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. 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.
God himself declared that he was opposed to Tyre, the great merchant city of the Mediterranean, speaking to it in the height of its power to bring down its pride. The judgment came because Tyre rejoiced over the ruin of Jerusalem and the humiliation of Judah, expecting to profit from their distress in open defiance of God. Many nations were to come against her like the waves of the sea, in repeated and relentless attacks carried out in stages by different powers over many years and not by Babylon alone. Nebuchadnezzar began the work by besieging her for thirteen years and breaking down the mainland city, and Alexander afterward completed it by casting its stones and dust into the sea to reach the island city, leaving her bare like the top of a rock where fishers spread their nets. Spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, the word has been literally fulfilled and stands with Babylon, Egypt, Nineveh and the dispersion of the Jews as proof of the divine origin of prophecy, and as a lesson that cities are judged by the God of heaven.
Meaning and Historical Setting
The declaration is that God Himself is against Tyre, the great commercial merchant city of the world on the Mediterranean, speaking to her in the height of her power to bring down her pride. The bringing of many nations up against her as the sea causes its waves to come up means destruction in stages by different powers and not by one attack alone. The many nations are successive, repeated, relentless waves, unfolding over a number of years and not through Babylon alone.
This begins the prophecy of Tyre's ruin and utter destruction. It is part of the account of her ruin and the lamentation over her in chapters 26 to 28, among the prophecies concerning other nations in Ezekiel 25-31. Ezekiel 26:1-21 as a whole is the prophecy of her destruction, one of the judgments that came upon nations amid widespread wrong and injustice.
The judgment was spoken after Jerusalem's destruction. It came because Tyre rejoiced over Jerusalem's ruin and Judah's humiliation and distress, expecting to profit from the city's ruin and seeking advantage from it. That rejoicing was open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness and defiance of God.
Prophetic Fulfillment in History
The many nations were to come against Tyre like successive waves of the sea, and the fulfillment began when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Phoenicia and laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years to execute the judgment. His army destroyed the walls of the mainland city and broke down its towers and trod down all its streets with horses' hoofs. Many of the people nevertheless escaped with their valuables to the island settlement offshore. The prediction of many nations meant destruction in stages by different powers over a number of years and not by Babylon alone.
What Nebuchadnezzar left undone was afterward completed when Alexander besieged the later island city. He took the stones and timber and rubble and dust and remains of Old Tyre and laid them in the midst of the water to build a causeway to it. In this way the ruins of the mainland city became the roadway to the conquest of the island city.
The judgment meant utter wiping out of existence, including the scraping away of Tyre's dust to leave her bare like the top of a rock. She was to become a place in the midst of the sea for the spreading of fishermen's nets. The site of the island city became bare rock in desolate condition. It remained a witness to the truth of the prophecy rather than rising again to its former power.
The word spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years ago concerning Tyre has been literally and accurately fulfilled through multiple powers. The existing facts of Tyre today confront men as proof. Together with the histories of the Babylonian lion, Medo-Persian bear, Greek leopard and Roman beast, the existing facts of Babylon, Egypt and Nineveh, and the dispersion of the Jews, it furnishes a colossal argument for the divine origin of the prophetic Scriptures, an argument whose power and weight are still growing.
Warning and Present Application
Tyre's overthrow stands as an object lesson in the reward of transgression and the certainty of God's word. It proves that cities are judged and punished or rewarded by the God of heaven.
The warning spoken to Tyre is a lesson for today, teaching that open, God-defying wickedness invites judgment and that warnings from godly men must not be laughed at and left unheeded. It applies not to one city alone but to every place and people forgetting and defying God. That includes proud, prosperous cities, and New York and Chicago are named with San Francisco among those warned.
The same fate that fell on Tyre fell on San Francisco in earthquake wreck and ruin, as a modern proud and beautiful Babylon and modern thrifty Tyre. Its catastrophe was the fruit of awful wickedness and the mercy of God, not merely an avenging God. Tyre's punishment is set beside the preliminary punishments of Babylon as the same kind of visitation upon open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness.
Because Tyre sought to take advantage of Judah's distress and expected to profit from it, the declaration that God would bring many nations against her like waves of the sea warns against exploiting God's work, workers, and institutions when they are financially weakened.
A city and its government are responsible to God. Lasting safety and reform come only through deep and genuine repentance toward God and firm determination to purify private, social, and political life according to the standard of His revealed will.
Nebuchadnezzar would capture Tyre, and from Tyre would go on to conquer Jerusalem, giving Israel a surrounding illustration of how God deals with proud kingdoms.