A HORROR

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 26-27

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

This site was insignificant until Herod the Great began to develop it into a magnificent harbour befitting his kingdom. The harbour was built using materials that would allow the concrete to harden underwater. The forty-acre harbour would accommodate 300 ships, much larger than the modern harbour existing there today. Caesarea Maritima is a national park on the Israeli coastline, near the town of Caesarea. Our photographer, my son David Reynold Mainse, was unable to travel into the area of Lebanon where the city of Tyre once stood about 100 miles north of Caesarea along this coast. There are still buildings here, but at the site of ancient Tyre, which I have visited, there is absolutely nothing except bare rocks. Ezekiel prophesied about the coastal city of Tyre with amazing accuracy.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Ezekiel 26:14

“I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,” says the Lord God.

What a judgment on proud Tyre! Throughout these two chapters we read of the judgment Tyre, a prosperous trading port, would bring upon itself. In our key verse, Ezekiel prophesies, “You shall never be rebuilt!” Today, at high tide, the waters cover the acres of bare rocks where Tyre once stood. Tyre has a long history. The wicked Queen of Israel, Jezebel, was the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre. Tyre was the source of the worship of Baal, a religion to which King Ahab and many Israelites were converted during the time of Elijah the prophet (1 Kings 18:21-40).

The question was asked by Job, King David, and Jeremiah, who was a contemporary of Ezekiel, “Why do the wicked prosper?” (Jeremiah 12:1-3). They all concluded that in the big picture of history, wicked people and their civilizations lie in ruins. Ezekiel is prophesying in Babylon, an example of another city destroyed and never rebuilt.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I pray that I will always stand with You and never against You! I quote Jeremiah in my prayer, “But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, and You have tested my heart toward You!” Keep me true, I pray. I ask these mercies in Jesus’ Name. Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I find myself singing a chorus that prays, “Keep me true, Lord Jesus. Keep me true. There’s a race that I must run. There are victories to be won. Give me power every hour to be true” (click here to listen to the song sung by a South African singer named Jabu).

I visited Lebanon and stood on the very rocks of which Ezekiel wrote, which were once the city of Tyre. A short distance away was a fisherman “spreading nets” (see our key verse, Ezekiel 26:14). With me was Dr. Paul B. Smith of the People’s Church, Toronto. We read the words of today’s reading from the Bible and marvelled at the detailed accuracy of Scriptural prophecy. It is my understanding of history that Tyre was destroyed by the armies of Alexander the Great about 200 years after Ezekiel penned the words of today’s reading. At my age, I’m amazed that I can put “the city of Tyre, Lebanon” into “Google” and find all kinds of information in 2 or 3 minutes that would’ve taken me hours to find in the Toronto reference library 40 years ago. The last verse of today’s reading says of Tyre, “You will become a horror, and be no more forever!” (Ezekiel 27:36b). That’s exactly how I felt standing on those rocks where a proud city once stood.

Here’s a sad note about the present city of “Sidon,” Tyre’s sister city of ancient times. It is still a bustling city. However, while visiting there I was shown a cache of bombs stored, not in an ammunitions dump, as is the practice of most armies, but in the basement of a highrise building where many families live. Children were playing in and around the building. All war is horror, but this was particularly horrible to us. May God have mercy!

Yours for living as my Father would often pray, “With the smile of Your approval [God’s approval] upon our lives”,

David