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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because
she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of
brotherhood, I will send fire on the walls of Tyre that will consume her
fortresses.”
Amos 1:9-10
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
First it was Aram. Next it was Philistia.
These were the first two nations called out by God for
judgment as we saw in our first two devotions in this eight devotion series. In
both incidences, as we will see in each message, the nations mentioned have
committed multiple sins against God symbolized by one simple statement:
“For three sins, even for four.”
Today, we find God turning his attention toward Phoenicia and
the city of Tyre. Look at these two verses in our continuing study of Amos,
Chapter 1:
This is what the Lord
says:
“For three sins of
Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she sold whole communities of
captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, I will send fire on the
walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.” Amos 1:9-10
Phoenicia was located along the Mediterranean Sea and
bordered Israel to the northwest. Given its proximity to the sea, Tyre and its
sister city, Sidon, to the north became vast centers of commerce and trade.
How important was Tyre in relation to the Israelites?
So important that we find the scriptures telling us about a
deal that was brokered between the two nations after Solomon assumed the Israelite
throne from his father, David. Look at the following:
When Hiram, king of
Tyre, heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he
sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with
David. Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
“You know that
because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not
build a temple for the Name of the Lord his God until the Lord put his enemies
under his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, and
there is no adversary or disaster. I intend, therefore, to build a temple for
the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my father David, when He said,
‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for
My Name.’”
“So give orders that
cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you
for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in
felling timber as the Sidonians.”
When Hiram heard
Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord
today, for He has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.”
So Hiram sent word to
Solomon:
“I have received the
message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and juniper
logs. My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and I
will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate
them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food
for my royal household.”
In this way Hiram
kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted, and
Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in
addition to twenty thousand baths of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do
this for Hiram year after year. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as He had
promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the
two of them made a treaty. 1 Kings 5:1-10
Relations were good between the two nations at this point as
they made a treaty with one another, a treaty often referred to as “a treaty by
brotherhood”. It would endure through the reign of Ahab who the scriptures tell
us did evil by marrying Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians.
This was followed by Ahab worshiping and serving the false god Baal (1 Kings
16:31-33). His adoption of worship practices forbidden by God led to this
statement in the same scripture passage:
“Ahab did more to
arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of
Israel before him.”
Not good.
Before I go any further, we need to keep this in mind about
Tyre because it’s very central to understanding the magnitude of what God is
promising to do in judgment.
The city was really divided into two parts. The first was a
rocky fortress on the mainland referred to as “Old Tyre” and the second was the
city itself which was on a well fortified island approximately one half mile
from the coast. The location of Tyre made it nearly impregnable but as we know,
nothing can resist the power of the Lord when He brings it upon any person or
nation.
And the power of God was about to be leveraged against the
center of commerce and trade, mostly because their commerce and trade involved
human trafficking. The Lord indicted the city for the following:
“She sold whole
communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood.”
Tyre was no better than the nation of Philistia that we
looked at yesterday. They didn’t just barter a few people away but rather “whole
communities of captives”, assumedly pawning those people off into slavery in
direct violation of the treaty struck by Solomon many years prior. And so God
took action and promised the following punishment:
“I will send fire on
the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.”
Tyre would come under siege and attack by Nebuchadnezzar and
his Babylonian forces for nearly 13 years but the city’s downfall wouldn’t
occur until the Greeks, under the leadership of Alexander the Great, assaulted
it. Today, the once mighty island is just a place of desolate ruin and it has
been that way for more than 2,000 years, destroyed just as God had promised.
A once mighty and prosperous city was reduced to rubble.
This is what can happen when sin takes root anywhere and God becomes an afterthought.
Tyre’s wickedness, underscored by its pervasive idolatry, was well known and
well prophesied against by no less than five of God’s messengers (Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Zechariah) and yet the city and nation persisted
in its transgressions, leaving God no choice than to get their attention in a
powerful, unpleasant way. Any nation or city today had better take note because
if God did it in Old Testament times, He will most surely do it today as well
for He has never changed; He hates sin, even more when it’s three times, even
for four.”
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
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