The Bare Rock of Pride: A Prophecy Against Tyre Text: Ezekiel 26:1-6
Introduction: The Commerce of Contempt
We live in an age that worships at the altar of the Gross Domestic Product. Our high priests are the central bankers, and our prophets are the market analysts. The cardinal sin is a disruption of the supply chain, and the chief virtue is a quarterly report that exceeds expectations. We are, in short, the heirs of Tyre. The spirit of ancient Tyre is not a relic in a museum; it is the animating spirit of globalism. It is the cold, calculating spirit that hears of a neighbor's house burning down and immediately thinks of the opportunity to sell him a new hose.
Tyre was a great merchant city, a Phoenician powerhouse on the coast of the Mediterranean. She was the London, the New York, the Singapore of her day. Her ships went everywhere, her wealth was legendary, and her pride was insufferable. And when she looked south and saw Jerusalem, the covenant city of God, besieged and broken by the Babylonians, she did not weep. She did not see a human tragedy or a spiritual catastrophe. She saw a business opportunity. She rubbed her hands together and said, 'Aha!'
This word 'Aha' is the tell. It is the sound of pure, unadulterated contempt mixed with greed. It is the sin of gloating, what the Germans call Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. But Tyre's sin was far more grievous than simple rivalry. Jerusalem was not just any city; it was the city where God had placed His name. To rejoice in Jerusalem's fall was to rejoice in what appeared to be the failure of Yahweh's covenant promises. It was to mock God's people, and in so doing, to mock God Himself. This is why the prophecy that follows is so severe. God takes it personally. When you kick one of His children when they are down, you have picked a fight with their Father. And our God is a jealous God; He is a consuming fire.
This passage is a solemn warning to every nation, every corporation, and every individual who thinks that commerce is king and that God's moral government of the world is an irrelevant superstition. God is the Lord of history, and He does not brook rivals. He will not allow the pride of man to go unchecked. He is about to teach Tyre, and us, that He is the one who controls the waves, both literal and geopolitical.
The Text
Now it happened in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,
“Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’
therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.
They will make the walls of Tyre a ruin and pull down her towers; and I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock.
She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘and she will become plunder for the nations.
Also her daughters who are on the mainland will be killed by the sword, and they will know that I am Yahweh.’
(Ezekiel 26:1-6 LSB)
A Profitable Calamity (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the indictment, the charge sheet read out in the courtroom of heaven.
"Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’" (Ezekiel 26:2 LSB)
The timing noted in verse 1 is precise. The eleventh year refers to the reign of Zedekiah, the year Jerusalem fell. The news has reached Tyre, and their reaction is immediate and visceral. Notice the logic of their pride. Jerusalem was a key point on the trade routes, a "gateway of the peoples." With Jerusalem out of the way, Tyre sees an opening, a chance to monopolize the trade flowing from the east. Her destruction is Tyre's economic stimulus package. "I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste."
This is the essence of a worldview centered on Mammon. It sees other people and nations not as neighbors to be loved, but as competitors to be beaten or obstacles to be removed. It is a zero-sum game. For me to be filled, you must be laid waste. This is the opposite of the Christian view of economics, which is based on the principle that in a free and virtuous exchange, both parties benefit. God's world is a world of abundance, where our work is to have dominion and create more wealth for everyone. Tyre's world is a world of scarcity and predation.
But more than that, Tyre's sin is a direct affront to God. They see God's chastisement of His own people and interpret it as a stroke of good luck for themselves. They fail to see the hand of God in the fall of Jerusalem, and so they will be made to feel the weight of that same hand themselves. They have misread the situation entirely. They think the game is between Tyre and Jerusalem, but the real contest is between Tyre and Yahweh.
The Divine Antagonist (v. 3)
Because of this prideful contempt, God issues a formal declaration of war.
"therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.’" (Ezekiel 26:3 LSB)
These are some of the most terrifying words in all of Scripture: "Behold, I am against you." When God is for us, who can be against us? But when God is against you, who can possibly be for you? Tyre had built her fortress on an island, confident in her wealth and her navy. She felt impregnable. But she had not accounted for the Lord of Hosts. God declares that He Himself will be her adversary.
And notice His weapon of choice. He will bring "many nations" against her, like the waves of the sea. This is a brilliant and fitting metaphor. Tyre was a maritime power; she lived by the sea. Now she will be destroyed by a sea of nations. The image of waves is crucial. It is not one single attack. It is a relentless, successive, overwhelming series of assaults. First one wave crashes, then another, and another, each one doing its part to erode and destroy. History bears this out perfectly. First came the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, who besieged Tyre for thirteen years and conquered the mainland city. That was the first wave. Centuries later, another wave came in the person of Alexander the Great, who famously built a causeway out to the island fortress and utterly destroyed it. And still more waves would come after that. God is the Lord of history, and the rise and fall of empires are but the waves He directs against the rocky shores of human pride.
Scraped Clean (vv. 4-5)
The prophecy then details the shocking extent of this destruction. It will not be a mere conquest; it will be an erasure.
"They will make the walls of Tyre a ruin and pull down her towers; and I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock. She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares Lord Yahweh..." (Ezekiel 26:4-5 LSB)
This is not just military defeat. This is de-creation. "I will scrape her dust from her." The image is of a judge so offended by a city's sin that He scrapes the very soil from the rock beneath it, leaving nothing. The glory of Tyre, her markets, her temples, her towers, will be reduced to rubble, and that rubble itself will be swept away, leaving a bald, bare rock.
And the divine irony is devastating. This rock, once the center of global commerce, will become "a place for the spreading of nets." The hub of immense wealth will become a functional tool for poor, humble fishermen. The masters of the sea, who once sent out fleets of merchant ships, will be replaced by common laborers drying their nets. This is the end of all human pride. This is what God does to those who say 'Aha!' when His people fall. He turns their glory into the ultimate picture of desolation and obscurity.
And to underscore the absolute certainty of this, God adds His signature: "for I have spoken, declares Lord Yahweh." This is not a prediction based on geopolitical trends. This is a settled decree from the throne of the universe. It will happen because the sovereign God has said it will happen. Banks can fail, armies can be defeated, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
The Doxological Purpose (v. 6)
The judgment extends to Tyre's mainland settlements, her "daughters," and the ultimate purpose for all this devastation is revealed.
"Also her daughters who are on the mainland will be killed by the sword, and they will know that I am Yahweh." (Ezekiel 26:6 LSB)
The destruction will be total, encompassing the entire Tyrian sphere of influence. But this is not arbitrary violence. It has a point. It has a goal. And that goal is the revelation of God's identity. "And they will know that I am Yahweh."
This is the refrain of Ezekiel. God's judgments in history are not primarily punitive; they are doxological. They are designed to teach a rebellious world a lesson it refuses to learn any other way. Who is the true God? Who is the Lord of history? Who holds the nations in the palm of His hand? Is it Baal? Is it Mammon? Is it the god of military might or economic supremacy? No. It is Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. Tyre, in her pride, thought Yahweh was a failed, local deity whose city had just been sacked. God is about to correct their theology in the most dramatic way imaginable. They will learn who He is, not through a sermon, but through the bitter experience of their own utter ruin.
The Rock of Refuge
The lesson of Tyre is a permanent one. God hates pride. He opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Every nation, every institution, every individual that builds its foundation on the arrogant self-sufficiency of Tyre is destined to become a bare rock, a place for drying nets.
We see the spirit of Tyre everywhere today. We see it in nations that mock Christian faith and morality while chasing economic advantage. We see it in corporations that view human beings as mere consumers or units of production. We see it in our own hearts whenever we rejoice, even secretly, at the failure of a rival, hoping to get ahead from their loss.
The prophecy of Tyre's destruction is a prophecy of a judgment that hangs over all human pride. We all deserve to be scraped clean, to have the dust of our filthy-rag righteousness swept away, leaving us bare before a holy God. And we will be. There are only two possibilities. Either you will be made a bare rock by the waves of God's final judgment, or you hide yourself in the Rock that was made bare for you.
There is another Rock in Scripture. This is the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ. He is the one who endured the full, crashing waves of God's wrath against our pride, against our greed, against our 'Aha!' of contempt for God and our neighbor. On the cross, He was scraped clean for us. He was made a ruin for us. He was plundered by the nations for us. He took the curse of Tyre so that proud sinners like us could be forgiven.
The choice before us is simple. You can stand on the proud and shaky ground of Tyre, waiting for the inevitable waves of judgment. Or you can abandon your pride, repent of your self-sufficiency, and plant your feet on the solid Rock of Christ. For all who do, He is not a bare rock of judgment, but an eternal rock of refuge.