“This message came to me concerning Tyre: Wail, you trading ships of Tarshish, for the harbour and houses of Tyre are gone! The rumours you heard in Cyprus are all true. … The Lord held out his hand over the sea and shook the kingdoms of the earth. He has spoken out against Phoenicia, ordering that her fortresses be destroyed. He says, “Never again will you rejoice, O daughter of Sidon, for you have been crushed. Even if you flee to Cyprus, you will find no rest.” Look at the land of Babylonia— the people of that land are gone! The Assyrians have handed Babylon over to the wild animals of the desert. They have built siege ramps against its walls, torn down its palaces, and turned it to a heap of rubble. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your harbour is destroyed!
Isaiah 23:1, 11-14 NLT
In this oracle written against Tyre, the ancient Phoenician trading port located just South of Beirut, God’s presence was clear. In the natural, and without any sort of divine intervention, they would probably have continued to trade for many years, sinfully plying their maritime businesses from a city that was nearly impregnable, located as it was partially on an offshore island. But their pride was their downfall, and eventually God had to act in judgment, as we read in Isaiah 23:8-9, “Who has brought this disaster on Tyre, that great creator of kingdoms? Her traders were all princes, her merchants were nobles. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has done it to destroy your pride and bring low all earth’s nobility”. But did God’s intervention apply in all the wars and skirmishes that took place in Old Testament times? The Israelites entered the Promised Land of Canaan, driving out the people who lived there, but they found no peace, as one nation after another fought them for land or plain hatred. But God couldn’t allow Tyre to continue because it was starting to use its economic strength to plunder the nations around it, and particularly God’s people.
Ancient Tyre experienced something like the Wall Street crash of 1929, when the market collapsed almost overnight, leading to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1929, the stock market collapsed due to poor financial decisions and over-inflated share prices. Tyre experienced something similar with the collapse of its commerce. It relied on its immense economic power, its status as a maritime superpower, and its mighty sea fortresses to act with pride and arrogance, treating its renowned merchants like princes and forgetting God’s ultimate sovereignty.
We pilgrims live in a world driven and underpinned by capitalism. Nations trade with one another. Businesses buy and sell. But the message from Tyre is that capitalism on its own is a poor foundation for mankind’s future. The stock market can crash, and businesses can crash with it. Currencies can collapse, destroying buying power and bringing hardship over which ordinary people have no influence or control. Closer to home, we occasionally see houses lose value, putting the owners into what we call negative equity, where they are unable to realise sufficient value from their investments to repay the loans taken out to purchase the property in the first place. And then to compound the problems, health can be impacted, bringing uncertainty and misery in more extreme cases. But in all of this, we have a God who is unchangeable and who is immune to human systems and market crashes. Paul gave Timothy some great advice: “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life” (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Regarding the future, the only sure and solid foundation is Jesus Himself. He never changes and is “… the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
One repeated emphasis throughout Isaiah is God’s rule over history. To their merchants, Tyre looked untouchable, but God simply announced its fall. And we know from history, and the ruins that we can see today, that what He said happened. The time we live in today is politically uncertain, with a war going on between the US, Israel, and Iran and its proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. Ever since it was established in 1948, Israel has been under attack from one source or another. Anti-Semitism is an ongoing problem in many nations. And then we have the war going on in the Eastern borders of Europe, and now in its fifth year. But these are just the headline conflicts. There are many other skirmishes going on as nations rise and fall, and leaders come and go. We could be tempted to think that God doesn’t care, but the story of Tyre says otherwise. God is always active in world events, and He will act when necessary because he is sovereign. For us pilgrims, we trust in Him, and we agree with Paul about what he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:18, “Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen”. The Psalmist wrote, “The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever” (Psalm 121:7-8). And of immense comfort to believers everywhere is Psalm 46:8-10, “Come, see the glorious works of the Lord: See how he brings destruction upon the world. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear; he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honoured by every nation. I will be honoured throughout the world””. There will come a time when all wars will end, and many believers, looking at today’s world events, feel that this won’t be far off.
We pilgrims rest in God’s loving arms, secure and trusting that He will bring us safely home. Isaiah 26:4-5, “Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock. He humbles the proud and brings down the arrogant city. He brings it down to the dust”. There may be much dust in the world around us, but we stand firm on the solid Rock, God Himself. No dust there.
Dear Father God. Thank You for Your presence in our lives. In these uncertain times, we look to You as the Source of all that we need, confident in our salvation, and sure that one day You will welcome us home. Thank You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 