Chapter xxviii.

The greater part of this chapter is also devoted to Tyrus. This concluding prophecy about Tyrus is the most interesting. It concerns the proud ruler of that city, who is called Prince and also King. But this ruler as Prince and King is typical of another and more sinister being as we learn from this chapter. Tyrus with its earthly glory, wealth and pride, as pointed out in the previous expositions, is the type of the glory of the world, the commercial glory and all connected with it, and clearly foreshadows the final great commercial world-system, Babylon the Great. Inasmuch then as Tyrus foreshadows this, its proud and wicked King is typical of the prince of this world, the one who fell by pride and who is the ruler and god of this age. As the prince of this world he showed to the Lord Jesus Christ all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and offered all to the Lord. This sinister being and his coming masterpiece, the Antichrist, who is to rule during the end of this age on the earth, are foreshadowed in a striking way in the ruler of Tyrus.

I. The Prince of Tyrus, his Pride and his Doom.

The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying: Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the set of God, in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Behold thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee. With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man and no god, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God (verses 1-10.)

The Prince of Tyrus who ruled in the days of Ezekiel was, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, Ithobalus, called in the Phoenecian annals Ithobaal II. The description of this character tells us that he was the consummation of the pride and wealth of Tyrus; the awful pride of that city was headed up in him. His heart was so lifted up that he claimed to be a god and that he occupied the seat of God. He also boasted of wisdom greater than the wisdom of Daniel, the captive in Babylon. By his cunning and wisdom, as well as by traffic, he had heaped up riches, and because of these riches he became still more lifted up. Like the prosperous and wealthy king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who gloried in his achievements by saying, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty" (Dan. iv:30), the Prince of Tyrus boasted in arrogant pride. Through the prophet, his doom is announced. The Lord God reckons with him, "because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God." He would bring nations against him and his city, and "they shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the heart of the seas." Instead of having endless being as a god he would die a sudden and violent death. He should die the death of the uncircumcised, typifying vile and wicked men who are far away from God; dying deaths, which means a physical death and that which follows the wicked after death, an eternal separation from God, with conscious punishment.

The language used in describing the Prince of Tyrus is used elsewhere in the Word of God to describe another one, who is yet to come. We mean the personal Antichrist, the man of sin. The marks of this coming one, Satan's great counterfeit and masterpiece, are always pride, self-exaltation. Daniel describes him in the following words: "And the King shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods"[18] (Dan. xi:36). In the New Testament the coming Antichrist is pictured as follows: "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. ii:4). Comparing these statements with what is said of the Prince of Tyrus we see at once the similarity. The political head of the final form of the times of the Gentiles, the ten Kingdom Empires, the Roman Empire revived, is described in very much the same way. The man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake the Kingdoms (Isaiah xiv:16) said in his heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God ... I will be like the Most High" (Is. xiv:13-14). Here is the same characteristic, a God-defying pride. This has led many expositors to call both of these persons, the wicked actors during the end of the age, the Antichrist. But the one is the head of the Roman Empire, the Prince that shall come; the other is the Antichrist, the beast out of the earth (Rev. xiii:11). Both work together under Satan's control and are energized by Satan, therefore they manifest the same characteristics. It is evident that the ruler of Tyrus as Prince foreshadows the coming Antichrist, and we have to see next the significance that the ruler of Tyrus is addressed as King and the one who stands behind him.

[18] It is well to state here that Daniel mentions Antichrist but once in his prophecies, in chapter xi:36, etc. The little horn in Dan. vii is the head of the revived Roman Empire; the little horn in Dan. viii was Antiochus Epiphanus, the type of the King of the North who will invade the pleasant land, Palestine, during the time of the great tribulation.

II. The Lamentations over the King of Tyrus.

Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou was upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more (verses 11-19).

The Prince and the King are identical, and not different persons as some say. But what is said now of the ruler of Tyrus as king could never be said of a mere human being. Hardly any of the descriptions given in these verses can be applied to the heathen King of Tyrus. The description fits another being, the person who was originally the greatest and most beautiful creature of God, but has become a fallen creature and the enemy of God. In one word, it is Satan in his original greatness and in his fall who is revealed in connection with the King of Tyrus. Satan was the power behind the throne of the Tyrian King, as Satan is still the god of this age who controls the kingdoms of the world. Inasmuch, then, as Tyrus is a type of the commercial glory of the world, its wealth and pride, foreshadowing the final great world-city or world-system, Babylon, the ruler of Tyrus, spoken of as Prince, foreshadows the Antichrist, while as King, Satan himself stands behind him as the domineering power. The descriptions given of Satan as an unfallen being, show that he was originally a marvelous being, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. From Jude's epistle we learn that even Michael still recognized in him the grandeur of his unfallen past and did not bring a railing accusation against him (Jude verses 8-10). He was in Eden, the garden of God, and every precious stone was his covering. It is a description of Satan's original place and of his great beauty. Furthermore, he was the anointed cherub that covereth; the Lord had set him to be this. As the anointed, divinely chosen cherub he held an exalted position in connection with the government of the throne of God.[19] Everything shows that this majestic creature possessed a place of great dignity, being "upon the holy mountain of God," walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, he was ever present and moving about in the fiery glory of a holy and righteous God. "Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till unrighteousness was found in thee." Surely the first part of this verse could never apply to the King of Tyrus nor to any other human; it is a picture of the unfallen glorious creature of God. But unrighteousness was found in him. He sinned, and as a result divine sentence is pronounced upon him. Yet this sentence in verse 16 is not yet executed. He is not yet cast out in the fullest sense, nor bruised completely, nor is he in the lake of fire. All this is future. God in His all-wise purpose delays the complete execution of this judgment. But the day will come when he, who walked once in the presence of the glory of God, in the midst of the stones of fire, will be cast into the lake of fire, his eternal abode. What was his sin? "Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." He became puffed up, lifted up with pride (1 Tim. iii:6) on account of his own beauty and brightness. There can be no question, but the person so closely linked with the King of Tyrus is Satan. The passage contains one of the most interesting revelations we have in the Bible on the person and dignity of that fallen being. Verses 18 and 19 show that the King is in view and the fate of his city Tyrus: "I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."

[19] For a detailed and excellent exposition of this passage see the book on "Satan," by F. C. Jennings, pp. 43-48.

III. A Prophecy Concerning Zidon.

Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying: Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it. And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord. And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despiseth them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord (verses 20-26).

Zidon (or Sidon) was situated twenty miles north of Tyrus. Like Tyrus she was built offshore on island rocks. For many years Zidon was even more prominent and prosperous than Tyrus. She was burnt after a revolt against Artaxerxes Ochus, 351 B. C., but later rebuilt. See its mention in the New Testament in Mark iii:8, vii:24. Jehovah announces that He would execute judgments in Zidon and thus be glorified and sanctified in her. When a holy God deals in judgments with sin, with individuals and nations, He maintains thereby His holy character. He is light in whom there is no darkness at all and a consuming fire. It has been said that there is no special transgression mentioned why Zidon should be judged. No doubt she was as proud as her sister city Tyrus. But verse 24 tells us the reason; she was a pricking brier to the house of Israel. She sinned against her neighbor, the people of God, and for that judgment came on her. And so can present-day nations not escape judgment for their sins against the Jews. The last two verses are a prophecy relating to Israel's restoration. Needless to say up to this time their restoration has not taken place. The time is given when it will come, when the Lord executes judgment upon the nations. When our Lord comes again these judgments will fall. And how near all this must be when we behold nations filling full the measure of their wickedness and the Jews as a suffering people with faces turned towards their homeland.

PROPHECIES CONCERNING EGYPT.