Ezekiel 26:12

Tyre is essentially the merchantman; his professed object even is to serve. No doubt his aim is first of all to serve himself. He has not the true spirit of service for God. Instead, he finds in the need of man the opportunity for his own gain, and this is the cause of his judgment here... It hardly needs saying that the habit of gaining riches from the need of others hardens the heart. So it was with Tyre: and for this she is judged.

She who has so often profited by the spoil of the nations will in turn be a spoil for the nations. God's judgment carries man's judgment further, as her history has fully shown, and it declares itself in what has been fully accomplished.

The prophecy first names Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, as the instrument of Tyre's destruction. But we must not confuse this with the full end which Jehovah Himself makes of her, in the 14th verse. The siege by Nebuchadrezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Grecian king Alexander. This broke her strength for good, although the remnant of a city remained for a long time. It wasted and dried up more and more until the end came. Today, as we see, nothing is left but a bare rock, used only for the spreading of nets.

About 240 years later this prophecy came true to the letter... To build this mole, Alexander used the ruins of the old city. He laid the stones, timber and the very dust of the destroyed city into the sea. That causeway brought the utter ruin of the wealthy city. And so Ezekiel's prophecy was fulfilled.

As the prophet speaks here, the breach in Tyre had already been made for him by their sins. Her stones, her timber and her dust were now to be laid in the middle of the waters. The noise of her songs was to cease, and all her pomp and glory were to perish together. As already said, however, the complete end would wait for many generations.

Its present inhabitants are only a few poor people sheltering in the vaults, and living mainly by fishing; who seem to be kept in the place by divine Providence, as a visible argument of how God has fulfilled His word about Tyre, namely, that it should be "like the top of a rock; you shall be a place to spread nets upon."

That godless city, mentioned by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, represents the world with its riches and lusts. It hated God and God's people, and was glad of Israel's fall, since that gave freer course to the satisfying of her own selfishness.

The sentence of God is upon it; but, as He says here, so that He may set true glory in the land of the living... Blessed be God, all this must indeed pass away. What can be shaken is to be removed, so that what cannot be shaken may remain.