Ezekiel 28:6–10

God would teach him that his responsibility matched what should have been his profit, not his pride. His doom would only be the more stern and sure and swift… If he aspired to be God in his pretensions, he would feel what it is to be man in weakness. The sword of the dreaded stranger would defile his brightness. He would die the deaths of those slain in the heart of the seas. The sea would prove then no unbreakable shelter, but his most shameful grave.

The prince was the head and centre and personification of the pride and wealth found in Tyre as a whole. No kind of pride is baser, more blinding, or more corrupting. It lives on selfishness, appeals to selfishness, and selfishness lifts it up in its grossest form. No wonder the New Testament brands covetousness as idolatry, and describes the love of money as a root of all evil… It is common to all who amass wealth to give themselves credit for wisdom. So did the prince. Was he rich toward God? No — he had amassed riches, and gold and silver had crowded into his treasury. This was the aim of his wisdom, this its triumph, for it was his own doing. Self, not God, was in all his thoughts.

Here the prophecy names the instrument of divine vengeance plainly. It is not that God had the smallest sympathy with the terrible of the nations and their drawn swords, nor with the strangers who laid the country waste. But the hour to judge its proud wickedness was at hand, and the worst was the fitting executioner to do the dread work.

Woe to the nation so used if she becomes lifted up with pride at it. For as surely as God rules with justice, so surely shall she be humbled in her turn.

The word to the prince of Tyre is what he has become in his pride after he is prince; to the king, what he was before he is king — before iniquity was found in him… Although a prince, he was only a man; and the "terrible of the nations" — the Chaldeans — would carry out God's wrath.

Tyre is a picture of the commercial glory of the world, its wealth and pride. It foreshadows the final great world-city or world-system, Babylon. So the ruler of Tyre, spoken of as prince, foreshadows the Antichrist; while as king, Satan himself stands behind him as the dominating power.

Travellers are convinced that the waves of the sea now roll where the vast and magnificent palaces of Tyrian wealth and luxury once stood. The storm of God's anger has swept away the monuments of commercial enterprise and prosperity, and they are as if they had never been. Another traveller says he found nothing but a confused heap of broken walls, pillars, vaults and the like, with not so much as one whole house left!

The prince of Tyre — also called the king — was, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, Ithobalus. The Phoenician records call him Ithobaal II. He was the consummation of the pride and wealth of Tyre; the terrible pride of the city headed up in him. His heart was so lifted up that he claimed to be a god and that he occupied the very seat of God. He boasted of greater wisdom than the wisdom of Daniel. He is a picture of the final Antichrist, the man of sin. Behind the wicked prince and king, another power is seen: Satan.

Here is an address to the prince of Tyre. In it we see the effect on him of his heaped-up wealth and the power that came with it: it lifted his heart to a place more than human… Monstrous as all this is, it is still only the natural growth of what happened in the Garden of Eden itself, when the evil one's temptation was plainly, "you will be like God."

He claimed to be God; now he would feel what it is to be man in weakness. The sword of the terrible stranger would stain his brightness, and he would die the deaths of those killed in the heart of the seas. The sea would prove no safe refuge then, but his most shameful grave. He should die the deaths of the uncircumcised, of men farthest from God.

God did not need to put out any open display of divine power against him. The power of men was enough. Would he keep up an argument for his own divinity while facing the weapons of the men who were about to put him to death?

Nebuchadnezzar walked in his palace, admired his own splendour, and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built?" But the Lord was watching that evil. While the proud, self-important word was still in his mouth, the man who exalted himself was brought low.

Ezekiel 28 depicts the prince and the King of Tyre, both judged for their pride. The one who is the prince of this world's glory (see John 14:30, John 16:11) appears here as a man… There is little doubt that in what follows, in Ezekiel 28:11 to 19, the King of Tyre stands for Satan — the prince and god of this world. He was a creature of God, yet his heart was lifted up. He ruined his own brightness, turned away from God, and became the enemy of God and man. His advantages had been the occasion of his fall.

God had been hidden, so to speak, during the time of the other beasts, but His providence still acted… The open revolt had not yet taken place. The fourth beast had not yet said, as Isaiah 47:8 puts it, "I am, and there is no one besides me." Compare what God says to the prince of Tyre: "Will you still say, 'I am a god,' in the presence of those who kill you?" (Ezek. 28:9). God's judgment on this fourth beast will fall on man in open rebellion against Him.

Man sought independence by sin, and gained a conscience that was already bad, which made him look down, while his pride still claimed everything… The Son of God emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to death on a cross… A man-god was Satan's bait and man's ruin. The God-man dying in obedience and for redemption is the triumph of truth and grace.

If he aimed to pass himself off as God, he would feel what it is to be a man in weakness, when the sword of the dreaded foreigner stained his splendour... He would die the deaths of the uncircumcised, of men farthest from God.

God needed to use no obvious divine power against him; the power of men was enough... He was uncircumcised and had never learned the lesson of self-judgment, so he would die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners, and the Lord seals this as the doom He has pronounced on him.

Shocking as all this is, it is still, in the end, the natural growth of what happened in the Garden of Eden itself. There the evil one's temptation was plainly, "You will be like God." No doubt that was meant as a moral likeness — "knowing good and evil." Still, it was a place seized, not given by God, and it led naturally to seizing still more, and more openly.

Verses 1-10 show us the prince of this world's glory as a man. He lifts himself up and tries to present himself as a god, having gained riches and glory by his wisdom.

This is worth noting, because it shows the link between the Prince of Tyre and the King of Tyre (Satan). The Prince of Tyre was plainly a man. God's judgment on him was that he would die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners.

He was the high point of the pride and wealth of Tyre; the fearful pride of the city came to a head in him. His heart was so lifted up that he claimed to be a god and to hold the very seat of God... He is a foreshadowing of the final Antichrist, the man of sin. Behind the wicked prince and king stands another power: Satan.

What appalling facts we have noticed so far in the history of some of the greatest cities the world ever had! How truly the word of Jehovah has been fulfilled! It is well for those who believe God's testimony enough to tremble at His word!