“Glory & Honor...Gone!” – FBC Morning Light (9/8/2023)

Well, a good Friday morning to you, heading into another weekend. I hope your week has gone well, and as you wrap up your work week that you can look back on it and be grateful for the fruitful productivity of the week.

And then as you look ahead to the weekend, I hope you're anticipating gathering with God's people on the Lord's Day. And once again as a reminder, we're studying in our adult Sunday school class on Sunday morning the synoptic Gospels, the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and some of the key themes that run through those Gospels that reveal to us the Lord Jesus.

And then in the Sunday morning service I'm in a series on the seven letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. And this Sunday evening we'll be back in the book of Proverbs and looking at one of the subject studies in Proverbs.

So a full day on the Lord's Day of good studying of the word together and hearing from God and what his word has to say to us. And then of course great fellowship with God's people. So I hope you can make it on the Lord's Day and join with us in those times of opportunity.

The Judgment of Tyre in Isaiah 23

Well, for today we're reading in Isaiah 23 and 24, Colossians chapter 2, and the 9th chapter of Proverbs. And I want to look at a passage in Isaiah 23, a couple of verses in Isaiah 23. But before we look at the verses themselves, have you ever visited any of the major countries that have some major ancient ruins?

Like you can go to Egypt and Cairo and the surrounding area where the great pyramids stand out from the surface of the sand and just imposing, imposing profile. Or the Sphinx, the great Sphinx. Or have you been to Rome and seen all of the ruins in Rome, the Roman Colosseum and so forth?

In fact, you can go many places throughout the former Roman Empire and see these grand ruins of buildings that once must have been so majestic and so incredible. Or maybe to Athens and seeing the ruins of the Parthenon.

Maybe you've been to France and you've gone to the Palace of Versailles and it is, of course, still standing in all of its grandeur, but it represents an era that no longer is in the history of France.

God's Purpose in Bringing the Proud Low

So I got to thinking about those things in light of this couple of verses in Isaiah 23. The chapter is a prophecy against the ancient city of Tyre. Tyre was a very prosperous city. It was a seaport. There's a lot of sea trade from the Mediterranean Sea that came through the city of Tyre.

A lot of commercial coming and going, and it was a very prosperous city. But there's prophecy against this city that it's going to be destroyed. And let me go back to verse 8, and verse 8 asks the question, who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

Everybody looked up to a Tyre in that ancient world because of its prosperity. The merchants who were so wealthy and lived in such wonderful luxury. The traders, everybody respected the traders because they had to deal with them and they came and went and so on and so forth.

And yet the prophecy is that Tyre is going to be leveled. Well, who has taken this counsel against this wonderful, proud, crowning city? Answer, verse 9, the Lord of hosts has purposed it to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

Here's the thing, Tyre had no use for God. The proud city of Tyre could care less about the God of the Bible. The proud, wealthy, arrogant merchants had no time, interest, or use for the God of the Bible.

The honorable traders who were held up and esteemed by all their contemporaries, they didn't need God. They had everything they wanted in their trade. Well, the Lord of hosts brings this devastation to Tyre.

Why? To bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt the honorable of the earth. Now again, like a couple of days ago, we talked about another passage where God was prophesying and going to bring judgment.

And we pointed out that what these passages do is they give us insight, in some cases, into some of the ways in which God judges or punishes or chastens a nation, his people, or whatever. It gives us insight into his methodology.

This passage gives us some insight into his purpose, into why he's doing it. He's bringing to humility those who are so proud and arrogant that they have no use for him. He's humbling those who are held in such high honor and esteem.

A Warning to the Proud of the Earth

So let's go back to ancient Egypt. Let's go to modern Egypt, the city of Cairo. Let's go to Rome. Let's go to Athens. Let's look at some of these ruins. People often stand in awe of them, not because of what they are, but because of what they once were and what they must have once looked like.

If only we could have stood back then in the times when they were in all their glory and their grandeur, we would stand in awe of them. But now they lie in ruins. As the passage says, the pride of all the glory of ancient Rome has been dishonored.

The honorable of the earth have been brought to a place of dishonor. Let's not be so naive and foolish as to think that God will not do it again. Indeed, I think this also stands as a warning to the proud of the earth, to those who are held up in esteem and honor and yet have no use for God.

I think you ought to pay attention to a passage like this, don't you? And so our Father and our God, thank you for showing us yourself. Thank you for showing us the way you think, the way you work, and why you do some of the things you do.

And I pray that such knowledge would challenge us and humble us before you. I pray it in Jesus' name. All right, well listen, have a great rest of your Friday, a wonderful weekend, and especially gather with God's people and worship the Lord together on the Lord's Day.

Good day.