“An oracle against Tyre: Wail, ships of Tarshish, for your haven has been destroyed. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus. Mourn, inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon; your agents have crossed the sea on many waters. Tyre’s revenue was the grain from Shihor — the harvest of the Nile. She was the merchant among the nations. Be ashamed Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” When the news reaches Egypt, they will be in anguish over the news about Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish; wail, inhabitants of the coastland! Is this your jubilant city, whose origin was in ancient times, whose feet have taken her to settle far away? Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are the honored ones of the earth? The Lord of Hosts planned it, to desecrate all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the honored ones of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:1-9 HCSB)
Key Verse: “The Lord of Hosts planned it, to desecrate all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the honored ones of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9 HCSB)
If you’re reading these words, you are, at a minimum, aware of the spiritual aspects of life. You recognize that there’s more to life than just the things we think we know and can verify through our physical senses and scientific validation. Life consists of more than the sum or your intellectual, social, economic and creative achievements. You may not completely understand the somewhat mysterious spiritual aspect of human existence, but you acknowledge its existence and, perhaps, its importance in life. I realize that’s a HUGE assumption, but I think my assumption can be validated by your attention and interest in reading the words of this humble, nondescript, small town preacher.
But acknowledging the spiritual realities of life doesn’t equate to an understanding of or proper belief in God. In fact, one of the most destructive mindsets of modern man is the belief that any heartfelt and firmly held belief in God is sufficient. Modern cultural norms hold that all religious belief is equally true and valid. Well, for the most part. Tolerance in our culture is stated as: “Your beliefs are valid and permissible, as long as they don’t violate, devalue or offend mine.” However, every deeply held belief, religious or otherwise, is inherently exclusive by nature.
Let me state that again: EVERY deeply held belief, religious or not, is inherently exclusive by its very nature. You don’t cling to a belief unless you hold it to be exclusively true. Even those who say that all religious beliefs are equally valid hold that very maxim to be exclusively true. But here’s the problem, the logic of their argument is itself false and self-defeating. You can’t say that all beliefs are equally valid and true, but mine is more valid and true than yours. Well, you can say that but you would obviously be wrong.
Why did I take time to make that point? Because we are often influenced by cultural trends and beliefs without even realizing it. To put it simply, you are a product of your culture. Don’t even try to deny it, you know it’s true. We look back on our past and long for its return. You and I are shaped by those things we’ve experienced, learned, believed, and validated. Can we change? Yes, but not without altered belief, effort and commitment. We do what we do because we believe it benefits us in some way. That benefit may be physical, emotional, economical or spiritual. So, for any change to be successful and long lasting it must outweigh or be valued higher than the benefit of our current beliefs or actions.
Our focal passage is about this very issue. At first glance, you might not realize it but it’s in there. Isaiah’s final oracle or burden is against Tyre and, by extension, Sidon, the legendary cities of trade and commerce in the Mediterranean world. Tyre sits in the center of the coastal region of the ancient Fertile Crescent (modern day Lebanon). If you were to look at a topographical map of the area, you would find that entire region is hemmed in by mountains. In several places, those mountains extend all the way to the sea and makes overland travel difficult but creates excellent sea ports. With overland travel difficult and great sea ports readily accessible, the shipping industry thrived, commerce exploded and Tyrians became wealthy merchant middlemen.
This first section, verses 1-15, calls for weeping, wailing, mourning and shame because of the collapse of Tyre’s vast trade empire, global influence and financial power. The extent of her reach and vastness of her wealth is highlighted by the references to the ships of Tarshish and the grain from Shihor. Tarshish is thought to be a port city in the far western region of the Mediterranean, likely along the Spanish coast while the grain from Shihor is from Egypt in the far southeastern region of the Mediterranean. Notice, “She (Tyre) was the merchant among the nations” and Sidon (her sister city) is “the stronghold of the sea.”
The sailors aboard the ships of Tarshish wail when they arrive at port in Cyprus because they hear that their “haven [Tyre] has been destroyed.” The inhabitants of the coastal regions mourn over the loss of Sidon and the people of Egypt are in anguish over the news of her destruction. But who planned this against Tyre, the city whose wealth and financial influence has bestowed crowns, who trades with princes and whose merchants are honored all over the world? This is was planned by the LORD of Hosts, the God of the Nations. But why? Why would God destroy Tyre and Sidon? Because of their human pride and refusal to honor and bow in obedience before Him.
When we feel financially secure we tend to ignore God and pursue our own plans and agendas. As our wealth, power and influence grows we tend to grow prideful, independent and self-seeking. Don’t misunderstand me, there have been some who have possessed wealth and remained humble stewards and obedient servants of the LORD God. But, generally speaking, wealth has a tendency to pull us away from dependence upon and humility before God. Jesus’ words are deeply insightful and infinitely important here: ““No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money.” (Matthew 6:24 HCSB)
That’s precisely the problem that God is addressing in Isaiah’s oracle against Tyre: you can only serve one master at a time.
So, let’s unpack that idea a bit. Not only is Jesus saying that we have a tendency to get focused on wealth and the security and power it affords, but He’s also saying that we were created to be servants of the Most High God. We highlight the issues with money in this quote from Jesus or we focus on the loss of wealth in the oracle of Isaiah, but the real heart of the matter is our relationship and accountability before our Creator. Who or what controls our decisions about life?
I mentioned above that change only happens in our lives when we acknowledge the truth of a statement of belief and fully embrace the value and benefit of such a change in our lives. We tend to have very pragmatic or practical beliefs, we believe what best benefits our desires, needs or goals. To put it in Biblical terms, what we treasure we pursue. When we treasure comfort, pleasure, entertainment, wealth or power then we tend to pursue the things that provide them. Tyre enjoyed her position, her influence, her financial success and the things it provided and that caused her to be prideful, arrogant and self-seeking. Wealth, position, influence, financial success and the things they provide often produce the same results in us – pride, arrogance and selfishness before God.
Yet, God doesn’t call His people to seek wealth and to pursue success. He calls for us to seek Him and to pursue holiness. He calls for us to seek the establishment and growth of His kingdom and His righteousness, not our own. God’s blessings are not given so we can sit back, relish in the comfort they provide and ignore His Word and act selfishly. His blessings are given so we can be obedient to His commands, to bless others and to point them to right belief, obedience and faith in the One who has blessed us with His mercy, forgiveness and redeeming grace.
I want to be very clear here, I mentioned above that we tenaciously cling to beliefs that benefit us. We have a very pragmatic or practical approach to religious beliefs and faith. We tend to believe and highlight those things that give us what we desire. What I didn’t mention is that we also tend to disbelieve, ignore or downplay the parts of religious belief that challenge us in those areas. In other words, we like truth as long as it validates our desires and we question it when it challenges our desires. We seek out what we treasure.
What happens when what we treasure is in direct opposition to God’s will? That’s what we find in the latter part of our focal passage, Isaiah 23. God judges Tyre and Sidon for their prideful arrogance and refusal to trust Him, to believe in and obey Him. The city of Tyre was partially a land based seaport on the coast, but it was also partly a heavily fortified city on an island just off that same coast. God declared that she would be destroyed, completely leveled, stripped of her palaces and left as a ruin. She would lie barren and forgotten for 70 years, the lifespan of one king, and then the LORD would restore her. But she didn’t learn her lesson and she returned to her old way of life, “prostituting herself with all the kingdoms of the world.”
But this is where things take a very interesting turn. While Tyre doesn’t learn the lesson of her destruction and returns to her old ways, God is sovereign and makes certain that her profits and wages “will be dedicated to the LORD.” See what I mean by things take an interesting turn? There is this paradox that exists in scripture between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Many see these as not just paradoxical stances but also as mutually exclusive stances. How can God be absolutely sovereign and, yet, man still have free will? Yet, in His sovereignty God has allowed man to choose whether to love Him, whether to serve Him, bow before Him and obey Him. We can choose Him or not but, in His sovereignty, God holds man accountable and responsible for his choices.
Yes, God judges Tyre and Sidon for her pride, arrogance and self-centered approach to life. Then He restores her place among the nations as a center for trade and commerce, but her people didn’t listen, they didn’t learn anything from those 70 years of God’s sovereign judgment. So, He allows them to continue in their rebellion but He declares that her profits and wages will be used for His purposes, it “will go to those who live in the LORD’s presence, to provide them with ample food and sacred clothing.” We may choose but we cannot thwart God’s sovereign purpose and plan.
“See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”(Deuteronomy 30:15-16 HCSB)
What does this oracle of Isaiah against Tyre have to do with you and me? We face the same life choices. God is sovereign, but He has given you and I the ability to choose. We can choose Him which brings life and prosperity or we can choose our own way which brings death and adversity. Like Tyre, we tend to have poor short term memory and a woefully short sighted view of life. As I stated at the very beginning, life is more than what we can know and experience with our physical senses. There truly is a spiritual aspect to life. So, we must be willing to hear and learn these lessons that God provides. We must make life choices based on a view of eternity and not just the next few minutes, the next few years or even the next few decades.
In the Matthew passage that I cited earlier, Jesus sandwiches the following in between His statement about “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and “you cannot be slaves of God and money” with this: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” (Matthew 6:22 HCSB) He’s not talking about physical sight or blindness but spiritual sight or blindness. If we’re blind to where real treasure in life lies then we will be slaves to the wrong thing. If we’re spiritually blind then we will become slaves to money and our lives will be full of darkness. But if we will open our spiritual “eyes” then we will recognize the truth and choose the right treasure, the one that brings light and life – becoming slaves of God.
In ‘The Great Divorce’, C.S. Lewis says: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” Please don’t miss this, it isn’t about whether you believe in the God of the Bible or not. It is possible to know and believe the right things, but to never know God or His Son, Jesus. This is about whether you kneel before Him and, in obedience, seek the life He provides for you and desires in you.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! ’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name? ’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23 HCSB)
Will you choose success, as you define it, or will you choose life, as He defines it?
Choose wisely…
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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