Tonight turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter
26.
According to verse 1, this prophecy came to
Ezekiel in the 11th year of the King
Zedekiah's reign, which would make it the year
586 BC.
The year in which Jerusalem was destroyed by
Nebuchadnezzar.
So it came to pass in the 11th
year, the first day of the month, that
the word of the Lord came unto me
saying, Son of man, because Tyrus has said
against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken.
That was the gates of the people.
She is turned unto me.
I shall be replenished.
Now is she laid waste.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause
many nations to come up against thee as
the sea causes his waves to come up.
It is interesting to me that God does
not like the wicked rejoicing in the judgments
of his people.
There is a quality of love in 1
Corinthians 13 that rejoices not in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth.
And here God brings his judgment against Tyre,
because Tyre was rejoicing in the judgment of
God that he brought against his people, against
the city of Jerusalem, thinking that somehow they
were going to prosper from the devastation of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
So God declares that first of all, there
will be many nations that will be used
in the judgment of Tyre, not Nebuchadnezzar only.
So that the prophecy would not be completed
with just Nebuchadnezzar's conquering of Tyre, but God
would bring other nations against it for its
destruction.
And speaking of the total destruction first, and
then dropping back to give us details.
First of all, the overall destruction they shall
destroy, that is the many nations, the walls
of Tyrus, break down the towers, will scrape
her dust from her and make her like
the top of a rock.
It shall be a place for the spreading
of nets in the midst of the sea,
for I have spoken it, saith the Lord
God, and it shall become a spoil to
the nations.
And her daughters, which are in the field,
shall be slain by the sword, and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
For thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
will bring upon Tyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of
Babylon, the king of kings, from the north
with his horses and chariots, and with the
horsemen and companies and much people.
And he shall slay with a sword thy
daughters in the field, and he shall make
a fort against thee, and cast a mound
against thee, and lift up the buckler against
thee.
And he, notice the personal pronouns, he, Nebuchadnezzar,
shall set engines of war against thy walls,
and with his axes he shall break down
thy towers.
By reason of the abundance of his horses,
their dust shall cover thee.
Thy walls shall shake at the noise of
the horsemen, and of the wheels and of
the chariots, when he shall enter into thy
gates, as men enter into a city wherein
is made a breach.
And with the hoofs of his horses shall
he tread down all thy streets, he shall
slay thy people by the sword, and thy
strong garrison shall go down to the ground.
And thus is described that destruction of Tyre
that would come about by Nebuchadnezzar.
Now, one year after the prophecy was written,
or in the year 585 BC, Nebuchadnezzar began
his siege of Tyre.
The common practice of the Babylonian army was
to, and of course in warfare in those
days, was to lay siege upon a city
by surrounding the city and cutting off all
outside supplies.
And by cutting off all the outside supplies,
they could soon deplete the city of its
food resources.
Once the food resources were depleted, the people
began to starve to death with a shortage
of water, shortage of food.
With the famine, usually would come pestilence, disease.
And then when the people were weakened by
the pestilence and by the famine, then they
would move in.
And it would be much easier to take
the city, because the people had been so
weakened as the result of the siege.
But because Tyre was on the seacoast and
it was a beautiful port city, in fact,
it was one of the major ports of
the ancient world, a very rich city of
merchandise.
And from Tyre, of course, were the Phoenicians
and the Phoenician navy of historic war.
He was not able to totally cut off
the supplies.
The city of Tyre was continually supplied by
her navies from the sea, so that the
people were able to live under the siege
of Nebuchadnezzar.
And so the siege went on for 13
years, during which time the majority of the
city moved from the mainland to the island
that was about a half mile offshore.
And that became then the major city of
Tyre, this island offshore.
So that by the time Nebuchadnezzar finally made
the onslaught against the city, there was only
a small garrison and a small part of
the population left within the city there on
the mainland.
The majority of the people had moved to
the island along with the wealth of the
city, so that there were no spoils to
be taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the conquering of
the city of Tyre.
So it was a very empty and hollow
victory by Nebuchadnezzar in as much as there
was no spoil for Nebuchadnezzar from the destruction.
But as is described here, the destruction by
Nebuchadnezzar did come to pass, beginning one year
after the prophecy and continuing for the next
13 years in his siege of the city
of Tyre.
But now as we get into verse 12,
there is a change of pronoun significantly, because
the prophecy was that many nations would come
against Tyre.
Its destruction was not to be fully accomplished
by Nebuchadnezzar.
So the city of Tyre went on prospering
for 240 years, now an island city.
And it became extremely strong and powerful, especially
now that it was an island city just
a half mile off the shore.
It was almost impregnable as far as any
enemy was concerned, unless you would try to
attack by sea.
But the Phoenician navy ruled the seas in
those days, and so Tyre became a very
powerful, well-defensed city because it was on
this island a half mile off shore.
So they shall make a spoil, change of
pronoun from he Nebuchadnezzar to they shall make
a spoil of thy riches and make a
prey of thy merchandise.
They shall break down thy walls and destroy
thy pleasant houses, and they shall lay thy
stones and thy timber and thy dust in
the midst of the water an extremely interesting
and yet a bizarre prophecy.
Because unparalleled in history, to my knowledge, as
any city, when destroyed, the stones, the timbers,
and the dust were put in the midst
of the water.
And I will cause the noise of thy
songs to cease, the sound of the harp
shall be no more heard.
I will make thee like the top of
a rock.
Thou shalt be a place to spread nets
upon.
Thou shalt be built no more, for I
the Lord have spoken it.
Now that's pretty powerful statement.
I the Lord have spoken it, saith the
Lord God.
I've spoken it.
This is what's going to be.
Now, did God really speak that?
Is this really the word of God to
the prophet Ezekiel, or is Ezekiel making calculated
guesses?
Well, did it really come to pass?
In 322 BC, when Alexander the Great began
his move towards Persia, he was fearful that
if he moved all of his troops in
a war against Persia, that the Phoenicians would
take advantage of it, and that the Phoenician
navy would then attack Greece.
So he felt essential to his moving further
against Persia was the conquering of Tyrus.
And so he moved down the coast to
Tyrus and gave an ultimatum to the city
of Tyrus to surrender to him, or he
would destroy them.
The people of Tyrus scoffed at Alexander's ultimatum,
because they knew that it would be difficult
for any army to besiege their city.
Alexander went up to Sidon and to some
of the other port cities in the area
and confiscated many ships.
And he attempted a naval assault against Tyrus,
which was defeated.
He next decided that he would take the
rubble of the ancient city of Tyre, which
had not been rebuilt on the mainland.
And with the rocks and the timbers, the
ruins of the ancient city, he would make
this wide causeway out to the island, taking
first and throwing the rocks and the timbers
into the Mediterranean, beginning to form this causeway,
and then putting and scraping the dirt and
putting it over the top of the rocks.
So he made this wide causeway out to
the island.
As he began to get near the island,
the people of Tyre began to heat sand
until it was almost molten, and then shoot
this molten sand on his troops.
And so they built kind of defenses against
that, special types of towers and all, to
defend the workers against this hot sand and
oil that they began to shoot over at
them from the city.
And he began to move up these towers
and these weapons of war.
And finally, with a combined naval assault and
the assaulting of the walls themselves, Alexander the
Great was able to conquer the city of
Tyre in 322, after about an eight-month
siege of Tyre.
Because Tyre had resisted him, he sought to
make an example of the city of Tyre
to strike fear in the hearts of the
neighboring areas.
And so he really devastated and destroyed the
city of Tyre, a tremendous slaughter and destruction.
As a result, the other nations, the other
cities and kingdoms around were terrified.
They opened their doors to Alexander the Great.
They began to capitulate one after another, including
Jerusalem.
And Alexander the Great was, of course, a
very religious person.
Not godly, religious.
And there's a difference.
There are a lot of people that are
religious, but not really very godly, but very
religious.
And he was an extremely religious person.
And he did come to Jerusalem and was
received by the Jews.
And the city was open to him.
And he gave sacrifices unto the priests in
Jerusalem to offer for him unto their gods.
And he was actually, many cities opened to
him after the conquest of Tyre.
Now, in his taking the stones, the timbers
and the dust and scraping it, he caused
the prophecy of Ezekiel to be literally fulfilled
some 240 years after the prophecy was made.
So the prophecy was made by Ezekiel.
Two hundred and forty years later, it was
literally fulfilled.
God is not in a hurry.
Ezekiel prophesied it.
He never lived to see the fulfillment of
it.
But yet, we now, in looking back, have
that advantage of seeing how that history finally
confirmed the fact that it evidently was God
speaking to Ezekiel.
It would have been impossible for him to
have made these predictions just out of his
own mind or head.
The things that he declared were too impractical.
Now, it will make it like the top
of a rock.
It is impossible to accurately determine the actual
site of the original city of Tyre on
the mainland because it was so totally devastated
and destroyed by the dirt even being scraped
and cast into the sea.
We can only guess that this area, which
is barren rock today, was no doubt somewhere
in these perimeters and in this area was
the ancient city of Tyre.
But there are no ruins, no walls, nothing
to indicate where the city itself might have
been.
And so the place of it has never
been found or discovered, nor can we ascertain
it with any certainty at all.
Which, of course, is another fulfillment here.
But because the dirt was scraped, the rocks
are an excellent place for the fishermen to
dry their nets.
And if you go to that area today,
you will find even today fishermen drying their
nets on these rocks, which were once the
great city of Tyre, the nemesis of the
ancient world because of the power of their
navy, a city that was great in glory
and power.
But God pronounced his judgment because they rejoiced
in the judgment of God upon Jerusalem.
Thus saith the Lord God, verse 15, to
Tyrus, shall not the isles or the coast
shake at the sound of your fall when
the wounded cry and when the slaughter is
made in the midst of thee?
Then all the princes of the sea shall
come down from their thrones and lay away
their robes and put off their broidered garments.
They shall clothe themselves with trembling, and they
shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble
at every moment and be astonished at thee.
And so the great fear that did come
into the other neighboring cities and areas.
And they shall take up a lamentation for
thee and say to thee, How art thou
destroyed that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the
renowned city which was strong in the sea,
she and her inhabitants, which caused their terror
to be all that haunted.
Now shall the isles tremble in the day
of thy fall.
Yea, the isles that are in the sea
shall be troubled at thy departure.
For thus saith the Lord God, when I
shall make thee a desolate city like the
cities that are not inhabited, when I shall
bring up the deep upon thee and the
great waters shall cover thee, when I shall
bring thee down with them that descend into
the pit with the people of old time
and shall set thee in the low parts
of the earth in places desolate of old
with them that go down to the pit
that thou shalt not be inhabited and I
shall set glory in the land of the
living and I will make thee a terror
and thou shalt be no more though thou
be sought for, yet shalt thou never be
found again, saith the Lord God.
Such is the case.
We can't tell exactly where the city was
because it was so totally devastated and all
you have is barren rock in that area
where Tyre once existed.
Now there is a modern city of Tyre
which is a Palestinian stronghold in southern Lebanon.
However, it is a few miles from the
site of the ancient city.
So though it bears the name of Tyre,
it has not been built again in the
area where the original Tyre once existed.
There is, however, a spring there in Tyre
known as Rezillane which the engineers have measured
a water flow of 10 million gallons a
day.
So it would be a very likely spot
for a city to be built because of
this abundant supply of fresh water and yet
in spite of that the city has never
been built on that site again.
So God's word holding to the present day
and you can go over there today and
walk on that peninsula and see the causeway
that was built by Alexander the Great looking
down into the water seeing the stones that
were thrown and the timbers.
Well the timbers of course have gone but
you can still see the stones and you
can see the fishermen drying their nets and
you can see the barren rocky area that
was once the city of Tyre but God's
word still holding true to the present time.
Tyre of course was a city of tremendous
merchandise.
It was almost the commercial center of the
world because the navy, the powerful navy, carried
the goods from Tyre all over the Mediterranean
and they supplied all of the nations around
the Mediterranean as far as England with all
of the merchandise and the goods and so
forth and thus because of the commercial aspects
it was an extremely wealthy city.
But it is interesting that God has a
dislike for commercialism as such.
People taking advantage of people and in the
book of Revelation chapter 18 we find the
judgment of God that is yet to come
against the commercial system that has enslaved men's
souls.
How many people have become slaves to the
whole commercial system?
That is most of your paycheck is going
out on the various credit accounts and all
and you're really a slave in a sense.
You're laboring to pay the commercial accounts and
so God speaks against commercialism in Revelation 18
but also in the lamentation now against Tyre
that is taken up by the prophet and
it is interesting and important for you that
when you get a chance this week you
read Revelation 18 in the light of Ezekiel
27 and you will find the very same
things that God is saying against the commercial
system of the last days that is being
destroyed was said at the destruction of Tyre.
In fact there are similar parallel passages that
are here in 27 that are also found
in Revelation chapter 18.
So the word of the Lord came again
unto me saying now son of man take
up a lamentation.
This is a wailing a cry for Tyrus.
This is lamenting the destruction that is come
and saying to Tyrus all thou that are
that are situate or situated at the entry
of the sea which are a merchant of
the people of many coasts.
Thus saith the Lord God O Tyrus thou
has said I am of perfect beauty.
Now the city of Tyre is in the
first part of chapter 27 likened unto one
of the ships of Tyre and the city
was the perfection of beauty.
It was a very extremely of course the
Mediterranean area there is just beautiful anyhow.
It's just a glorious area along the Mediterranean.
The weather is just ideal.
It has a ideal year round type of
a climate and the the island just there
in the sea was no doubt extremely beautiful
and there was so much wealth that the
homes and all were no doubt just luxurious.
So he likens it unto a beautiful ship
of Tyrus.
Thy borders are in the midst of the
seas.
Thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
They have made all thy shipboards of fir
trees.
They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make
the mast for thee.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made
your oars.
The company of the azurites have made your
benches of ivory.
That would be azurites would be Cyprus and
brought out the or I beg your pardon.
The isles of Chittim is Cyprus.
The coast of Chittim is Cyprus and have
brought out the isles or the coast of
Chittim.
Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was
that which you have spread forth to be
thy sail and the blue and the purple
from the coast of Elisha was that which
covered thee.
The inhabitants of Sidon which is a sister
city some fifteen miles north also a seaport
and Arved were thy mariners.
Thy wise men O Tyrus that were in
thee were thy pilots.
The ancients of Gebel and the wise men
thereof were in thee thy caulkers and the
ships of the sea with their mariners were
in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
And so all of this merchandise, the ivory,
the linens from Egypt with the embroidered work,
the furs, the cedars, the oaks, and all
of the luxury items that were a part
of the whole system of Tyrus.
Verse ten.
They of Persia and Lod and of Put
were in thine army.
Thy men of war, they hang the shield
and helmet in thee.
They set forth thy comeliness.
So they had a mercenary army from various
nations.
The men of Arved with thine army were
upon thy walls round about and the Gamadins
were in thy towers.
They hang their shields upon thy walls round
about.
They have made thy beauty perfect.
Tarshus, England was thy merchant by reason of
the multitude of all kind of riches with
the silver and the iron, the tin and
the lead, and they traded in thy fairs.
And so the trade fairs that were there.
Javan, Tubal, Meshach, they were thy merchants.
They traded in slaves and vessels of brass
in your markets.
And they of the house of Torgarma, the
Balkan states, they traded in your fairs with
horses, horsemen and mules.
And the men of Dedan down towards Saudi
Arabia were thy merchants.
And many coasts were the merchandise in your
hand.
They brought thee for a present horns of
ivory and ebony.
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of the wares of thy making.
They occupied in thy fairs with emeralds and
purple embroidered work and fine linen and coral
and agate.
Judah and the land of Israel, they were
thy merchants.
They traded in your market, wheat of Mineth
and Peneg, and honey and oil and balm.
Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of
the wares of thy making for the multitude
of all the riches in the wine of
Helban and the white wool.
Dan also and Javan going to and fro
occupied in thy fairs.
Bright iron, cassia, calamus were in thy market.
The various spices and all.
Actually, if you go through the old city
of Jerusalem, walking through the souk, you get
somewhat of an idea of what was the
ancient Tyre as far as all kinds of
merchandise.
The white wool coats and linens, the embroidered
work that you can purchase, the various jewelry
stores and the spice stores and the shops.
And so in Tyrus was a tremendous commercial
center with all of these goods that were
brought from all of the areas of the
ancient world.
And it was sort of, well, it was
sort of a Hong Kong of the ancient
world as far as you're able to shop
and buy almost anything at great prices, you
know.
But there was tremendous market there in Tyre.
Dan also, Javan going to and fro occupied
thy fairs.
Bright iron, cassia, calamus was in thy market.
Then Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes
for chariots.
Arabian, all the princes of Kedar, they occupied
thee in the lambs and in the rams
and in the goats.
And in these were thy merchants, the merchants
of Sheba and Rama.
They were thy merchants.
They occupied in thy fairs with the chief
of all the spices and with all precious
stones and gold.
Heron, Cana, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asher
and Kilmad were thy merchants.
These were thy merchants in all sorts of
things, in the blue clothes of broidered work,
in the chest of rich apparel, bound with
cords and made of cedar among thy merchandise.
And the ships of Tarshish did sing of
thee in thy market, and thou was replenished
and made very glorious in the midst of
the seas.
And your roars have brought thee into great
waters.
But the east wind has broken thee in
the midst of the sea.
The east wind, of course, being Nebuchadnezzar and
this great commercial center broken by Nebuchadnezzar.
Thy riches and thy fairs and thy merchandise
and thy mariners and thy pilots and thy
caulkers and the occupiers of thy merchandise and
all of the men of war that are
in thee and in all thy company, which
is in the midst of thee shall fall
into the midst of the seas in the
day of thy ruin.
The suburbs shall shake at the sound of
the cry of thy pilots and all that
handle the oar, the mariners and the pilots
of the sea shall come down from their
ships and they shall stand upon the land
and shall cause their voice to be heard
against thee and shall cry bitterly and shall
cast up dust upon their heads and they
shall wallow themselves in the ashes and they
shall make themselves.
Now these are the people that have been
doing business, the merchants that have lost now
this glorious trade center.
They shall make themselves utterly bald for thee
that is shaving themselves in sorrow and gird
themselves with sackcloth and they shall weep for
thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing
and in their wailing they shall take up
a lamentation for thee and lament over thee
saying what city is like Tyrus likened to
like the destroyed in the midst of the
sea when thy wares went forth out of
the seas you filled many people you'd enrich
the kings of the earth with the multitude
of your riches and with thy merchandise and
in the time when thou shall be broken
by the seas in the depths of the
waters thy merchandise and all the company in
the midst of thee shall fall and all
the inhabitants of the coast shall be astonished
at thee and their king shall be sore
afraid they shall be troubled in their countenance
the merchants among the people shall hiss at
thee and that will be a terror and
never to be anymore.
Now again notice the wailing they'll take up
the lamentation what city is like Tyrus like
that which has been destroyed in Revelation as
there and the destruction of the commercial Babylon
system takes place.
It declares again how that the kings of
the earth verse 9 have committed fornication live
deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament
for her when they see the smoke of
her burning standing afar off for fear of
the torment saying alas alas that great city
Babylon the mighty city for in one hour
her judgment has come and the merchants of
the earth shall weep and mourn over her
for no man buys her merchandise anymore the
merchandise of gold and silver precious stones pearls
fine linen purple silk scarlet and all fine
and wood and all manner of vessels of
ivory all manners of vessels of most precious
wood and brass and iron and marble cinnamon
and odors anointments and frankincense and the fruits
of thy soul lusts and departs and so
forth in them how that they they cry
when they see the smoke of the burning
and they say you know what city is
like this city so it is a interesting
parallel between the destruction of Tyrus which becomes
a type of the destruction of the Babylonian
commercial system in the last days and the
lamentation is much the same as people mourn
for the loss of all of these luxurious
goods that were once offered there in the
fair the trade fairs in Tyrus now as
we get into chapter 28 the attention now
is directed against the king of Tyre chapter
26 against the city of Tyre chapter 27
against the merchandising of Tyre chapter 28 now
is directed against the king or the prince
of Tyre and as we get into this
suddenly there is a transition and he begins
to address himself unto Satan the power behind
the earthly kingdom now the Bible says that
Satan is the prince of this world and
unless a nation is really dedicated to God
and its leaders dedicated to God then Satan
is controlling and seeks to control the leadership
of the world Hitler was a man who
was controlled by the white masters these men
who after the fall of the Third Reich
moved down into Peru and still many of
them are living in Peru today men who
are into all kinds of spiritism they controlled
Hitler during the period of the Third Reich
and he was a man who was controlled
by these demonic forces guided by these men
who were high in the area of white
magic the rebuke of the king of Tyre
in chapter 28 the word of the Lord
came again unto me saying son of man
say to the prince of Tyre thus saith
the Lord God because thy heart is lifted
up and thou has said I am a
God I sit in the throne of God
and in the midst of the siege yet
thou art a man and not God though
thou set thy heart as the heart of
God now immediately this causes us to think
of Second Thessalonians chapter 2 where it declares
that the Antichrist is going to come and
stand in the temple of God and declare
that he is God and demand to be
worshipped as God in the last days so
the prince of Tyrus becomes a interesting type
of the Antichrist declaring himself to be God
and setting himself up as a God now
this indeed did happen the king of Tyrus
assumed the the God role and proclaimed himself
to be God and began to demand the
worship of the people behold thou art wiser
than Daniel that is what he was saying
of himself that he was wiser than Daniel
of course it is interesting that again Daniel
is mentioned who was a contemporary to Ezekiel
and already Daniel's fame was no doubt being
spread abroad and probably because of his interpretation
of Nebuchadnezzar's dream that probably brought Daniel to
instant fame and recognition because after he had
interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar made him
one of the chief counselors for the Babylonian
kingdom and so Daniel's fame especially of course
among the children of Israel had spread abroad
so Ezekiel who was a contemporary to Daniel
lived at the same time in Babylonian captivity
makes mention of Daniel not only here but
in other passages and here the wisdom of
Daniel is referred to with thy wisdom and
with thy understanding you have gotten riches you've
gotten gold and silver into your treasury and
by thy great wisdom and by your trafficking
that is the merchandising you have increased your
riches and your heart is lifted up because
of your riches the bible tells us that
it's hard for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of heaven then it qualifies
it and it says how hard it is
for those who trust in riches to enter
into the kingdom of heaven Jesus said it's
easier for a camel to go through an
eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of heaven
the bible says that they that will be
rich will fall into divers temptations or lusts
which drown men's souls in perdition but again
the bible says if riches increase just don't
set your heart upon them now that was
the problem of the king of tyrus his
heart was set upon his riches he was
increased with riches and his heart was lifted
up because of his riches therefore thus saith
the lord god because you have set your
heart as the heart of god behold therefore
i will bring strangers upon thee and the
awesome of the nations and they shall draw
their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom
and they shall defile thy brightness and they
shall bring thee down to the pit and
thou shalt die the deaths of them that
are slain in the midst of the seas
wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth
thee i am a god but thou shalt
be a man and no god in the
hand of him that slays thee and thou
shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised by
the hand of strangers for i have spoken
it saith the lord and so his destruction
is predicted and though he declares himself to
be god when the enemy comes over the
wall you're not going to move him you
know to thinking that you are god you'll
die like a man moreover the word of
the lord came unto me saying son of
man take up a lamentation upon the king
of tyrus and say unto him thus saith
the lord god now at this point there
is a switch and we go behind the
scenes and god is now addressing himself unto
satan and this is probably one of the
uh most graphic descriptions of satan that exist
in the bible and he isn't contrary to
popular notion wearing a red suit holding a
pitchfork and having a forked tail and some
evil sinister looking creature with pointed ears and
a goatee thou
sealest up the sun it means you are
the sum total you know you you've got
it all together you are the sum total
you are full of wisdom and perfect in
beauty you have been in eden the garden
of god yes he was there and was
talking to eve and tempting her uh to
eat of that fruit that god had forbidden
every precious stone was your covering the sardis
topaz diamond burl onyx jasper sapphire emerald carbuncle
gold and the workmanship of thy tablets and
of thy pipes was prepared in thee in
the day that you were created so here
is a description of satan prior to his
of course uh in prior to his fall
after his fall he had been in eden
but every precious stone is covering it all
and there are some who say that satan
is the author of music because of the
workmanship of your tablets and of your pipes
was prepared in thee in the day that
thou was created and so that satan is
the author of music i think that that
is just stretching the point beyond breaking it
it's i can't stand uh that type of
biblical exposition that takes a verse like this
and then builds an entire case from it
and how that music is evil because satan
you know was the originator of music because
he was the one with the tablets and
pipes and so forth and so that music
is satanic in its origin and all and
that he is the master over music that
stretching scripture it is taking it out of
context it is taking one verse and just
blowing it beyond its intent and beyond what
it declares and yet there are those foolish
and ignorant men who will take some kind
of a passage like this and try to
make a big discourse out of it and
a big theory and and come down on
all kinds of musical instruments and everything else
and of course some book has been written
lately against rock music and saying it's of
satan and this is the scripture that proves
it uh if they can find proof of
that in this scripture then they have done
phenomenal bit of scriptural jugglery thou art the
anointed cherub that covereth now he was an
anointed cherub a cherub of course is an
angel cherub is singular cherubim is plural now
we are we find in the scriptures that
there are the four cherubim that are about
the throne of god plural of cherubs satan
once no doubt dwelt there near god in
the heavenly scene in fact he would seem
to have had a very high standing at
one time so high that when michael was
contending against him having respect for the position
that satan once held in high authority in
the heavenly scene michael did not bring any
railing accusation against him when they were disputing
over the body of moses but michael just
said the lord rebuke you satan did have
an extremely high position uh prior to his
fall in the heavenly kingdom the anointed cherub
that covereth i have set thee so you
were upon the holy mountain of god you
have walked up and down in the midst
of the stones of fire and you were
perfect in thy ways from the day that
thou was created till iniquity was found in
thee now here is what makes satan not
the opposite of god you were perfect in
all of your ways from the day that
you were created but satan was a created
being god is self-existent he has always
been satan was created so that it is
wrong for us in our minds to think
of satan as the opposite of god he
opposes god but he in no wise is
the opposite of god and we ascribe to
satan much more power and much more than
what he actually is if you think of
him as the opposite of god and thus
we should never consider or think of satan
in the terms of the opposite of god
god stands alone in the universe the infinite
eternal god there's nothing to compare with in
likenesses or opposites he is alone the eternal
god satan was a created being an anointed
cherub if he is the opposite or to
be thought of as the opposite it might
be of michael or of gabriel these two
angels that seem to have much authority and
power in heaven who remain true unto god
but never think of satan as the opposite
of god you're ascribing much more to him
than what actually is and that is dangerous
he was perfect until the day that iniquity
was found in him what is the iniquity
that was found in him if you turn
back to isaiah chapter 14 isaiah gives us
a little insight into this iniquity that was
found in satan verse 12 chapter 14 isaiah
how art thou fallen from heaven oh lucifer
son of the morning how art thou cut
down to the ground which didst weaken the
nations for thou has said in thy heart
here's the iniquity in your heart you said
i will ascend into heaven i will exalt
my throne above the stars of god i
will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation in the sides of the north i
will ascend above the heights of the clouds
i will be like the most high the
five i wills and that is the exercise
of my will against the authority of god
i will exalt myself i will sit in
the congregation in the sides of the north
i will ascend above the stars i will
be like the most high in one of
shakespeare's plays there is that phrase flee ambition
for by this sin the angels fell satan's
ambitious plans against god's authority i will i
will so up until that point he had
been a model perfect in all of his
ways until iniquity was found in thee and
by the multitude of thy merchandise they have
filled the midst of thee with violence and
thou has sinned therefore i will cast thee
as profane out of the mountain of god
and i will destroy thee oh covering cherub
from the midst of the stones of fire
for thy heart was lifted up because of
thy beauty thou has corrupted thy wisdom by
reason of thy brightness i will cast thee
to the ground i will lay thee before
the kings that they may behold thee now
going back again to isaiah 14 it's an
interesting thing that when we look upon satan
and one day you will you will have
a chance to look at him and when
you do you'll be astonished verse 15
of chapter 14 isaiah yet you said i'm
going to be like the most high yet
thou shall be brought down to hell to
the sides of the pit and they that
see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and
consider thee saying is this the man that
made the earth to tremble and did shake
kingdoms wow is that the one that gave
me such a bad time wow so i
will lay thee before kings that they may
behold thee it's going to be an awesome
experience an awesome sight when that day comes
now the question of course does remain when
did god create satan and when
did satan fall now his spell no doubt
came before his coming into the garden of
eden to tempt eve therefore i would have
to conclude that his spell came before genesis
chapter one verse three which speaks of god
beginning the recreative processes saying let there be
light and the fact that darkness covered the
face of the deep god is light in
him is no darkness at all that darkness
that enshrouded the world must have been satanic
in its origin as he is the prince
of darkness now there is what is known
as a gap theory of late there has
been an endeavor to more or less discredit
the gap theory but i still hold it
open in my own mind as a very
viable option one of the chief verses that
they use to destroy the gap theory is
when god gave the law he said for
six days shall thou do thy labor in
the seventh day thou shalt rest for in
six days god created the heaven the earth
and all that is in them and on
the seventh day god rested and taking that
in a very literal narrow sense it would
mean that the creation days did take place
somewhere around six thousand years ago or six
to ten thousand years ago and thus the
whole universe is only six to ten thousand
years old and we can't really prove that
this position is wrong it is quite possible
it is you say well how do you
explain then the fossils and the dating processes
that show that the earth is you know
millions of years or whatever and of course
there is number one the challenging of the
dating methods which is a legitimate challenge because
a part of that lava flow from uh
kilauea in hawaii that big flow in 1973
was taken to three different laboratories that have
their specialty of dating processes through the carbon
argon and and so forth and the three
laboratories taking these samples from the 1973 flow
of kilauea came up with age dates of
anywhere from 180 million years to 250 million
years old and yet it was chipped right
out of the flow of 1973 so there
is reason to question and challenge the accuracy
of the dating methods because in dating you
have to assume that there was so much
you know argon in the beginning and this
assumption is made and so much lead in
the beginning and all and those are assumptions
that we really don't know the second argument
is how old was adam the day god
created him you say well he was a
day old well then did he have teeth
how big was he so that when god
created adam there were no doubt what we
would call age dating factors built in so
that if you looked at adam the day
that god created him you'd probably say well
he must be 30 years old at least
look at the skeleton development the muscular development
look at the teeth and and all well
he must be 30 years old so that
god created him not as an infant but
as a man with age dating factors now
of course we know god could do anything
so that god could have created the earth
with fossils already in its structure with age
dating factors there if he so chose to
do so now the problem that i
see with this using for in six days
god created the heaven and the earth and
all that is in them the problem i
see with that is that that would have
to then include satan and when did god
then create satan in this six day creation
period you see and then when did satan
fall and how is it that he got
into the garden of eden so early now
the gap theory which i do feel has
a great deal of credence and is probably
best set out by pember in his book
earth's earliest ages take genesis 1 as an
account of original creation in the beginning god
created the heavens and the earth in the
beginning whenever that was how many billion years
ago there's no no date no estimate and
that the earth perhaps was a part of
satan's kingdom as the anointed cherub that covered
it and in a beautiful mineral kingdom upon
the earth until the day that iniquity was
found in him and he was destroyed and
cast out and at that time the earth
became wasted and desolate and darkness covered the
face of the deep and that what you
have then in genesis from verse 3 on
is the recreation of the earth in order
that man might inhabit it in his present
form but what types of animals creatures that
are all there in the fossil record could
have existed in the billions of years prior
to genesis verse 3 chapter 1 and thus
all of the ages would be all accounted
for because we don't know when the original
creation took place and there are viable arguments
and of course the fact that satan came
along so early he had already fallen to
tempt eve and that there was darkness over
the face of the deep and all all
tend to give credence to this gap theory
and that the earth was somehow disheveled and
destroyed at satan's rebellion and sin against god
and a literal reading in verse 2 can
read but the earth became wasted and desolate
and it is not consistent with god's creative
acts to create something wasted and desolate when
god creates it he creates it perfect god
saw the light that it was good god
saw the land that it was good god
saw the animals they were good it isn't
consistent with god to create something wasted and
desolate without form and void so there are
some arguments very powerful arguments for the gap
theory and i have not in my own
mind totally set it aside as not worthy
of consideration i think that it has some
very worthy points and thus i have no
firm set in my own mind as far
as creation is concerned it's still an open
chapter an open file and i await further
information i know that god could have created
the whole thing just 10 000 years ago
6 000 i have no problem with that
but i also realize that it could have
been billions of years ago and that between
genesis 1 and 2 you have a long
gap at which time somewhere in there satan
was created and satan fell and rebelled against
god and the whole system was brought into
a chaotic state the earth became wasted and
desolate without form and void and all so
um you know there's you can't be dogmatic
in my mind on these things though i
know many people are dogmatic on it thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of
your iniquities and by the iniquity of the
traffic therefore will i bring forth a fire
from the midst of thee and it shall
devour thee and i will bring thee to
ashes upon the earth and the sight of
all them that behold thee satan will ultimately
be cast into the lake that is burning
with fire and this is the reference to
it here uh right now satan has great
liberties god has allowed him these liberties there
are liberties within boundaries satan works within prescribed
boundaries that god has placed upon him when
he came to god concerning job he said
you put a hedge around him i can't
touch him god put the boundaries upon satan
the perimeters in which he can work as
far as i'm concerned he still has too
much liberty when jesus comes again and establishes
the kingdom of god upon the earth satan
will at that point be bound and placed
into the abuso the bottomless pit where he
will stay for almost a thousand years right
out towards the end of that thousand year
period he'll be released again for a short
season to deceive people and to create a
rebellion against the lord that the lord might
be righteous when he makes the final judgment
for there will be those who will have
been born during the kingdom age or those
who have lived into the kingdom age who
have never really made a real commitment of
their lives to jesus christ will have to
live righteously by force during the age but
towards the end they'll be given their opportunity
to express what has been in their heart
the whole time the rebellion against god that
is there and then at the culmination of
this final rebellion satan will be cast into
the gehenna the lake burning with fire and
there the final judgment of god upon him
as is expressed here all they that know
thee among the people shall be astonished at
thee thou shall be a terror and shall
never shalt thou be anymore no more freedom
liberty anything else the judgment of sidon now
he turns from tyre from the prince of
tyre to the sister city of sidon up
the coast and again the word of the
lord came into me saying son of man
set your face against sidon prophesy against it
and say thus saith the lord god behold
i am against thee oh sidon and i
will be glorified in the midst of thee
and they shall know that i am the
lord when i shall have executed judgments in
her and shall be sanctified in her for
i will send into her pestilence and blood
into her streets and the wounded shall be
judged in the midst of her by the
sword upon her on every side and they
shall know that i am the lord and
they shall not and they shall be no
more a pricking briar under the house of
israel nor any grieving thorn of all that
around about them that despise them and they
shall know that i am the lord god
notice there is nothing said about ultimate destruction
or complete destruction or never be rebuilt sidon
still exists on the ancient site of the
city of sidon and is still a city
there to the present day verse 25 god
speaks now the regathering of his people israel
thus saith the lord god when i shall
have gathered the house of israel speaking of
the present day from the people among whom
they are scattered and shall be sanctified in
them in the sight of the heathen now
that is not yet come that will take
place when the invading russian army is destroyed
then shall they dwell in their land that
i have given to my servant jacob and
they shall dwell safely therein and shall build
houses and plant vineyards yea they shall dwell
with confidence when i have executed judgments upon
all those that despise them round about them
and they shall know that i am the
lord their god that's of course going on
into the kingdom age when god has finally
brought his judgment upon all of the nations
for the treatment that they have given to
the jews now as we get into chapter
29 in the 10th year that would be
the year 587 bc and in the 10th
month the 12th day of the month this
prophecy came to ezekiel concerning the pharaoh who
was the king of egypt who was pharaoh
hopfrey and it came against him and against
all of egypt and said speak and say
thus saith the lord god behold i'm against
the pharaoh king of egypt the great dragon
that lies in the midst of his rivers
which hath said my river is my own
and i have made it for myself glorying
in the great nile and its tributaries but
i will put hooks in your jaws and
i will cause the fish of the rivers
to stick unto thy scales and i will
bring thee up out of the midst of
thy rivers and all of the fish of
thy river shall stick unto thy scales and
i will leave thee thrown into the wilderness
thee and all of the fish of thy
rivers and thou shall fall upon the open
fields now shall not be brought together nor
gathered now i have given thee for meat
to the beast of the field and the
fowls of the heaven and all the inhabitants
of egypt shall know that i am the
lord because i have been a staff of
a reed because you have been a staff
of a reed to the house of israel
now israel leaned upon egypt for help it
wasn't right that they do so god wanted
them to lean upon him in fact the
prophet jeremiah said if you lean upon egypt
it'll be like a broken reed and it'll
pierce your hand now a reed is not
a strong staff at all a reed may
look strong but it's very fibrous and it
has no strength at all though it looks
like you could really lean upon it you
go to lean upon a reed and the
thing will just bend and and you'll and
it'll you know you can just pierce through
your hand with the thing if you really
are leaning hard upon a reed you're trusting
in something that just can't hold you up
it'll bend it'll break and you'll fall now
egypt was likened unto a reed upon the
people of god leaned and pharaoh hopfrey did
come up with the egyptian forces and he
caused nebuchadnezzar to pull back from his sieging
of jerusalem for a while but then the
pharaoh hopfrey returned to egypt and nebuchadnezzar continued
his siege and destroyed jerusalem so because pharaoh
hopfrey was not really a help to judah
god speaks against him you've been like a
staff of reed to the house of israel
when they took hold of thee by thy
hand you did break and you tore all
their shoulder and when they leaned upon thee
you broke and you made their loins to
be at a stand therefore thus saith the
lord god behold i will bring a sword
upon thee and cut off man and beast
out of thee and the land of egypt
shall be desolate and waste and they shall
know that i am the lord because he
has said the river is mine and i
have made it again as nebuchadnezzar said this
great babylon is mine i have made it
and the watchers in heaven said oh you
know we'll put you down for that one
and he went insane for a period of
time we'll get that in a few weeks
when we get to daniel fascinating story behold
therefore i am against thee and against thy
rivers and i will make the land of
egypt utterly waste and desolate from the tower
of seen under the border of ethiopia no
foot of man shall pass through it or
foot of beast for a period of 40
years and i will make the land of
egypt desolate in the midst of the countries
that are desolate on their cities round about
the cities are laid waste and shall be
desolate for 40 years and i'll scatter the
egyptians among the nations and will disperse them
in the countries yet thus saith the lord
god at the end of 40 years will
i gather egyptians from the people where they've
been scattered and i will bring again the
captivity of egypt and will cause them to
return into the land of pathos to the
land of their habitation and they shall be
their abase kingdom and it will become the
basis of kingdoms and neither shall exalt itself
anymore above the nations for i will diminish
them that that they shall be no more
a ruler over the nations and it shall
be no more the confidence of the house
of israel which brings their iniquity to remembrance
and it shall come to pass and it
came to pass in the seventh and 20th
year in the first month of the first
day of the month the word of the
lord came unto me saying son of man
now uh there are those bible critics who
say well this did not happen during the
time of pharaoh hopfrey that nebuchadnezzar did not
conquer egypt during the time of his reign
it is interesting that they have skipped this
particular reference in verse 17.
he doesn't say that nebuchadnezzar conquered the pharaoh
hopfrey and conquered egypt during the time of
his reign but this came in the 27th
year the previous prophecy came in the 10th
year so the latter part of this chapter
came 17 years later after the death of
pharaoh hopfrey son of man nebuchadnezzar the king
of babylon caused his army to serve a
great service against tyrus every head was made
bald every shoulder was peeled yet they had
no wages nor his army for tyrus for
the service they had served against it now
god is saying look nebuchadnezzar was my servant
he destroyed tyrus but he didn't get paid
by the time he conquered the city there
was no spoil so neither he nor his
army got their pay for the job that
they did for me in the destruction of
tyrus therefore they will go down and they
will conquer egypt and there they will get
their wages as they take the great wealth
of egypt unto themselves and so the spoil
of egypt was to be the pay that
god gave to nebuchadnezzar and his troops for
the lack of pay in the destruction of
tyrus in chapter 30 the word of the
lord came again to me saying son of
man prophesy and say thus saith the lord
howl ye woe worth the day so he's
going around howling whoa whoa worth the day
for the day is near even the day
of the lord is near a cloudy day
and it shall be a time of the
heathen and the sword shall come upon egypt
in great pain shall be in ethiopia and
he tells of the destruction that is going
to come against these nations uh ethiopia libya
lita and all of the mingled people of
chub the men are in the land in
league shall fall by them in the sword
thus saith the lord they also that uphold
egypt shall fall the pride of her power
shall come down and from the tower of
sin they shall fall in it by the
sword saith the lord and it shall be
desolate in the midst of the countries that
are desolate and her city shall be in
the midst of the cities that are wasted
and they shall know that i am the
lord when i have set a fire in
egypt and when all her helpers shall be
destroyed in that day shall messengers go forth
from me in ships to make the careless
ethiopians afraid and great pain shall come upon
them as in the day of egypt for
lo it cometh thus saith the lord god
i will also make the multitude of egypt
to cease by the hand of nebuchadnezzar the
king of babylon so the greatness which was
once egypt one of the greatest nations in
the ancient world you study ancient history and
egypt always stands out and you go of
course to egypt and you see the tremendous
monuments to the genius of the people of
that ancient world you see the ruins in
memphis and in things you see the pyramids
you see these the sphinx and all of
these great monuments that were there in egypt
and you can only stand in awe and
imagine the glory that once was in egypt
but egypt is to fall not to rise
into a world dominating stature again but to
remain just a base nation from then on
and of course such is the story egypt
is no longer a major kind of a
world empire or a major kingdom of the
world but it is just one of the
many lesser nations of the world even today
and god speaks of this judgment that is
going to come and he names the various
cities the lord said i verse 13 i
will destroy the idols i will cause their
images to cease out of memphis north is
memphis and of course you go to memphis
and you can see these huge idols that
are still there and there shall be no
more a prince in the land of egypt
that is a pharaoh i will put a
fear in the land of egypt and i
will make pathos desolate and i will set
on fire in zone and will execute judgments
in no which is thebes i will pour
out my fury upon sin and the strength
of egypt and i will cut off the
multitude of thebes and i will set fire
in egypt and sin shall have great pain
and thebes shall be torn asunder and memphis
shall have distresses daily and the young men
of avon and pibysheth shall fall by the
sword and these cities shall go into captivity
at tahapanes also the day shall be darkened
when i shall break there the yokes of
the egypt now it was at tahapanes that
jeremiah you remember took stones and he buried
them and he said over the top of
these stones nebuchadnezzar is going to build his
throne and of course archaeologists in excavating at
tahapanes uncovered the porch of the palace and
they removed the stones the pavement and underneath
they found the very stones that jeremiah buried
as a witness against that city and it
was indeed there that nebuchadnezzar came and set
up his throne jeremiah says you're trusting in
egypt to deliver you look nebuchadnezzar is going
to set up his throne right here egypt
isn't going to deliver now that did not
happen during the period of pharaoh hopfrey but
this portion of course happened later seventeen years
after the beginning of the siege of tyre
or actually it was fifteen years after that
that god for payment to nebuchadnezzar gave him
egypt verse twenty it came to pass now
in the eleventh year that is you're back
in to first month april of five eighty
six bc and it's important that you catch
these datings of these prophecies so that you
know at what time these particular prophecies were
made so this now was made in april
five eighty six the year that jerusalem fell
to nebuchadnezzar the word of the lord came
unto me saying son of man i have
broken the arm of pharaoh king of egypt
and lo it shall not be bound up
to be healed to put a ruler to
bind it or to make a strong to
hold the sword therefore thus saith the lord
god behold i'm against pharaoh king of egypt
pharaoh hopfrey again at this time and will
break his arms the strong and that which
was broken and i will cause the sword
to fall out of his hand and i
will scatter the egyptians among the nations and
will disperse them through the countries and i
will strengthen the arms of the king of
babylon and put my sword in his hand
but i will break pharaoh's arms and he
shall groan before him with the groanings of
a deadly wounded man but i will strengthen
the arms of the king of babylon and
the arms of pharaoh shall fall down and
they shall know that i am the lord
when i shall put my sword into the
hand of the king of babylon and he
shall stretch it upon the land of egypt
and i will scatter egyptians among the nations
disperse them among the countries and they shall
know that i am the lord and so
god's judgments pronounced against egypt and the next
couple of chapters he continues these judgments against
egypt and then we get into these instructions
for those of the jewish captivity and of
their coming back into the land and we
get into some very exciting prophecies as we
move into next week and prophecies that we
see being fulfilled today uh in the land
of israel may the lord keep his hand
upon your life and may he speak to
you this week through his word and may
he open up your heart and your mind
and your understanding to the things of the
spirit may he cause you to realize that
his righteous principles will always prevail that when
god speaks it can be accounted as done
and when god establishes a principle it cannot
be violated and thus may you live in
that place where god can bless you as
he desires to bless you may you keep
yourself in the love of god as you
walk in fellowship with him this week in
jesus name