Against the Prince of Tyre
Ezekiel now focuses in on the leadership of Tyre. Leaders, be warned. God holds leaders accountable. It is one thing for plans to fall in spite of
good leadership. That just happens
sometimes. It is another thing entirely for
plans to fail because of poor leadership.
Then God really has a reason to bring judgment down upon the leaders.
I don’t think this point can be over-emphasized. When Israel fell, where did the mantle of
blame fall first but on the kings who led the people astray? When Judah fell, where did the mantle of blame
fall but on the kings and religious leaders who didn’t lead? When Babylon falls, who will god blame but
the corrupt leaders? {You can read God’s opinion of Belshazzar in
Daniel 5 pretty easily.} The truth
is that leadership is called upon by God.
God needs leaders. He calls
leaders. He equips people to lead. When they don’t lead, judgment will
come. It will come – deservedly so.
Who Is God
The leadership of Tyre had begun to believe and teach that the
kings were gods. It wasn’t so much that
the people believed the kings couldn’t die – they could see that clearly. Rather, they people of Tyre believed that the
kings of Tyre encompassed the wisdom of the gods. They were infallible. After all, just look at the empire of
prosperity that they were able to create!
There are a couple of neat points here. First, remember from the perspective of the
Old Testament that wisdom is the greatest gift that God could give. For a person to say that they encompassed the
wisdom of the gods was to challenge God’s wisdom. It was to put oneself on a level plane with
God. Clearly God would take issue with
this fact. Nobody is naturally on any
kind of playing field with God – much less an even playing field!
As proof of this concept, the prince about whom Ezekiel is
prophesying was named Ethba’al III (According to the Hebrew spelling). That name means, “Ba’al is with him.” Literally, “god with him.” In some respects it could be seen as a pagan
synonym to Emmanuel, “God with us.” Even
in his name this ruler of Tyre is claiming infringement on God’s territory.
The second neat point here is that you will notice the mention to
the wisdom of Daniel. I think it is
likely that this is the Daniel of the Bible that is being referenced. By this point in history, Daniel would have
made a name for himself in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel would no doubt have been familiar with
Daniel. It makes sense that Ezekiel
would talk about a contemporary like Daniel as his peers would also know of
him.
So why is this neat? Well,
think about it. The kings of Tyre
considered themselves wiser than Daniel.
Yet, Daniel was in the service of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians come and defeat the
Phoenicians. Nebuchadnezzar, who has
Daniel on his side, defeats the kings who are supposedly wiser than Daniel and
like gods. Arrogance gets them nowhere
except to the judgment seat of God.
The King of Tyre
In the middle of this chapter, Ezekiel changes vocabulary. Instead of speaking about the princes (or
rulers, which is another fair translation) Ezekiel talks about the king of
Tyre. Here’s the problem, though. If we take this passage literally, we have
words that don’t make sense. Was the
king of Tyre in the Garden of Eden? Was
the king of Tyre granted full access to the mountain of God? Of course not. So what’s really going on here?
This is really cool.
Actually, this is beyond cool. I
believe that Ezekiel is making a bold statement about who is really king in
Tyre. The answer is simple. The true king in Tyre is Satan. The Devil.
Lucifer. The one who fell from
heaven.
If you think about it, it really all makes sense. Was Satan not once a part of God’s
court? Did not Satan have full access to
God? Was Satan not in the Garden of
Eden? Was Satan not blameless until God
found unrighteousness within? Was not
Satan cast from the mountain of God? Was
not the great sin of Satan his pride?
Are not people appalled at Satan’s fall?
Has he not come to a dreadful end?
I think Ezekiel’s point is incredibly deep. The ruler of Tyre is Satan. Satan has led Tyre away from God. Satan has placed all of its pride, success,
economy, and abundance before Tyre simply to distract them from God. Satan is their ruler, and the people of Tyre
have drunk the kool-aid. That is
profound, and I love the way Exekiel uses the imagery to get the point across
about who is the king of much in this world.
Sidon
This prophecy against Sidon is short – especially when compared to
Tyre. Remember that Sidon and Tyre were
sister cities in the Phoenician empire.
So it is likely that Ezekiel is attaching this little addendum to the
end of Tyre’s prophecy to essentially say, “ditto for y’all.” Notice, however, that again we return to the
idea that these acts are being done so that they will know who is God. It is about identity. It’s about authority. It’s about God.
Back to the Hebrew people
In the closing verses, we hear that God will have completed
judgment on the neighbors of His people.
In other words, God is going to take care of what the Hebrew people
could not do in the time of Joshua and the Judges. God will remove obstacles. When they return from exile, they will have
no excuse. They will dwell
securely. Of course, what they do with
that security is up to them!
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