A coastal
town in Lebanon was once the market capital of the world?? Yes!
Tyre was described by Jewish prophet
Isaiah as…
‘the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are
the honourable of the earth’
High
praise?...let’s see…
Tyre
supplied timber and tradesmen for King David’s house and the first Jewish
temple, plus navigators for King Solomon’s ships. However, Tyre was proud: “I am of perfect beauty…” and when
Jerusalem was under siege, they gloated:“I
shall be replenished, now she is laid waste.”
God was not
impressed and told them so…
“I
will bring upon Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the
north” “I will send a fire on the
wall…which shall devour the palaces”
Many Tyrians
fled to other countries: ‘her own feet shall carry her afar off to
sojourn … ‘ while others moved to their offshore island.
After a 13 year siege, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city in 586BC.
‘Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years….. (but
then what?) …sing as a harlot!’
True to plan, by 516BC
Tyre had revived in time to supply the second temple in Jerusalem… but will it
be business as usual?
“Her merchandise shall not be treasured nor laid up…many nations shall come up against thee…I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.”
“Her merchandise shall not be treasured nor laid up…many nations shall come up against thee…I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.”
In 332BC,
Alexander the Great used the ruins on the mainland to build a causeway
to the island of Tyre to utterly destroy it, while his ships from many nations took Tyre’s merchandise. The
Muslim Mamluks finished the job in 1291AD!
Ancient Tyre
is no more. For centuries the off-shore Tyre lay bare like a rock, where
fishermen cast their nets of course!
“Thou shalt be no more…yet shalt thou never be
found again.”
 |
| Ancient Tyre's mainland ruins |
Why did God
do this to Tyre?
‘To stain the pride of
all glory and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth’2 cities wiped off the map forever: Nineveh & Tyre. Next we look for Babylon!
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/3-tale-of-3-cities-babylon.html
Ezekiel ch26, 27, 29:18-19 Isaiah 23 Jeremiah 25 & 27
ReplyDeleteAmos 1:9-10 Joel 3:5-6
Tyre was destroyed just because they grabbed the market opportunities??
ReplyDeleteNo, there's more to the story...
If you check what the prophets accused Tyre of you will see they trafficked in Jewish captives, stole Jewish gold and silver and broke their word of honour.
Remember the promise to Abraham? "I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you" - an everlasting unconditional promise that still holds good today!