Reflections on Ezekiel 28

Ezekiel 28 (Contemporary English Version)
1. The LORD God said:
   
2. Ezekiel, son of man, tell the king of Tyre that I am saying: You are so arrogant that you think you're a god and that the city of Tyre is your throne. You may claim to be a god, though you're nothing but a mere human.
   
3. You think you're wiser than Daniel and know everything.
   
4. Your wisdom has certainly made you rich, because you have storehouses filled with gold and silver.
   
5. You're a clever businessman and are extremely wealthy, but your wealth has led to arrogance!
   
6. You compared yourself to a god, so now I, the LORD God,
   
7. will make you the victim of cruel enemies. They will destroy all the possessions you've worked so hard to get.
   
8. Your enemies will brutally kill you, and the sea will be your only grave.
   
9. When you face your enemies, will you still claim to be a god? They will attack, and you will suffer like any other human.
   
10. Foreigners will kill you, and you will die the death of those who don't worship me. I, the LORD, have spoken.
    
11. The LORD said:
    
12. Ezekiel, son of man, sing a funeral song for the king of Tyre and tell him I am saying: At one time, you were perfect, intelligent, and good-looking.
    
13. You lived in the garden of Eden and wore jewelry made of brightly colored gems and precious stones. They were all set in gold and were ready for you on the day you were born.
    
14. I appointed a winged creature to guard your home on my holy mountain, where you walked among gems that dazzled like fire.
    
15. You were truly good from the time of your birth, but later you started doing wicked things.
    
16. You traded with other nations and became more and more cruel and evil. So I forced you to leave my mountain, and the creature that had been your protector now chased you away from the gems.
    
17. It was your good looks that made you arrogant, and you were so famous that you started acting like a fool. That's why I threw you to the ground and let other kings sneer at you.
    
18. You have cheated so many other merchants that your places of worship are corrupt. So I set your city on fire and burned it down. Now everyone sees only ashes where your city once stood,
    
19. and the people of other nations are shocked. Your punishment was horrible, and you are gone forever.
    
20. The LORD said:
    
21. Ezekiel, son of man, condemn the city of Sidon
    
22. and tell its people: I, the LORD God, am your enemy! People will praise me when I punish you, and they will see that I am holy.
    
23. I will send deadly diseases to wipe you out, and I will send enemies to invade and surround you. Your people will be killed, and you will know that I am the LORD.
    
24. When that happens, the people of Israel will no longer have cruel neighbors that abuse them and make them feel as though they are in a field of thorns and briers. And the Israelites will know that I, the LORD God, have done these things.
    
25. The LORD God said: Someday I will gather the people of Israel from the nations where they are now scattered, and every nation will see that I am holy. The Israelites will once again live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob.
    
26. They will be safe and will build houses and plant vineyards. They will no longer be in danger, because I will punish their hateful neighbors. Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.
    
    

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    We may say to ourselves something similar to this: "If God were to bless me with great things I would serve Him all my days." In reality, though, the opposite is more often true, of which the king of Tyre, mentioned in this chapter, is an example. When our lives are blessed and everything is good, how often do we credit God for our good life? By comparison, when problems come and our lives are in turmoil, how often do we blame God? Many are practical athiests when life is good. They act as if there is no God. But when life turns sour, few are truly athiests, for otherwise they have no one to blame but themselves.
    
    The king of Tyre had everything going for him: wealth, power, good looks, intelligence, etc. But he became so enamored with himself he began to believe himself to be a god.  Pride, one of the greatest obstacles to keep man from God, became the king's downfall. God reminded the king that he was a man and not a god, and to make His point, God was going to cause the king to die as any man dies. At that time, "Will you still say: I am a god, in the presence of those who kill you? Yet you will be shown to be a man, not a god, in the hands of those who kill you." (28:9) Following this prophecy against the king of Tyre, a lament is given for the king as if he were already fallen.
    
    Following the judgment against the king of Tyre are two other prophecies. One is a judgment against Sidon, and the other a foretelling of Israel's restoration. Sidon was a sister city to Tyre, located just 20 miles further up the coastline. Sidon had been an obstacle to Israel's relationship with God by introducing Baal worship into Israel through Jezebel, the daughter of a Sidonian king. Judgement against Sidon would do two things. It would cause the Sidonians to acknowledge God, and it would remove Sidon as an obstacle to Israel's relationship with God.
    
    The restoration of Israel to her homeland was to serve a similar purpose to the destruction of the nations around her. It would cause the nations to acknowledge God. By causing the fall of those nations that were against God and the fall of Israel who had turned away from God, and then restoring Israel when she returned to God, the nations would know that God was God. This is not yet a completely fulfilled prophecy, though. While Tyre and Sidon have been destroyed, Israel has not yet been fully restored to God and her homeland.