Exposition by Max A Forsythe
A decade after the end of World War Two, the French government and people who had welcomed the allied invasion of their homeland became more circumspect in their enthusiasm and even standoffish in their relationships within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Eventually France isolated herself somewhat by declaring that she would become a third force between the allied superpowers. Close ties were cut to the Americans especially, and anyone who has traveled to Paris well knows their disdainful attitude towards anything American, except our dollars. Even the greatest of American enterprises on French soil, Eurodisney, is in trouble because of the perceived cultural wars threatened in the myths of the Mouse and American music, art and entertainment.
When I was in Europe in the sixties, I made the mistake of thinking that we might have been better off leaving Paris to the Germans. Only in time have I appreciated the real quandary of the French. As they rightfully perceive it, the American economic threat was and is just as real as that which the Russian military threat once was. I know it is hard to look into the hearts of foreigners and really appreciate their perspective, so let us recast this idea slightly. In the thirties, Japanese aggressors dreamed of a mighty empire set upon what we now call the Pacific Rim. The Pacific Rim consists of all those lands and nations who border on the Pacific Ocean. While the initial Japanese assault of the forties fell short of that goal, I jokingly tell my classes when we play a World War Two game on my twenty-five by ten wall map, that one year the Japanese made it all the way to Marysville! Now we can appreciate the French position can't we? When Honda valley was being built, Newsweek ran a cartoon with the name Japan substituted for Ohio on a Midwestern map. One of my out of state friends asked how it felt to have our state name changed. I observed that o-He-Oh was still very much the same place!
With those examples, I hope you can begin to appreciate this oracle concerning Tyre in chapter twenty-three. Here in this chapter we come to the end of the ten chapter summation of the Lord's judgments upon the nations. This whole section from thirteen to twenty-three dramatizes the devastation about to come upon them all. All pagan nations alike will come to ruin and Judea is called to repent similar sins and crimes. This long section began with Babylon and ends with Tyre.
Just as the post war French were caught between the Russian military occupation and the American economic challenge, so too was Jerusalem caught between a rock and a hard place. In Revelation seventeen and eighteen this connection between the world's seductive and oppressive powers is highlighted and condemned. Historically we know that by Isaiah's time Tyre's strength had waned. Assyria threatened but never conquered Tyre. However, King Luli of Tyre was forced to flee to Cyprus in 701. Like the Judeans, the people of Tyre looked to Egyptian strength to defend them. This hope failed them and they became vassals of Assyria. Briefly the city again attained independence, only to be completely conquered in 572 by Nebuchadnezzar, and destroyed by Alexander in 322 BC. When Isaiah issued this prophecy, all these things were in the future.
Our passage begins with the dismay of ships at sea learning they have no port to return to. The ships have stopped in Cyprus before the last leg of their journey home. There they would hear of the disaster which had overtaken their homeland. Sudden silence has descended upon the a busy city, the merchant class is distraught. The seafarers will stop coming. The vital grain shipments from out of the Nile delta will cease. A sister city of Tyre was Sidon; it too is called to shame in verse four. The children of the sea are here implied as ships. Tyre & Sidon are as ashamed as if there never had been any ships, trade or wealth. Even more anguished will be the source of the grain, Egypt. No more will their market be sure or certain. I can remember one of my neighbors who had collected several hundred rabbits to haul to a prosperous market in Canada. All of a sudden, he was called and informed that the market had crashed; the company was bankrupt. He was definitely distraught. The company only owed money; he had hundreds of mouths to feed and no where to sell them. Like all farmers who lose markets, Egypt's own economy was threatened with the disruption in trade!
To the ends of the earth, the people of Tyre must flee, Isaiah observes in verse six. Tarshish was indeed a distant port, at least at the other end of the Mediterranean, exactly where we do not know. But to there and the other colonies were the children and old people sent in this coming time of trouble. From the old old city on the coast, these people have fled. A remnant only remains in the island fortress. Lights no longer burn late at night on the shore, there are no more sailors spending their money and the people too have gone. What is left for the fortress to guard? How can this be Isaiah asks in verse eight. "Who planned this against Tyre ..?" he asks. The world's mightiest commercial power will be ruined, and the world will wonder how it was done.. This, Isaiah assures us, is of the Lord. "The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth."
Isn't this the way of all the earth? Military and financial empires come and go; they rise and fall as the Lord allows. The greatest of the world's wide empires was the British in 1914. Truly the sun never set upon it, yet since World War Two the colonies have almost all departed. The rump of the British empire barely maintains itself in the home islands. Till your own land as they do along the Nile, Isaiah advises. Prosper on your own resources if you can. "The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble." Flee to Cyprus if you can, but even there you will find no rest.
Just as the Chaldeans, these Phoenicians are no longer of any account, reads our translation. There are some difficulties here with our understanding of the text. There is also here the implication in the Hebrew that these desert people of no account will be the downfall of Tyre. The still wandering ships of Tarshish would return to the fortress island if they could. In fact, Isaiah says that in seventy years, the fortunes of Tyre would be restored. However, the merchants of Tyre, like the older ladies of the night, would have to go seeking their customers. Once the trading patterns are broken, it would be difficult to get the customers to come back again. One small business in our county was off to a good start, so good that a new building was being built on the major highway. Suddenly the State of Ohio began a three year period of bridge replacement which ruined the business. The ruin was so great that no recovery was possible. The building now stands empty.
Seventy years is an even longer time for competitive traders to get established. Will Tyre be restored? In verse seventeen the Lord promises that Tyre will be somewhat restored. Even more, like the surrounding nations, there will be a remnant who will give their profits to enrich the Lord's own people, His Church. In the city of New York there is an Episcopal Church located on Wall Street. Since the colonial era, this congregation has profited greatly from a farm given to the congregation by Queen Ann. That 275 acre farm was located along the river. It became financially important when the Erie Canal was built and the produce of upstate New York began to flow through the city to the wide world beyond. The annual rent from that 275 acres has provided endowment enough to allow Trinity Episcopal to fund 1,642 other religious and charitable institutions over the centuries. Millions of dollars have been transferred from the merchant princes on the Hudson to the poor, the needy and for the building up of the Kingdom of God.
This is what Isaiah would call all centers of commerce to do. He would call them all to give of the profit instead of building up their financial empires continually. Like Tyre even Wall Street errs was in keeping the wealth for self and empire; the Lord was and is of no account. Yet, His kingdom will grow and the empires of the world will cease. When will the world ever learn? Of the increase of God's Kingdom there will be no end! May we learn the lesson of this chapter and share the bounty of our prosperity as we learn to serve Him alone. Amen.
Resources Used:
Ellis, Charles..
The Wells of Salvation.
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentary Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
20 March 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.