Sunday, June 2, 2019

Year 9, Day 153: Ezekiel 27


Theological Commentary: Click Here



Today we get a lament for Tyre.  We didn’t get a lament for any of the nations prior to Tyre, but Tyre is not unique in this, either.  Other nations will get a lament as well.



I think the fact that God gives Tyre a lament is an indication that He is saddened by what could have been.  Yesterday I spoke about how good their society functioned.  Today we hear more about just how wide their trade network was!  They were trading with just about everyone.  They were running good from one nation to another.  They were helping other societies grow and become strong.  Granted, they were getting rich off of it, but there is nothing wrong with making a living.  The Phoenicians had a great system and a phenomenal culture.  Their impact is continued to be felt today as we use an offshoot of the writing system they developed!



If their society was so great, then why is God lamenting?  There could be a couple of legitimate reasons, but I’m going to focus in on one.  I think God is saddened when people who have been blessed find it easy to forget all about Him.  Rather than understanding their blessing, people who are blessed often lose sight of God.  They become so focused on what they have that they forget about where it came from in the first place.



I think this is why God is lamenting.  In the midst of their great society, He wanted relationship with them.  He wanted them to understand that He is the one who opened all the doors of trade.  He is the one that taught them to sail.  He is the one who brought all the nations together so that they could have an empire of trade.  God laments because the people of Tyre had no desire to see Him as the real reason of their success.



In this light, I think this is a message for us all.  We all have blessings in our life.  We all have reason to acknowledge God’s hand in our life.  It is up to us, however, to do so.



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