
Flattened Tyre (Ezekiel 26-27)
If you are still up in the air regarding your vacation plans, you might want to ask your travel agent about shopping destinations.
A shopping vacation is a trip taken primarily for the purpose of (you guessed it) shopping. It’s a real thing. Rather than sightseeing, relaxing, or visiting cultural sites, the main goal is to buy stuff.
Recommended sites in the US include Chicago’s Miracle Mile, the Houston Galleria, the Mall of America in Bloomington MN, and the Grove in Los Angeles.
For the next three chapters the spotlight falls on the ancient world’s premier shopping destination: Tyre.
An historian wrote, “Tyre, whose merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honorable of the earth, stood at the crossroads of the ancient world’s commerce, drawing wealth from every sea and shore.”
But it isn’t Tyre’s economic dominance that is in focus. Through Ezekiel the Lord prophesied her destruction, saying, “You will become a horror, and be no more forever.”[1]
Tyre is an example to us of the peril of the love of money. It can be applied as a cautionary tale that “No one can serve two masters… you cannot serve God and mammon.”[2]
I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1Choosing Mammon Over The Master Will Leave You Destitute, or #2 Choosing The Master Over Mammon Will Free You For Discipleship.
#1 – Choosing Mammon Over The Master Will Leave You Destitute (26:1-21)
It was Jesus who said, “You can’t serve God and mammon.” One and only one of them can be your master.
What is mammon? I prefer tangible examples to definitions. Charles Dickens described Ebenezer Scrooge, saying, “Scrooge was not so much a man, as an incarnation of mammon. He had no time to think of anyone but his money.”
Mammon represents more than just materialism. It signifies the dehumanizing obsession with money that had completely overtaken Scrooge’s life, making him incapable of caring for others.
For those of you who are better informed with a definition, “Mammon refers to the idolatry of wealth, where material possessions are not just valued but coveted and pursued above everything else, including God.”
In Tyre… Mammon was master.
Ezk 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezk 26:2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.”
Tyre consisted of a coastal city on the Mediterranean and a small island offshore. The name “Tyre” means rock, and its inhabitants were the Phoenicians.
Tyre wasn’t a military threat to the Jews. Instead its subtle influence infiltrated Israel and Judah, rotting them from within.
First of all, the Jewish traders would find the typical depraved paganism of the ancients, only much more enticing. What happens in Tyre…
Second of all, Tyre at one point exercised a unique influence in Israel. Jezebel, whom King Ahab took to be his wife, was a Phoenician princess from Tyre. Bible savvy parents do not name their daughters Jezebel for a reason. Jezebel led Israel into idolatry and moral corruption by promoting Baal worship, opposing God’s prophets, and manipulating power through deceit and violence.
Third of all, Tyre was not above profaning the God of Israel. “You have taken My silver and My gold, And have carried into your temples My prized possessions.”[3] There is no record of Tyre participating in the destruction of the Temple. This sounds more like an episode of Pawn Stars. Soldiers from Babylon, and mercenaries who had aided in the siege of Jerusalem, undoubtedly made off with Temple treasure. Tyrian traders looked the other way in terms of its provenance.
Fourth and worst of all, The Tyrians were not above trafficking Jews into slavery. Again quoting Joel, “The people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem You have sold to the Greeks, That you may remove them far from their borders.”[4]
Think Pinocchio & Pleasure Island.
When you prioritize profit over people… Well, that’s the plot of a ton of movies based on true events. Can you say, “Erin Brockovich?”
Ezk 26:3 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.
Ezk 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Ezk 26:5 It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations.
Tyre is often singled out as a prophetic proof text by Christian apologists and Bible teachers. The prophecies against Tyre in the Bible are strikingly specific and historically fulfilled in remarkable detail. This makes them a compelling case study for the reliability of biblical prophecy:
- King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Tyre for 13 years (c. 586 – 573BC). He destroyed the mainland portion of Tyre but not the island fortress, which continued to flourish.
- About 250 years later, Alexander the Great built a causeway using the ruins of the old city to reach the island, literally scraping her rubble into the sea just as Ezekiel described.[5]
- Over time, Tyre became a fishing village on a peninsula – a “bare rock” where fishermen could indeed spread their nets.
Today, the island city is neither. The causeway built by Alexander has over time widened naturally, turning the island into a peninsula.
In his book, Science Speaks, Peter Stoner says that this entire prophecy concerning Tyre, considering all the details, using the principle of probability, had a one-in-four hundred million chance of fulfillment!
Verses six through eighteen describe the Babylonian siege and its horror. Some key words: “Slain by the sword,” “battering rams,” “axes,” “pillage,” and “slaughter.”
➲ Ezk 26:19 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you, and great waters cover you,
Ezk 26:20 then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living.
Ezk 26:21 I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”
The “Pit” is the holding place of souls better known as Hades. It is the place the rich man & Lazarus go after their deaths.[6] Divided into two compartments, the souls of unbelievers still go there. Since Jesus rose from the dead, the souls of believers, since the are immediately arrive in Heaven. Early Church father Tertullian wrote, “The souls of the wicked are kept in Hades, reserved for judgment, suffering punishment and awaiting the sentence of the final day.”
The dead in the Pit will be raised and judged. They then are thrown into a Lake of Fire to suffer eternal conscious torment. Something I didn’t used to consider is the mental anguish & torment folks will suffer, not just physical. It can be so much worse.
I think we need to distinguish mammon from materialism. That new car you bought, the one you park way out in the boonies sideways, taking up three stalls so that it cannot be dented. That’s materialism. It only lasts until the first ding. We’re not mastered by it. Adrian Rogers put it humorously, “It’s about time we stopped buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
I would submit that mammon is less about material things because it is a spiritual problem in the heart. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – 395 AD) equated mammon with Beelzebub, suggesting that it is akin to surrendering to and serving demonic forces. The early believers considered mammon more than mere wealth, or even the love of money. It represented a spiritual adversary that can lead believers away from God.
I’m getting ahead of myself now, but we’re going to get the penultimate example of mammon in the next chapter. There, we are going to meet the Prince of Tyre, but not the one we can see. He is a supernatural being.
One more thing I’d like to get in real quick. The life to come is going to be material. Read the two last chapters of the Book of the Revelation and you’ll see just how real and physical eternity is going to be.
How do we defeat mammon? Lately I’ve had one answer to almost every question I’ve been asked. It is the great measuring stick of our worldview on every topic. They are words of Jesus (so you can’t go wrong!). “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[7]
#2 – Choosing The Master Over Mammon Will Free You To Be Discipled (27:1-36)
This chapter is a lament for the destruction of Tyre. Think Gordon Lightfoot and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The dirge portrays Tyre poetically as a perfectly crafted ship, constructed from the finest, most expensive materials by the best craftsmen.
Think of verses 1-25 as the travel brochure. In the shops you’d find Gold, Silver, Tin, Lead, Iron, and Bronze; Horses, War horses, Mules, Lambs, Rams, and Goats; Emeralds, Rubies, Coral, and Precious stones; Purple fabric, Embroidery, Fine linen, and White wool; Grain, honey, wheat, oil, and Wine; and, of course, Slaves.
More than twenty trading partners are mentioned.
➲ Ezk 27:25 “The ships of Tarshish were carriers of your merchandise. You were filled and very glorious in the midst of the seas.
Ezk 27:26 Your oarsmen brought you into many waters, But the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas.
Ezk 27:27 “Your riches, wares, and merchandise, Your mariners and pilots, Your caulkers and merchandisers, All your men of war who are in you, And the entire company which is in your midst, Will fall into the midst of the seas on the day of your ruin.
A great storm pounds the ship. Overwhelmed by the sea, Tyre is brought down. Her merchants cry out, the seafarers are appalled, and the nations that traded with her are shocked and grieved.
An individual’s or a nation’s shipwreck can seem to happen suddenly and without warning. You can be certain God gave plenty of advance warning.
- He had given Israel & Judah centuries to repent.
- We don’t know much about the Lord’s efforts to evangelize Tyre, but we know that is His MO. Nineveh comes to mind.
➲ Ezk 27:34 But you are broken by the seas in the depths of the waters; Your merchandise and the entire company will fall in your midst.
Ezk 27:35 All the inhabitants of the isles will be astonished at you; Their kings will be greatly afraid, And their countenance will be troubled.
Ezk 27:36 The merchants among the peoples will hiss at you; You will become a horror, and be no more forever.’ ” ’ ”
One of our sub-themes teaching through Ezekiel has been to explore how God interacts with nations. This topic is especially relevant to us as citizens of a nation that can’t find itself in the Bible.
Jeremiah was God’s prophet to Jerusalem around this same time. He said that any nation that does what is evil, if it turned from evil, He would receive their repentance and bless them. But if a nation chooses evil, refusing to repent, He will destroy them, often using other nations to do it.
Is our otherwise great nation guilty of evil? Yes, and it goes by the term Pro-Choice.
In the US, in 2024, there were approximately 98,000 ProChoice murders each month – 3,267 each day. We are choosing to “do evil in [God’s] sight.” “And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.”[8]
I am not addressing any woman who may have had an abortion. If something I say troubles you, the ladies at Crossroads Pregnancy Center would love to pray with you and share with you.
Instead of going to Chicago’s Miracle Mile for your vacation, consider going on a Missions Trip & ask the Lord for miracles.
If you’re interested, we recommend Samaritan’s Purse. On their website they invite you to “Be a Good Samaritan.”
- North American Ministries is what they call their disaster relief.
- If you are in the medical field, you can volunteer with World Medical Mission.
This isn’t a rebuke. It is always as the Lord leads. Meanwhile, take this good advice from David Jeremiah: “According to the Bible, the antidote to [mammon] is generosity.”