The Oracle Against Tyre: The Purpose of the Lord

The Oracle Against Tyre and the Question of God’s Purpose

Amen. Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah 23 as we continue here. We are, once again, in the final oracle of these oracles against the nations. So this is the oracle regarding Tyre, the nation of Tyre, or the city of Tyre, rather.

Something that I was reflecting on this past week was how much my thinking on this oracle has been shaped by my reading in Ezekiel. Ezekiel has a similar set of oracles against the nations in Ezekiel in the 20s, somewhere in the 20s it starts.

And chapters 26 through 28 are particularly about Tyre. So it's a much extended oracle about Tyre. If you'd like to read more of what God has to say against this particular city, that would definitely be good homework for you.

Please stand as we read Isaiah 23. I'll read from verses 1 all the way to the end of the passage we'll be looking at today, which is verse 14. The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Be still, O inhabitants of the coast. The merchants of Sidon who cross the sea have filled you. And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile.

You were the merchant of the nations. Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken. The stronghold of the sea sang. I have neither labored nor given birth. I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.

When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish. Wail, O inhabitants of the coast. Is this your exultant city, whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?

Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint anymore. He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.

And he said, you will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus. Even there you will have no rest. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not.

Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers. They stripped her palaces bare. They made her a ruin. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. You may be seated.

Humility Before the Sovereign Lord

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today being a people that are dependent fully upon you, especially recognizing your sovereignty in all things. And as we look at this passage about your purpose, about your sovereignty, I pray that it would further cause us to appreciate this glorious truth that we would be a people who are humbled by it, who are made certain by it, who trust in you because of it.

Lord, I pray that you would give us great wisdom regarding this matter, in Jesus' name, amen. Everyone wants to understand the world they're living in, at least they should. You know, this is why people watch the news and they want to see the analysis of what's happening in the world because they want to understand why are things happening.

What is it that drives the forces that are at play? And people want to understand their own life, not just the world at large, but their own life. Why do the things that happen to me happen to me? Why is my life the way it is?

I once heard someone say regarding the church in the Middle Ages that people did not go to church in order to have their misery corrected so that they could be happy. But they went to church so that their misery could be explained to them.

Now I don't know how reasonable of a saying that is because people do find great blessing, great happiness in the Lord. However, there is something about understanding the world that you live in, understanding the calamities that exist.

And this is what this passage here is particularly addressing. It begins by asking the question, who has purposed this? Why is this happening? And then it proceeds to answer. And so as we look at it, we should be filled with the kind of emotions and virtues that this passage describes.

We should be filled with humility. We should be filled with the wisdom that this passage describes, understanding that the Lord has purposes that are high above our own. And we should have great certainty that the Lord is at work and have great certainty that he will accomplish his purposes.

Verse eight says, who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? Tyre was a great and wealthy city, a bestower of crowns.

It made many people rich. And so it is very surprising that something so powerful, something with so much wealth would be destroyed. This is entirely unexpected that this sort of thing would happen. And so it is reasonable to ask, why?

Why would this happen? This is what people ask regarding world events. They want to know why different countries have risen to power, why they have fallen from power. Whole books are written about these things.

But the answers that people give are often unsatisfactory. In fact, I would argue that they are always unsatisfactory if they do not bring into account the Lord who is governing all things. What people do is they find a few variables.

They say, okay, well, this was here and this was here, and that's what caused this country to rise into power. Or we have these four factors to consider, and that's why this country fell from power. But there's a limitation to the human understanding.

We can only understand and account for a few variables at a time. You know, was it this particular figure? Was it this particular cultural influence? Was it this particular aspect of the climate and the agriculture at that time that led to these things?

And we have no way of accounting for all the variables that we possibly could have overlooked and may have changed and may have changed things drastically. We do not understand these things. There's some use in contemplating what goes on in the world, but we should recognize that we can only do so very tentatively apart from recognizing that there is something much greater at play.

And the same is true in our own lives. So we consider our own lives and our own problems. We often attribute them to particular things. There may be some wisdom to this, but it may be entirely lacking in wisdom if we do not look to the Lord.

So the Lord continues to speak through his prophet Isaiah, and he says the Lord of hosts has purposed it to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. So he is the one who does it.

It is the Lord Almighty who has purposed this against Tyre. God is behind all things that occur. We've been hearing about God's sovereignty in the mornings as we go through Ephesians 1. God is behind everything.

Now you may question that. A lot of people have. They say, well, I see God's sovereignty in some things in the word of God, but I don't see it necessarily in everything. Can we say that he is really sovereign over everything, that he is really decreeing everything?

Is it so meticulous, his concern? I've heard people ask questions, does God really care who wins a football game? You know, in thinking about people praying to God that they would win their particular football game.

Does God care about the roll of dice? I heard someone ask that. There's actually a Bible verse that says exactly this. Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast in the lap. The lot being a way of rolling dice, essentially, the ancient way of doing chance.

The lot is cast in the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Not some of its decisions, not 90 of its decisions, but it's every decision is from the Lord. There's no reason that as one who comes to the word of God and sees what God Almighty has given to us to question whether he is really sovereign over all things.

He is sovereign over each and everything. Now there are all kinds of ways of misreading God's providence, of misreading what he is accomplishing in his sovereignty. You see people do this all the time where they see an opportunity open up, and maybe it's a sinful opportunity, and they take that as God telling them that they now have permission to go and do this thing that they obviously, by his word, do not have permission to do.

Or they see some opportunity close that perhaps they should be pursuing harder, but they take that statement as, oh, this is God telling me that I don't have to pursue this good work. So there are all kinds of ways of misreading God's sovereignty, but we must first begin by recognizing his sovereignty, and then from that, and then from that, seeing what he is saying.

And there are several things that we can always say. We can always say about God's sovereignty this, at least, that he is bringing about humility. The Lord brings about humility by his sovereignty. When he is declaring his governance of the world, when he is enacting his governance of the world, he is doing that at the displacement of anything else that would declare its own governance of things.

God is placing himself high above all others. So when you try to consider what is going on either in the world or in your own life, do not think that you can account for all things. Even if you have the ability to reason and to judge matters better than another human being might, than your peers might, you cannot account for all things.

It's only the Lord who can do that, and it's only the Lord who truly knows why all things have come about, and it's for his purposes. He has revealed much of that in his word. And so he speaks of defiling the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

Every act of calamity, at least one of its reasons, at least one of the reasons behind it, is in order to humble people, especially those who are proud and high and lifted up. God desires to cut them down so that they might be humbled and see that he is truly God, the one who raises himself up, essentially raises himself up to the level of God.

If he thinks that he has understanding of what governs the world and is not the Lord, if he thinks he is the one who governs his own sphere and he does not recognize that it's the Lord, he is taking God's place.

And so God, in bringing about calamity, humbles man, continues on here, cross over your land like the Nile, oh daughter of Tarshish, there is no restraint anymore. Speaking to Tarshish, that now there's no more influence of Tyre, Tyre who had planted colonies and ruled the seas, now it no longer rules the seas, it's no longer able to impose whatever restrictions it might have imposed before.

And now the ships are free to roam about. God has completely taken away control from the city that had all the control. God is showing who is in control, he is in control. He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms, the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds, its strongholds referring particularly to Tyre and Sidon, that's what it's referring to here.

So in speaking of stretching out his hand and shaking the kingdoms, it's using, God is using language that he's used throughout the book of Isaiah. For him to stretch his hand over a nation or over a city is for him to stretch out judgment over that city.

And for him to shake the kingdoms is for him to destroy them, for him to break them down so that they recognize that they are truly nothing. We see this later on in Hebrews 12 where it talks about the whole earth one day being shaken and only those things that are good remaining.

God is purposing humility in the calamities that befall and all things that befall, he is purposing humility. When you consider this, when you consider the activities that happen in your life, a lot of people shake their fist at God or they continue to ignore him and deny that he is governing all things.

But the right response is to come before him in total submission to recognize that he is above all and to be at peace with him by pleading for his mercy. That is the only way that we can be at peace with God is by coming to him for mercy.

And he richly gives it, he has given it in Christ, is through the death of Jesus Christ, his burial, his resurrection, that we have a great mercy that we can latch hold of. Apart from this, there would be no salvation.

There would be no salvation apart from one dying on behalf of those who deserve death. You see, as each of us has ignored God in his governance of the world, as each of us have considered ourselves autonomous, governing our own sphere, we have displaced God.

We have violated the first commandment. We have placed ourselves as God, regarded ourselves as higher than him. And that deserves, that deserves a death. That kind of treason against the creator of the universe, it deserves death.

And there must be a death that is paid. But if you trust in Jesus Christ, that death has already been paid and the death we experience in this life does not have to be a permanent thing. He raises to life those who have trusted in Jesus Christ.

The Certainty of God’s Judgment and the Limits of Human Pride

Continues on in verse 12. And he said, you will no more exalt oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus. Even there you will have no rest. So at this point, he's been talking about where does understanding come from.

Understanding comes from recognizing this is God's purpose. And what is his purpose? Well, it is to, it is to instill humility in those who would lift themselves up. And then he speaks about the certainty of this matter.

This is, this is certain. We must have great confidence in it. You will no more exalt oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus. Even there you will have no rest. So speaking of Sidon, this is common phrasing in Isaiah, is daughter of city, speaking of the city itself or the people of the city.

Oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Why does it call Sidon a virgin? Why does it speak of Sidon as a virgin daughter? So a virgin, a virgin daughter might feel very beautiful and expect some kind of glorious consummation as she is married.

And yet, while there was so much promise for Sidon, none of it came to pass. You know, people get a lot of ideas looking with their own physical eyes at their current situation about what is going to come to them.

They see their own potential, humanly speaking. They see their wealth, their beauty, et cetera. And they have great anticipations based on what they think should come to pass because of those things. But that's not how the Lord works.

There are many people who because of their wealth and beauty anticipate such things and never find them because God takes them away. And that's what it speaks of here. Sidon expected much more, but she's like a virgin who is oppressed, who is never able to marry.

She can cross over to Cyprus, an island just to the west, and there, even there she will have no rest. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not. Assyria destined it for wild beasts.

They eradicated their siege towers. They stripped her palaces bare. They made her a ruin. This is talking about the eventual assault on Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. The land of the Chaldeans is speaking of Babylon.

So it says, behold them. This is the people that was not. Assyria destined it for wild beasts. So Assyria had attacked Babylon. And Babylon did not look like it was not much at all. However, in the end, what ended up happening?

Babylon ended up taking over Assyria. And it says the same thing of, and we see the same thing with Tyre, right? Tyre thinks it's great, thinks it can't possibly be defeated. And here it's defeated by the Chaldeans, by this people that were nothing.

All these appearances have been reversed. Those things that were high and mighty, brought low. Those things that were low, brought to be high and mighty. There's much to take away from this. The first thing, at least, is that once again, we should not look just with our physical eyes at our situation.

We should see with eyes of faith and recognize that if God is in control of all things, then we can't anticipate the future just based on what we see in front of us. The Chaldeans, or excuse me, Tyre could not expect that because it was wealthy, it would continue on being wealthy.

Because it was powerful, it would continue on being powerful. And because Babylon was nothing at the time, it wouldn't be able to do something. Now, the exact opposite is true too. You look at Babylon being lowly, but the Lord is going to raise them up to be a strong power.

Now, they should have recognized that this was the Lord's doing. The Lord spoke very directly to Nebuchadnezzar. They should have recognized that this was the Lord's doing. But what is their response?

Their response, likewise, is to become proud. And so we, in our own situations, must look at what the Lord has done for us. And not develop pride within ourselves, but out of humility recognize that this is his doing.

It's his doing. And this should give us a great comfort, this certainty that God is in control. If God is in control, you are exactly where you're supposed to be. Now, you may still sin, you may do things that you're not supposed to do, and that's not the Lord's will for you in the sense of being what he has prescribed for you.

But if you consider your situation and what God has given you, and you feel that it's not right, you can be reassured. No, it is right. He has for you today exactly what he would have for you. Sometimes I look at my situation and I think, well, wouldn't it be nice if I had this thing or this thing?

And I realize that if God is in control, if he owns the cattle of 1 ,000 hills, if he wanted it for me, I could have all the wealth in the world. But it is his intention that I don't. And there is something that he is accomplishing through that.

You know, that is something to marvel in, that God has you in a position where if you are a believer, Romans 8 .28 says it is for your good. It is for your good that you be there. Think about that for a minute, the phrase, the cattle on 1 ,000 hills.

How many cattle are in each hill? I don't know, I'm gonna guess 1 ,000. I'm gonna guess 1 ,000 cattle on each hill. That's a million cattle. How much do cattle cost? I look this up. It's about like $1 ,500, so we'll just say it's $1 ,000.

It can be a lot more if you're getting the really fancy Japanese cows. But let's say it's $1 ,000, that's a billion dollars we're talking about, right? God has, this is a description of his resources.

Of course, he owns the whole world, so it's far more than that. But even that illustration, given that we usually don't talk about wealth in terms of cattle, we don't realize how big of a number is being said there.

God has all things. He is in complete and perfect control. And so he has placed you where he has placed you in order for you to grow. If you are one who is opposed to God, his purpose is to humble you.

Now it may be to humble you in judgment, but if you turn to the Lord for mercy, it is itself a great mercy that you be humbled in order that you would turn to him for mercy, in order that you would recognize that wisdom that you have a great need for him.

You are not autonomous. You are not able to go about without relying on him for everything. He holds up all things by the word of his power. You rely on him for every breath. This passage ends the way it started.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. If you recognize this is from verse one. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste. So bringing this around, God, through Isaiah, closes this passage off the way it was stated.

Now these things, like I said, this could be bad news. This is a lot of bad news. This is bad news for those who do not recognize God's sovereignty because they will be forced to in the most unfavorable of circumstances.

However, if you find yourself pleading with God for mercy, these are the most wonderful circumstances. Because these things ultimately happen against the enemies of God. These are for their evil, and they are for your good.

Romans 828, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purposes. And as you consider what the Bible has to say about these cities and the way we've seen the New Testament interpret these different oracles and these different powers, so almost always being representative of just the evil forces in the world that doesn't terminate in these literal cities.

But finds fulfillment in greater powers that exist. What is it that Tyre represents? This passage spoke of Tyre as being the bestower of crowns, the one who rules the world and makes many wealthy. The Bible in the New Testament speaks of Satan as being the ruler of this world.

And who is the one that God in his sovereignty has defeated? That ruler of this world, so they no longer rules, and instead Christ rules over all the world. This is bad news for those who would be opposed to God, but it is wonderful, wonderful good news for those who would be his friend, for those who would come to him for mercy.

And if you look at this passage with humility, so that you will not be humiliated on the final day, you can find that great comfort here. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage.

We thank you for the application this has to our own souls, that you through Jesus Christ who, like the forces that defeated Tyre, was not much to look at. Said that here in Isaiah even, he was not of much beauty.

And yet, you used this low humanity. You used this incarnation to save the whole world. We thank you for doing this, for exalting this savior above the whole world. We thank you for this great gift of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, as we submit to him, our king, I pray that you would grant us further humility, and you would grant us a great comfort, knowing that you are sovereign over all things. In Jesus' name, amen.