in the souls of men. And he says, And the merchants, in verse 13 of Revelation, And in the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her.
For no man buyeth her merchandise any more. And the merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet. And all thine wood and all manner of vessels of ivory and manner of vessels of most precious wood.
And of brass and iron and marble and of cinnamon and odors of ointments and frankincense and wine and oil. And fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee.
And all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee. And thou shalt find them no more at all. And that’s exactly what happened when Tyre was destroyed.
All of these things were there. And all of a sudden, God judged it and they were no longer there. And the merchants that had grown wealthy could no longer trade and could no longer find them.
And this thing that they put all their hope and trust in wasn’t there. The whole world is going to put their trust in Babylon. The rising of Babylon and the Antichrist that’s coming.
But God’s going to judge it. And it’s going to be meaningless. And everything that they trusted in will ultimately be destroyed.
Let’s just close in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just help us to understand. Pride cometh before the fall.
And external beauty means nothing when an internal heart is corrupted and morally degenerate. And Lord, you called us to have our sins forgiven and that we could be washed as white as snow. That our desires would not be for that which gives temporary beauty, but our desires would be for that which has eternal value and eternal beauty.
Lord, may our focus be correct. And may you help us to give a warning of the coming and impending disaster that is coming upon the spirit of this world and the one who is behind it. This we ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Ezekiel 27:1-8 opens a powerful lamentation over the ancient city of Tyre. Through vivid imagery, God reveals how the nations admired Tyre’s wealth, wisdom, trade, and influence. Yet beneath the beauty was pride and self-dependence that would ultimately lead to destruction. This passage serves as a warning that earthly success, riches, and human power can never replace humility and dependence upon God.
The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, 2 Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; 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.
5 They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir:
they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
6 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars;
the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory,
brought out of the isles of Chittim.
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.
Isaiah 23:1-5
The burden of Tyre.
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish;
for it is laid waste,
so that there is no house, no entering in:
from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle;
thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor,
the harvest of the river, is her revenue;
and she is a mart of nations.
4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon:
for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying,
I travail not, nor bring forth children,
neither do I nourish up young men,
nor bring up virgins.
5 As at the report concerning Egypt,
so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
Isaiah 24:1
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty,
and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down,
and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Rev 18:1-3
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 9:14
Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,