Ezekiel 26:7

Tyre is essentially the merchant; his stated aim is even to serve. No doubt his first aim is to serve himself. He does not have the true spirit of service for God. Instead he finds in man's need the opportunity for his own gain. This is what we find as the cause of his judgment here. The habit of gaining riches from the need of others hardens the heart, as hardly needs saying. So it is with Tyre here, and for this she is judged.

First of all, the prophecy names the instrument of Tyre's destruction: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. But we must not confuse this with the full end that Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in the fourteenth verse. The siege by Nebuchadnezzar was the beginning of the end... Nebuchadnezzar is here, however, as all through this part of Ezekiel, the special instrument of the divine judgment.

Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was a direct gift from God. As Daniel said, "You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory." No one could say this of any of the three kingdoms that followed. They come on the scene in a providential way, as God permits, for the government of the earth and according to His ordering. But their heads were in no sense the direct holders of power, as Nebuchadnezzar was. He was nearest God in this outward sense. His responsibility was therefore all the greater.

It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.

This great judgment was not carried out all at once. Nebuchadnezzar came against her first, as predicted in verses 7-11. He besieged Tyre on the mainland and after thirteen years took the city. The part of Tyre built on the island in the sea escaped, protected by the fleet of Tyre. Then came seventy years for her, when she was forgotten, as Isaiah predicted (23:15). After these years had passed, Tyre saw a startling revival. The island city became more powerful and wicked than before. The mainland Tyre, however, remained in ruins.

Nebuchadnezzar is seen as carrying out the judgment of God on Jerusalem, and he is His servant for that purpose... At the same time God sets His land free by these very judgments from all the nations that wrongfully held it... These judgments came on rebellious Jerusalem and on the nations. Their result would at the same time be the re-establishment of Israel, according to promise and by the power of God in grace.

The opposition that Tyre showed has carried on into modern times. The commerce that was so famous in that city has spread its wing over the cities of our day. They follow in the steps of Tyre, and with the same unrighteousness they await the same doom.