Ezekiel 26

Ezekiel 26:1-28

Section 4 (Ezekiel 26:1-21; Ezekiel 27:1-36; Ezekiel 28:1-26).Tyre and Sidon, the world of mammon under the abasing hand of God. We come now to Tyre, though in Tyre we find no direct enmity to Israel. Tyre, as we know, was in the days of David and Solomon ministering in friendly fashion to the Israelites; and in the day of their prominent blessing, under Christ their King, the daughter of Tyre will be there again with a gift. Tyre thus stands apart from Edom and Philistia. She is a Canaanite, however -of no good significance in this respect. The Canaanite was ever under the doom of being a servant of servants to his brethren, and in his proudest day he is still this. Tyre is essentially the merchantman; his professed object even is to serve.

No doubt his aim is first of all to serve himself. He has not the true spirit of service for God, but finds in the necessity of man the opportunity for his own gain, and this is what we find as to the cause of his judgment here. Jerusalem has been judged -Jerusalem, in many ways a centre of attraction for the people around, “the gate of the peoples,” as Tyre calls her. The rejoicing at her fall is Canaanite enough. She says against Jerusalem: “Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples; she is turned unto me. I shall be replenished now that she is laid waste.” How naturally we understand it, alas!

How natural it is! How common is such rejoicing on the part of merchantmen at all times! The habitual acquirement of riches from the need of others hardens the heart, there is little need to say; and thus with Tyre here: and for this she is judged. As we plainly see, Tyre is the world of mammon, and we need not wonder at the large place it has in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

1. Tyre means “a rock.” This island city was built upon a rock, and what it needed for its peculiar purposes was not productive power in the place it occupied, but a suitable gathering point where the products of other parts might come and be exchanged. In the immensity of its resources, Tyre might indeed look upon itself as a rock that could not be shaken. The greater the necessities of others, the more the streams of supplies from all quarters ministered to it. But God takes up its character in result, and pronounces that it shall be a rock -a rock and nothing more -“a bare rock,” or “cliff,” as the word which He uses means. The word for “bare,” means rather, “dry,” dried by the sun, in fact; barren enough, surely, in the idea of it, for few things can dry as the sun. The point for us is that which we find in the first ancestor of all these Canaanites, who were Hamites; and Ham is “the sun-dried one.” He is what man fallen from God and in conflict with Him necessarily is, darkened by the light itself. And this is the nature of all heathenism; not, as people imagine, a condition in which men are groping after God, but on the contrary, one in which they are doing their best to forget God, and turn away from Him. God did not leave man His creature without the primitive knowledge of Himself; and there is in him still a witness to God, however perverted. But if he turns from the true God, he must have a God of his own -make it out of a beast, or fashion it out of stone with a chisel, or hew down a tree, and fashion into some grotesque shape what he reserved from the fire. As the sun can darken, so it can dry. God’s blessings, which all surrounding nature furnishes to man, are the very things which he takes to dry himself up into a being divested of every human sympathy.

Not only Godward, but manward also, he thus becomes parched and barren. This was the process that was going on in Tyre: the process that makes men misers or usurers, and sometimes prodigals also for the luxury of prodigality -drawing remorselessly from others the means which they scatter again with lavish hands. This is what characterized Tyre, which God decrees shall in the end be just what it has made itself, a sun-dry cliff; or, as He puts it otherwise, a mere place of the spreading of nets; the device of poverty to lay hold upon the living being of which it makes merchandise. (1) The date of the prophecy is in the eleventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, on the first of the month; the month itself, if we have the true text here, not being given. What can we make of this eleventh year? Is it characterized by not being yet the full twelve, which speaks of the manifest government of God that shall be? In fact, all this judgment of which Ezekiel speaks, falls short of the full end which prophecy for the most part contemplates, though here assuredly there is the shadow of this. The blow has fallen upon Jerusalem, and Tyre is quite ready to take advantage of it. Proud of her position and counting upon her many sources of strength, she can sit apart, hoping to profit by that which she does not dread.

But, as God declares to her, it is but a vain dream. The many nations whom she has seen constantly coming to replenish her, are now come up against her with the resistless force of the waves of the sea, to overtop her defences, destroy her walls, and break down her towers. She that hath so often profited by the spoil of the nations, shall be in turn a spoil for the nations; and the judgment of God, carrying further the judgment of man, as her history has fully shown, declares itself in that which has been fully accomplished: “I will scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.” And her doom is to be the declaration of Jehovah’s name -the Name which she has despised. (2) In the first place the instrument of Tyre’s destruction is declared to be Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon; but we must not confound with this the full end which Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in the 14th verse. The siege by Nebuchadrezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Grecian king Alexander. This brought down her strength effectually, although the remnant of a city remained for a long time, more and more wasting and drying up until the end was reached, when, as we see today, nothing but a bare rock was left, used for the spreading of nets only. Nebuchadrezzar is here, however, as all through this part of Ezekiel, the special instrument of the divine judgment. The name is striking enough in connection with his own history, meaning “the god Nebo’s prince;” Nebo being worshiped in Babylon as the interpreter of the gods -answering to the Greek Mercury. The word Nebo is but a form of the Hebrew nabi, “the prophet,” and this strikingly connects with the heathen wise men’s utter failure to interpret to Nebuchadrezzar the divinely-sent dream which Daniel alone was able to make known. Thus the discredit of Nebo was complete, and this witness of God to Nebuchadrezzer was natural and necessary for one whom God was taking up, in His dealings with the nations around, to make him himself the interpreter of the divine mind as to them; thus out of the dark north was the light to break out, but only as the flash from the storm-cloud. The proper meaning of divine revelation could not be given through him, as is plain; it belonged rather to those who were now under the rod for their sins, yet the recipients of promises which should be, and shall be, fulfilled when Babylon and all that has succeeded it should have passed away. In the meantime no effectual resistance was possible; it only rendered the destruction of those that opposed themselves more complete. As the prophet speaks here, the breach in Tyre had already been made for him by their sins. Her stones, her timber and her dust were now to be laid in the midst of the waters; the noise of her songs was to cease, and all her pomp and glory were to perish together. As already said, however, the complete end would wait for many generations. (3) The lessons of such a fall need hardly be dwelt upon. They are felt instinctively by all that are in the presence of them, while, as unwelcome, they are dismissed as quickly as possible. The lessons of God’s school are too humiliating to man to be welcomed by him. He may perforce accept the sentence of condemnation upon himself, and the passing away of all the false glory which he would fain make true, but cannot. The sentence of God is upon it; but, as He says here, that He may set true glory in the land of the living. The earth is at present little like this; it is rather the sepulchre of the dead; what man conceives as glory is largely that of those who have been in an eminent way the destroyers of mankind: Blessed be God, all this has indeed to pass away; that which can be shaken is to be removed, in order that that which cannot be shaken may remain, and our kingdom is in that which cannot be shaken. 2. We have now an analysis of all the sources of greatness such as we see in Tyre, together with the announcement of its bereavement and desolation; in fact, its own rowers bringing it into the deep waters in which it is to find shipwreck. It is a picture which God has put before us in much detail, and had we eyes to see more into it, we should assuredly realize its meaning for ourselves; for while Tyre itself has passed away, no one can doubt that it has had many successors in the generations following, and that today the world is largely characterized by what we find in it. There are certain characteristics about it also which naturally enlist men’s sympathies. Tyre was not a great conqueror as Assyria or Babylon. It does not express to us the despotic tyranny of man over man which we see so much of in the history of the world.

The activities that we find in it have very much the character of ministry to the need of others; they are employed in making the best of all man’s resources and spreading abroad everywhere the products of his hands and of his intellect. The merchants are in our day more and more realized as the princes of the earth, and the rule of commerce is looked at very much as meaning the rule of civilization and the elevation of the nations generally to more equality, causing the brotherhood of man to be more realized in that which gives each his place in service to the common good.

It does not take deep looking into it to realize that it is self-interest which stirs everywhere in it, a motive which is at once intensely powerful and readily communicating itself also to others. Persuade a man that it is his own interest that you are seeking -how readily in general will he be accessible to such a motive! And in this sense only it is a civilizer as prompting men to follow that which is to be personal gain, and thus spreading abroad a civilization which, however, has been reached in another way. And the gain must be of a sort which the lowest can realize. However man may value intellect, with the mass, appeals to the intellect in any other way than personal gain have very little power. They are comparatively few who are much moved by intellectual appeals, save as it can be shown that it may be made to minister to the gratification of the lower senses.

Religion again is that which it is evident should be most powerful in its appeal to man; and it is true that almost everywhere man’s conscience responds to it. You do not find in the masses the casting off of God, but, on the other hand, you do not find in the masses anything like a spirit of real obedience to Him.

He will make his bow, and go his own way; or he will give his money, and pay a good price to be allowed to do so; but a real religious nation has yet to be found. Yet, after all, in the revelation of God to man’s conscience is found the true springs of power for the proper development of man as man, such as is alone worth speaking of as civilization. Here, mind and heart go together, and under its influence is developed a man, not a monster. Here the mind of man fully wakes up, as we may see if we will, in the track of light which the Bible leaves behind it wherever it has been. What would not we attain were we only true with the truth and to Him who gave it to us! But we are not, alas! The children of light are everywhere but a small minority; and more than this, alas, as we have divine authority for saying, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” These can concentrate themselves without distraction upon objects which appeal to them in the deepest way, and the power of worldly interests over the people of God themselves may well assure us, if we need any assurance, of what they must be to those with whom they are their all.

The light once introduced will be true to its own nature; and as all the fruits of the earth develop only under the light of heaven, so the mind of man awakened by the truth manifests its God-given power in a way which wakes up others, who nevertheless are not themselves truly under its influence. These can discern just so much as serves their worldly interests, and even pursue further in this direction what those truly wiser let slip in mere carelessness out of their hands. And thus it is that unbelief can assert today that natural science belongs to it, while it gives at the same time that peculiar twist which turns it into the enemy of the truth itself. So Christianity has manifested itself in such a way that today the great Powers of the earth have become “Christian nations.” Yet this must be read in another way that it may be seen in its rightful aspect. Alas, we must say, that the “Christian” powers have become powers of the earth. Everywhere, what we see is, that instead of the grace which is really the Christian spirit -the grace which grace has taught and which makes gracious, the spirit of self-sacrifice for others, such as the cross is the great example of -there is in fact in every kingdom of the earth today the spirit of gain, the opposite of self-sacrifice, everywhere dominant. Men may talk of altruism in the same way as heathen philosophers themselves could read excellent moral lessons to their pupils, but if you expect the practice you must be sanguine indeed. We must expect nothing of this sort in the mass until Christ comes, or that any other principle will rule the world save the Canaanitish principle which is exemplified here in Tyre -of selfish gain. No doubt, with it all, a certain progress results; certain fruits even of Christianity itself, though plucked half-ripened from that which they grew upon, are made available to a continually increasing number, while the fruits of intellect merely are still more made to serve, as they are amply able to serve, the lust of acquirement.

The way in which the Spirit of God in Ezekiel dwells upon all this in the prophecy before us, may assure us of what interest it should have for us in following it out; yet how little has been the interest! Commentators are mostly content to point out what has been plain enough upon the surface, how all the treasures of the earth are heaped up in Tyre, and how all the nations around are made to minister to her; little more indeed do they give us except scraps of geography and history, which may be good enough for the historian, but which for the prophet, we may be sure, could have little that was attractive. What we do find here is certainly a moral and spiritual analysis of what so much constitutes the world of today, the world of mammon; and if we profit rightly by it, we must look into our own hearts and search out what is there, for the lusts of the flesh are native to us, alas, and “all that is in the world,” as the apostle tells us, is “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;” fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." (1) The ship is used allegorically here as picturing Tyre for us, a most natural figure, which we use still when we speak of the “ship of state,” thinking in this of the needed power and skill that must be put forth in human effort to make it prosper, to catch favoring winds and avoid shoals and rocks. We should surely expect to find this vividly pictured here, and the moral character of things brought out; this state in Tyre, being a commercial one, having its true image, therefore, in every vessel sailing from its port. We may say that man has been working at this ship ever since, doing his best to perfect its beauty; and how attractive it may be we realize in the exhibitions which it is continually affording us of all the productions of nature and of man which it brings together, and, as it were, embodies in itself the restless, ever-craving spirit of man, the untiring energy which works in him. We have the materials of the vessel first, from which we go on to see the character of the crew that mans it; then its merchandise, the prizes which it holds up to others and for which it works itself. We have first the material of the vessel’s frame-work: “Of cypresses of Senir they have made all thy planks. Cedars from Lebanon have they taken to make masts for thee.” The word for “cypresses” is not confined to what we now call cypress; it would apply to the whole fir tribe to which the cypresses belong, but Senir or Hermon was in fact renowned for these (Sir 24:13), and their wood was of the best for the kind of work contemplated here. Hermon designated here by its Amorite name, means, as we have seen elsewhere, “the ban,” the exterminating curse upon evil. It was the mountain which, with its white dome, dominated the land of Israel, and from which, in most expressive connection, the river Jordan, the river of death, ran down to the sea of judgment, the salt sea. It was that which marked out the tenure upon which Israel held the land, as seen in the extermination of the Canaanite out of it, which was the preservation of that awful purity of which its dome, rising like a great white throne above all else, naturally spoke. Notable it seems that Senir, the Amorite name, should be used here instead of Hermon.

Senir is said to mean “cuirass,” “coat of mail,” from senar, “to clang, clatter,” a notable comment, as it seems, of the Amorite talker upon that Israelitish ban. Senir, then, furnishes the funereal cypress as material for the ship of Tyre. No wonder if the issue is a funeral! Lebanon, which means “white,” is the range of which Hermon is the southern point; the same image would suggest the same solemn thought. This furnishes the cedar-masts upon which is hoisted the sail to carry the ship of commerce forward in its career. From Bashan come the oars, as the propelling force which alone could be duly trusted in those days: a strength not derived from God, but from native energy -“well fed,” as was proverbial of that which came from Basilan. We need not wonder to find human energy emphasized in this way, almost at the outset. After the oars comes the rudder, as the word probably means, though there is a doubt about it; but we would not expect it to be left out, as otherwise must be the case. The steering of a vessel is surely of the first importance; it must have lessons for us if lessons there be everywhere here. The word used, however, is keresh, “planking.” A specific word for “rudder” there does not seem to be in the Hebrew. It is taken here collectively by most, perhaps, either for the benches for the rowers, or for the deck; but, in connection with what has immediately preceded it, this view would have little apparent significance. The suggestion that it is the thick plank work which forms the scaffold of the mast, argues no better for our purpose. Meyer suggests “table-work, wainscoting for the laying out of the ship.” It is Rashi who suggests “the helm,” which, says Schroeder, “recommends itself more than the others, on account of its importance for the vessel and its suitableness in respect to the adorning that follows.” There is some difficulty also in connection with this, but it is generally taken. as meaning that it was of ivory inlaid in pine, box-wood, or cedar.

That some kind of wood is intended, is obvious, and the word for it seems to intimate what is straight, as pine or cedar would be. It being from the isles of Chittim also, that is, from Cyprus, reminds us that the Cyprian pines were especially noted as ship-building material. All this is serviceable for us, mainly in ascertaining, if we may, the spiritual significance; and if Chittim be Cyprus, as is generally allowed, then it stands for all that is fair and lovely in nature, the sweet influences which are apt to rule the heart, rigorously enough it may be, and be to it what Chittim means, “the breakers down,” destroying the true response of the heart to Him from whom all natural blessings come. But how such influences do guide, in one way or another, the course of the ship of commerce, while there are master-needs indeed which must be met, and which must in a certain sense control. yet how much there is of ministry to pleasure merely, and to luxury! How much of all the material of trade goes to this end! And the guidance of the ship must be accord ingly.*
Next, we have either the sail or ensign, or most probably the sail which is at the same time the ensign; and this gives the fullest moral significance. Egypt provides for this the fine linen, which everywhere speaks of practical righteousness -necessarily here as the world recognizes it; while it is ostentatiously put forth as “embroidered,” to attract the eye. Your personal interests, it would say, are to be cared for with all uprightness, and here is something quite needful to enable the vessel at the same time to catch the wind and minister to its own. Is it not, in fact, for its own interests to serve yourself? How can you sever these? Thus you have the best possible security that your interests will be served. This interweaving of argument is often very elaborate, as we know. Last of all here the good ship needs a covering, and the idea is, to protect it from the sun. The isles of Elishah furnish this in the purple colors, which speak of earthly dominion, whether this may refer to the powers of the world, whose protection she may fairly claim as servant to all their interests, or whether it refer to the claim of dominion on her own part, her power rooting itself so firmly as it does in the interests of the many. In the language of the day, she is abundantly insured in this way; but, whether it be the men or the measures by which she insures herself, how much its motto finds adoption in the principle held secretly, if not openly, that “God has forgotten.” This seems to be the meaning of Elishah here; and is not this the secret of the abundant care which everywhere the world must take of itself? -that which the serpent taught man in Eden; and the question as to God once raised, man’s hand is immediately lifted to pluck for himself the fruit, though forbidden. That “God helps those who help themselves” means, in the ear of faith, that God can be trusted no more. Next comes the manning of the vessel, in which, significantly, Zidon, “the taker of prey,” and Arvad, “the runner loose,” are the rowers. She will often have to trust this human energy and skill when the winds of heaven will do nothing for her. The motives and the character indicated do not commend themselves to heaven; so we need not wonder. The master-mind, the controlling power is that of Tyre herself. We have the repairers next; very necessary indeed when human machinery is so constantly wearing out. These are the elders of Gebal, from a word which means “to plait,” “combine,” “twist together.” Plenty of this work has to be done for the stopping of leaks and much else in this way. Finally, we see in this ship of trade how common interests, as it is boasted, bring the world together. “All the ships of the sea” are in her, as if all were one vessel to serve her purposes and to carry on the civilization of the world upon the ground of the common brotherhood of man. and the conservation of the universal good. Yet the vessel of commerce must be prepared for the conflict also, and it has many a battle to fight. And we see her armament for this: First of all, Pharas (Persia), “division,” reminding us of the old motto, “Divide and conquer” -a very reliable one, surely. Next we have Lud (not the Shemite of Gen 10:22, but the Mizraimite or Egyptian of Gen 10:13), which may mean, as it is taken to mean, “strife.” Thus if Pharas speaks of manoeuvering and diplomacy, Lud speaks of preparation for more open war; while Put (or Phut) is given either as “trampling down,” or else “despising,” or “rejection.” One may be tempted to think here of the crowding out of all separate interests of those who do not belong to the combination which trade favors and which favors trade, a thing for which, in its extreme form, “boycotting” is the name today. Then the sons of Arvad are seen upon the walls round about, a careless and unscrupulous crowd, while the Gammadim, who are in her towers, may be “guards,” as the Septuagint calls them, and thus speak of the constant spirit of watchfulness which in all this and at all times has to be maintained. This would give a consistent sense, but there are other conjectures which seem only that. (2) Now, as to the merchandise. What can be said of it for edification, which all Scripture is to serve? Is it a mere catalogue, an inventory of where, as a matter of history, she found the goods with which she traded, and of the goods themselves? Little else seems ever to have been made of it, but are we not warranted to seek for something more? Certainly the difficulties are greater here than elsewhere, and any interpretation that may be proffered will doubtless be stamped as visionary by the many who shrink from allegory with the aversion that Israel themselves had to Ezekiel’s parables. Yet if the choice is to be between an absolute giving up of such scriptures as these, or seeking in them what we are positively assured all Scripture has (2 Timothy 3:16-17), what is the position for faith to take?

Plenty of difficulties there are, of course. What we have here is, upon the surface, just a catalogue of lands or peoples with their produce with which they traded, and there seems no moral element in them, nor in the fact of the trading either.

We are indeed to buy the truth and not to sell it; but this is not in question here. The wares embraced otherwise all kinds of material; for what is there a man will not sell who will sell his soul to satisfy the craving of a moment? To how much of all this should we be able to assign a spiritual meaning that shall stand the test of sober, judicial reflection? And if mistakes are too many or too serious, will it not cast doubt upon the whole inquiry? Yet, with all this, it would seem to some less serious than to own that in the word of God there are large portions here and there to which no spiritual meaning can be assigned -portions which might vanish entirely from the pages they occupy, and Scripture be rather bettered for their absence. If they are not “for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” then why should they be found in the word of God at all?which is not a mere history, but God’s word, to which we must neither add, nor diminish from it. Coming now to consider the commerce of Tyre and what it represents for us, we find Tarshish coming first and last in the list, apparently giving character to the whole. It is important therefore to know just what Tarshish means. The derivation is mostly understood to be from rashash, “to break down,” or if in the hiphil, “to cause to break down;” but the word is usually taken as a noun, and as meaning “fortress,” which involves another and apparently altogether conjectural meaning of rashash. The “breaker down” seems also to give nothing that plainly connects with what we have here. On the other hand, Tarshish may be a compound word, the first syllable from the verb tun “to go about,” and thus “to explore,” “search out,” or even sometimes “to traffic.” The second syllable may then be shesh, which means “white marble” or “white linen,” the common element of which plainly is “white,” or as it is suggested, “shining;” and here we find what at first sight seems singularly in keeping with all that is before us. Tarshish was the second son of Javan, as Javan was the fourth son of Japheth, the typical Gentile by whose seed the isles of the Gentiles were divided. Javan is thus in character the wanderer from God, as the Gentile plainly was. There is not in him the positive opposition that we find in the sons of Ham, and in Noah’s prophecy the two are widely distinguished in God’s ways of dealing with them. “God will make room for Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem” -a partaker of the revelation of which Shem is the depositary. But in the meanwhile he is away from God, busy and making room for himself. He spreads abroad unfettered; but Javan, whose name in its root-meaning gives the thought of “boiling,” “bubbling,” or “fermentation,” seems akin to yayin, “wine.” Greece,* which Javan confessedly represents, was the land of wine, given over to the worship of Bacchus; and in its light-heartedness, its poetry, and even its philosophy, bears witness of a kind of intoxication of spirit which would answer to the name.
Javan’s first-born is Elishah, “God has forgotten,” which is always the thought in a soul which has forgotten Him. His second son is Tarshish; and, according to what has been already said as to the derivation, naturally speaks of one who goes out from the presence of God, a seeker on his own account, attracted by everything that is shining or conspicuous. He is seeking to satisfy himself with that which never satisfied any; but thus we can understand the energy that he puts into it, so that he is the ideal explorer, and the riches of the earth become his own. He has, as we see here, silver, the current money of the merchant; iron, the great material for manufacturing implements, and we have had enough talk about “the iron age,” to recognize what it stands for. Then he has tin, which is literally “alloy,” and which, however serviceable for men’s ends, is in Scripture described as impurity, as much that seems very serviceable surely is. Lastly we have lead, which in Scripture scarcely stands for anything but dross or weight.

There is no gold in this catalogue; but, on the other hand, while not noticed in this connection, there is in Tarshish a precious stone which we have had before us as the topaz, and which gives a similitude for the wheels of the cherubic vision. That it should not be noticed in this connection seems striking here.

It is not part of his merchandise. Is it not rather a witness from God to himself? For with all his eager hunt after something that will satisfy, the stamp of vanity is upon it all, as the topaz wheel bears witness. How plain indeed the moral, and how significant, even, that it should be omitted here! Just the one thing, one might say, omitted from the inventory of the wealth of Tarshish. But Tarshish is the foremost contributor to Tyre’s commerce, and gives, as what is introductory mostly does in Scripture, the character of all that follows. Here is the restless spirit of one adrift from God -a prodigal. How often are “the substantial gains of commerce,” as they are called, but prodigal wasting of the Father’s goods! We have Javan next, with Tubal and Meshech, who belong to the same order, and are indeed brethren. Tubal means “issue.” Tubal-Cain is but another Cain, a continuation of the one who first sought to take possession of the earth and build his city there. We may remember Tubal-Cain as the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, who thus contributes to the civilization of the city which Cain has built. A similar thought we have in Ahab, whose name means “brother of his father,” again one in whom heredity clearly holds its place and shows its full value. Thus Tubal here. Meshech, elsewhere associated with him in Scripture, means “a drawing out,” as of seed from the basket of the sower hence, “a sowing.” In connection, the two together look backward and forward; they tell -how surely! -as the beginning so shall be the end.

Not that there is not progress; there truly is; but progress in this way, and in fallen man, is scarcely to be boasted in. So we find these three sellers here with their vessels of brass and human chattels also. We shall see how prominent these are in the great confederacy against Jehovah and Israel of which Ezekiel speaks later. We have next Togarmah, which no doubt is Armenia, the third son of Gomer, Ashkenaz and Riphath being the other two. None of the three is known as to its derivation, and only Togarmah as the people for whom it stands. This vagueness makes all else about it doubtful for our purpose. Next we have the sons of Dedan, which, if it has the meaning we have before ascribed to it, is of that “progress,” such as it is, which the world can show. It is remarkable that what they trade in is in general what is used for purposes of veneer -an outside which does not truly indicate what is beneath. How much of what is called education goes for this, and how much of what is counted civilization consists in it! Next we have Aram, child of Shem though he is, but fallen from the blessedness of this, and who, instead of speaking of Him whom God constantly exalts, and finding his own exaltation in Him, has learned the fatal habit of self-exaltation (see Judges 3:8, Notes); and who, enriched with many a precious thing from the divine goodness, would fain exchange them for Tyre’s manufactured articles. Nophek, here, from a word which means “to blow up a fire,” is thought to mean a precious stone of a glowing, ruddy hue, probably a carbuncle; thus it may speak of what One who suffered in the fire has produced in glory to God. Purple speaks of the royal crown which followed the cross. Then the broidered work, which may well image the Spirit’s embroidery of the new creature, far surpassing that of which the psalmist speaks (Psalms 139:15) when he applies the same word to the work of the old creation. Next we have the fine linen, which is ever in Scripture practical righteousness, or what stands for this. Then what is considered to be coral, literally, “heights” (surely not from the great price paid for it, as some suppose, but rather from its manner of growth), and which, as found in the sea, gives us heights out of the depths, as we may say; and how much more than can be expressed is implied here! Finally, we have kadkod, “the sparkler,” another gem. Whatever it was, whether jasper, garnet, ruby, or agate, the Lord’s promise to His people of making their windows “agates,” shows that it was to some good extent transparent, and naturally suggests, as typical of a future blessing, the visions of glory that shall surely come.

All this may be significant enough as the portion of a fallen Shemite, which, alas, he is ready to barter -for what? It is not said; and silence is surely more significant than speech -goods of Tyre’s own manufacture, that is enough to say. But Judah too is here in line with the rest; Judah too will barter her wheat of Minnith (her own “portion”) and her dainties of honey and oil and balm. There needs little skill to interpret this; we need not emphasize the sorrowful way in which the people of God will barter away what is their own portion -and again, for what? Damascus follows, as Aram preceded. It is but another form of Aram (see 2 Samuel 8:6, Notes), and speaks of elevation by activity, being itself a noted place of traffic. Its contributions are the wine of Helbon, “fatness” -the stimulus of successful self-enrichment, and the whiteness of its wool which has been shorn from the sheep. The next sentence is again more or less doubtful. The merchandise, however, speaks strongly for Arabia, and Vedan may be Aden, which, although there is no full certainty about it, has come generally to be accepted: and Aden was celebrated as a commercial emporium from very ancient times. The wrought iron may remind us, as one has suggested, of the sword-blades of Yemen, as Uzal was the ancient name of Sanaa, its capital. Cassia and calamus are also Arabian products. If Javar and Uzal both speak in different ways of man’s departure from God, it may remind us of what in Scripture is devoted to Him now turned aside to self-indulgence, while the wrought iron may speak of the many inventions which man attributes to necessity as their mother, but which God attributes to his departure from original uprightness, by which he has got into necessity (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Now comes again Dedan, though probably another, the Edomite, not the Arabian; as some have thought there may be also a connection between them. That the men of what is counted “progress” should furnish riding-cloths for others than themselves is not to be wondered at, and even as Edomites they may serve Israelites in this way. God is above all the world’s ways to serve their own ends, and makes them serve Himself, and thus serve His people in some ways, after all. Arabia and Kedar, “darkness,” in their meaning are connected by ereb, “evening,” the time of darkness, and thus of mixture when the forms of darkness are abroad. Naturally enough the two peoples sell sheep and lambs, though they may often quite rightly sell goats also. Sheba and Raamah then come together. They are remarkable as being the first Cushite or indeed Hamitic people named, with the exception probably of one of the Dedans, in whom the opposition to God and to the light may be expected fully to show itself. Accordingly we find, first, Sheba, “captor,” in whom we may read the great enemy of God and man. It would be strange if he who leads men captive made no more contribution than we have seen to Tyre’s merchandise. Here he makes notable contribution by his merchandise, and with him is associated Raamah, “rumbling,” “trembling,” “agitation,” “thunder,” and Raamah is the father of Sheba, while named second here. In these two names together there is as much truth as one can find in what is often said, that fear is the parent of all religion.

It will be readily allowed, of course, that there is a fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and that reverential fear is a very different thing from what these names would speak. In all heathenism and superstition fear is that which has completes control, and how much of the sway that Satan has over a soul is found in this! “We have not received the spirit of bondage unto fear,” says the apostle to his fellow-Christians, but Satan, as the dread power which works by death, makes men “all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Thus we can understand that Raamah is the father of Sheba here; the spirit of fear gives his place to him who holds man captive. God known, as He is in the gospel, and the soul brought into full liberty as in relationship to Him, how thoroughly and forever is the rule of Satan broken, and every form of superstition brought to an end! It may seem strange to find here what Sheba can make merchandise of. The chief of spicery and all precious stones and gold are in the catalogue. But if this surprises us, we may look on to the book of Revelation and notice Babylon’s array: “In purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand,” and yet “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” But in truth, Satan is known by his selling these. He does not buy them, nor has he acquired them aright, nor will he enrich any with them. All through, he is the captor merely, and in his method, the deceiver. God. does not sell; He gives. Or if He invites to buy, that is, to come to His terms about that which is to be your own, He is careful to assure us that it is “without money and without price.” Next and really last in this catalogue, we have Haran, “the parched,” “the dry,” but he is associated with Kanneh, “the firm,” “the upright,” and also with Eden, the place of “delight” lost from earth; for, alas, these are still but the merchants of Sheba, doing his work with Asshur, the Shemite, who has lost his place in connection with the revelation of God, and is wandering among the perverted traditions of men, and with Chilmad who, as the word seems to mean, points out the “quasi learner.” Their traffic is in rich apparel, by which the nakedness of the fall is done away, nay, covered over with adornment, and of which, as we see by the carefully packed bales that are noticed here, they evidently made much. The analysis ends here, save only that we find how that the ships of Tarshish are the one great means to unite all these together. It is all indeed the fruit of a spirit away from God, which therefore explores the earth for whatever it can make gain of, but which, nevertheless, can yield no satisfaction. All is thus united together like their bales of merchandise, by which Tyre is made for the present very glorious, but in the midst of what is the very image of instability, “in the heart of the seas.” (3) Now comes the end of all this glory. The very hands by whose power the good ship has been carried on, bring her into great waters, and there the east wind of adversity breaks her helplessly “in the heart of the seas.” No skilful management avails any more; no stoppage of leaks can be attempted any more. Useless are the men of war, and all that assemblage which has been gathered in and about her falls into the heart of the seas in the day of her ruin. The cry of the pilots is only one of despair the open places of the land that might give her refuge, are themselves shaking, and shut out hope, and those who stand afar off in fear for her judgment only recall the glory of the past as those who fain would be incredulous that it is past. So full of help to many, so abundant in the riches continually being distributed, all the inhabitants of the isles are astonished and their kings are horribly afraid, their countenance is troubled. Where shall any find a security that Tyre has not found? All this lamentation is sealed by one single and emphatic word from God: “Thou art become a terror, and thou shalt never be any more.” 3. We have now an address to the prince of Tyre, in which we see the effect upon him of the abundance of wealth gathered together and the power implied by this, exalting his heart to a place more than human. “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the heart of the seas; and thou art a man and not God, and thou settest thy heart as the heart of God.” Monstrous as all this may be, it is yet, after all, the natural development of what took place in the Garden of Eden itself, when the temptation presented by the evil one was distinctly, “Ye shall be as God.” No doubt this was to be a moral likeness -“knowing good and evil;” nevertheless, it was a place usurped, not given by God, and naturally leading to still more open and extreme usurpation. We see in it apparently also reminiscences of the dealings which we know Tyre had had with Israel in Solomon’s time, when she had been permitted to contribute to the temple of God in Jerusalem. Solomon sat, as the inspired Word says, “on the throne of Jehovah in Israel” (1 Chronicles 29:23), His representative in that place. This representative place was given him from God Himself. The prince of Tyre takes it in a carnal fashion, and in independence.

With him it is no mere representative authority which might, in the fear of God, be realized by any of those “powers that be,” of whom the apostle speaks as “ordained of God,” so that obedience to the power becomes for the believer obedience to God Himself. In Tyre there was no such sense of responsibility, but the language is according to what we find concerning one who in the last days shall himself sit in the temple of God, “showing himself that he is God.” It is the language of Antichrist, of whom the prince of Tyre here is, no doubt, to some extent, a shadow.

But what is Antichrist himself except the full manifestation of fallen manhood, with the restraint upon it which God is exercising now, removed, so that the depths of the heart come out? Who that lifts himself up against God but becomes God to himself, in fact, robbing God of the glory which He will not give to another? Incredible it might indeed seem that any could go to the full length of what is here, when manifestly, as he is reminded, he is but a man -and what a nothing is man before God, even the wisest! As to his wisdom amongst men, no doubt he might claim much as searcher out of the secrets of all the earth, and knowing how to use for his purposes all that he acquired. He was “wiser than Daniel,” as the prophet says to him and, as we see, the wisdom of Daniel had reached far already in those days. Daniel had shown himself wise as to the secrets of a monarch’s chamber, and. could interpret to him. the thoughts of his heart, nevertheless it left Daniel in the place of entire subordination to the king to whom he ministered.

Here was one who had learned to use his wisdom in his own behalf, to give himself a place amongst men, a greatness which was merely acquired, however, neither innate nor moral, and therefore no real greatness in the sight of God. He had gathered riches into his treasury and continually was increasing them, but to debase himself morally in a way that he was not competent even to estimate.

He is incapable of receiving God’s judgment of things as they really are, and thus God would have to teach him by men like himself, with a lesson of the sword, marring all his beauty and bringing his brightness to an end. God needed to put forth no manifest divine power against him, the power of men was enough. Would he maintain an argument for his own divinity in the face of the weapons of those who would put him to death? Uncircumcised as he was, having never learned the lesson of self-judgment, he would die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, and the Lord seals this as the doom which He has pronounced upon him. 4. Nevertheless, for such an one there is a lamentation. If God must execute judgment, He does not smite without recognizing the sorrow of this, which is always His “strange,” if necessary, “work.” Here was the man enriched with everything that his hand could acquire, nay, with all that God had filled the earth with in the way of beauty: and beauty there is in it, how much beyond any that we apprehend! Who could expect to come after the king in this way? He had “sealed up the sum” of perfection which it seemed impossible for mere man to transcend; full of wisdom he had shown himself; perfect in beauty he had come to be. True, it was for his own interests, and the beauty which he had acquired was but artificial, the result of all that he had heaped together of the world’s goods.

He had been, as it were, in another Eden, a garden like that of old, stored with everything pleasant to the eye. Nature had for him opened its resources to enrich him with its innermost secrets; nay, it had revealed beauties which are indeed the manifold reflections of perfect light, the source of which is in God Himself. Thus every precious stone was his covering -the exquisite beauty with which God has strewed the earth, and which the fall itself has not removed, although it has dimmed the lustre in which it was meant to shine -this covered him. You could not, as it were, think of the man himself for all the glory that was spread out over him. Moreover, in man himself what beauty is there, and what a capacity for awakening out of the things around him, over which he is sovereign, the hidden capacities everywhere existent, and which he alone has power to evoke to his Creator’s praise! Thus the workmanship of his tabrets and of his pipes was in him.

In the day that God had created him they were prepared. He was himself the chief of creation, more glorious in himself than all this glory; all the more humbly should he have learned it, as what was from God and therefore for God. Thus he was “the anointed,” that is, as it seems, the “king cherub.” Ezekiel has already taught us how to understand this, for the cherubic forms of his vision are predominantly human; and these cherubim show us the working of all this living ministry ordained of God to work out His will and to fulfil His purposes upon the earth. The cherubim upon the mercy-seat, which we have seen interpreted for us by these living creatures, cover the throne of God, and this language is again and again used with regard to them. They emphasized the judgment and the justice which were the habitation of His throne; and, as transformed into the living creatures, the fire of God ran up and down amongst them. From this, in the tenth chapter, the linen-clothed man took the coals of fire to scatter over the city in judgment for the desecration of the sanctuary. Thus the stones that covered the cherub himself were, in fact, “stones of fire.” In them, as we have many times seen, were the reflections of the divine attributes, which must be revealed in wrath therefore against all profanation of them. So had this king of Tyre been walking as “amidst the stones of fire.” However ignorant and however careless, nevertheless his was the responsibility of such a position.

His would be the judgment if he abused such a position. It should be plain that much more than the temporary ministry to the temple in Solomon’s time is here intended. No doubt the connection of Tyre with the temple in this case was the connection with that revelation of God of which Israel was the depositary; it should have enlightened him fully as to the One with whom he had to do, and brought him consciously into that light in which henceforth he would have seen light. But it is not merely knowledge that makes us responsible, but the lack of knowledge when we should have had it; how much more, therefore, the lack of availing one’s self of the opportunity for knowledge which God is everywhere giving, is in fact pressing upon men! All the beauty of creation was in the temple upon the mountain of God, dedicated to the God of creation, seen in its proper place, and thus with all the beauty which such a place would give it; for the jewel is seen in the light, and God’s jewels in the light of God. Yet in these relationships of Tyre with Israel, we have the anticipation of a time to come, when, under a greater than Solomon, “the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift.” And as we think of Hiram, the Tyrian, the fashioner of things in the temple (the very name of the king of Tyre of that time being his own), how suggestive it is of privileges conferred, and at the same time of responsibilities incurred! The Lord owns also the blamelessness of her ways in this respect, which in some sense, at least, might well be taken for the time of her creation, putting her as a nation in the place in which she might have availed herself of blessed opportunities, and united herself to the people of God in a way that certainly He on His part would have owned and perpetuated. But the attraction of the world was too great, and the history of man from the beginning repeated itself here. Deceit and violence quickly followed. How we misconceive often as uprightness in man that which is only lack of opportunity; or, let us say, lack of trial sufficient to reveal a man even to himself and certainly to others! How men can be taken thus with their own beauty, when it is but factitious, a glory with which circumstances only have surrounded one, like the halo of a traditional saint; and the God of truth cannot spare it, while the heart lifted up because of this external beauty is corrupted by it. All the sanctuaries of the soul, or what should be such, become profaned.

It is the image of man that appears in them instead of God. Covetousness shows itself as idolatry and thus out of it comes forth the fire which shall surely and finally sweep it all away. Many have seen in all this account a greater prince depicted than the king of Tyre, and we cannot refuse such application of prophecies which have their most obvious fulfilment near at hand; but this is only the pledge and anticipation of that final one which is always the great thing with God, while man is prone to lose sight of it in what is nearer and therefore larger to his eyes. In all this part of Ezekiel, the judgment at hand by Nebuchadnezzar has indeed a special place; but there are, nevertheless, many intimations in various places, both of final judgment and of final blessing. Here, where the glory of the world has been spread out so before our eyes, it seems fully in place that there should be seen a real prince of it, and in this way some of the things here speak with more fulness than in their first application: thus the fall, by self-occupation and the pride begotten by it -for it was in this way that he who was created an upright and glorious being became an apostate and a devil. The cherub character given him would be more difficult, spite of the common thoughts about angelic cherubs, if we were to take Ezekiel alone. But Daniel reveals the principalities of the earth as angelic, and as having a place in this way from which even their fall has not yet removed them. Thus it is, as the apostle tells us, “with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places” that we are in conflict still, and the book of Revelation shows this just at the time when Satan is cast down from heaven (Revelation 12:1-17).

In Job also we are made to realize the cherub place he has. In his accusation of Job, which is all upon the ground of righteousness, as detecting what is false and unreal, he is, as it were, professedly covering the throne of God. And while in Ezekiel the human and other forms of the cherub seem to leave no place for the angelic, yet they in no wise conflict, with this, the thought itself of the cherub requiring naturally, as one would say, the angel also as the highest natural creature of God to supplement it. Thus also we may realize the application of what is said of Eden here, though it be gone from the earth, and the stones of fire. What to an angel must be the riches of the earth, which man, prodigal as he is, so little cares to estimate, while he is so busy squandering them! After all, we may well conceive here the great king of Tyre, whose judgment abides a future time, when he too shall be cast out of the mount of God and come to that end which, in the patience of God, so long has tarried. 5. We have now the judgment upon Sidon, as supplementary to the judgment upon kindred Tyre. It is of the briefest, but as the first-born of Canaan, he cannot be overlooked here. Sidon means not distinctively “the fisher,” as some say, for which there is no word, but “the taker of prey.” Sidon was a great mercantile power before Tyre was known, and thus Homer speaks exclusively of her. In general, Tyre represents the Canaanite character, and therefore Sidon requires briefer notice. But she has been a pricking brier and a grievous thorn in Israel’s side; not very formidable, perhaps, through lack of power, but that was not her fault.

It is the enmity that God judges here, as elsewhere. Israel has sinned and given occasion to what the malice of others might do and justify themselves in doing. Nevertheless, it was malice, and that against God in His people. Hence, Jehovah should be known by them in judgment simply. In Israel, spite of her terrible failure and sin, He will be known in final grace; it must be in grace, for she can claim nothing, as we know. Can any of us claim anything from God on any other ground?

But this only makes it sure that God will cleave to this in which all the interests of man and His own glory are alike concerned. In us He is going to show “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Who shall forbid Him this? And how suited that this unrepenting grace should take up Israel also according to the angel’s words to Zechariah (Zechariah 3:1-10), in which her sin and just condemnation are alike owned: “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” True, it is this; but Satan is ever and only the adversary against God as he is against man. But if it is God’s will to pluck a brand out of the fire, who shall say Him nay?