Ezekiel 28:1

In the last couple of chapters judgment was pronounced upon the city-state of Tyre. In this chapter judgment is pronounced upon the leader of Tyre. If the leader is evil, then the nation will go down. There will be unintended consequences from the evil decisions. It seems to me at this point that Tyre and its leader have some striking similarities between the final kingdom of Babylon and the antichrist as described in the book of Revelation. The Bible says in Ezekiel 28:1-10, “The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,[2] Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:[3] Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:[4] With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:[5] By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:[6] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;[7] Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.[8] 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.[9] Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.[10] Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.”

The first thing said about the prince of Tyrus is “thine heart is lifted up.” He became very proud and arrogant because of his successes. Instead of being humble and realizing that God had blessed him, the prince of Tyrus took the credit to himself ad descended in to the foolishness and error of human self-aggrandizement. The ultimate end of that kind of pride is that the prince of Tyrus said, “I am a God.” Some false teachers go this route. This is among the terrible sins of the antichrist too. It says in Revelation 13:12 talking about both the false prophet and the antichrist, “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” It says about the antichrist in Daniel 11:36-37, “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.[37] Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.”

It is not a good thing if God describes your life and it sounds like the life of the antichrist. But in history there have been may leaders who would fit the description. That is why it says in First John 2:18, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” Because the rapture can occur at any time, and could have occurred at any time since the first century, there always has to antichrist present in the world ready to go forth conquering and conquer, as soon as the first seal is opened by Jesus as described in the book of Revelation.

The prince of Tyrus was wise as far as human wisdom is concerned. It says in verse 4, “With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.” Because of the human wisdom of this human leader, the country became richer and richer. In America we have had leaders who do not have this kind of wisdom. Instead of increasing in wisdom, they increased the debt of the nation. That will not end well, unless the grace of God overcomes the ineptitude of man. That is also why we need a business man to run our country instead of a politician. The prince of Tyre had practical wisdom, but not spiritual wisdom. You need both to lead the life that God wants you to have. You need both to avoid the pitfalls of life on this earth. The prince of Tyrus had success in material things, but he failed in coming to know God, and therefore the judgment came to him. Turn to Jesus while you have time, or you also will come to the judgment for your sins.

We have seen some similarities of the prince of Tyrus to the antichrist, and now we see that God uses him to symbolize Satan himself. The Bible says in Ezekiel 28:11-19, “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,[12] Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.[13] Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.[14] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.[15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.[16] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.[17] Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.[18] Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.[19] All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” Two things are said about the devil in verse 12. He is “full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.” The devil has a lot of wisdom no doubt. He uses it to deceive the whole world. He uses his wisdom for evil. Also, the devil is perfect in beauty. The devil is an angel, a beautiful angel. If you saw him, you would be attracted to his beauty. The devil is all about tempting people and attracting people to that which looks really good, but will lead to their destruction.

Verse 13 says, “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God.” Only Adam and Eve and the devil were in the garden of Eden. No wonder that Eve was attracted to listen to him because he was so extraordinarily beautiful. Be careful about that which attracts your senses especially by means of your sight. It says in First John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.[16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

In verse 14 the devil is called “the anointed cherub that covereth.” In other words the devil was an angel with privilege and access to God. He still has access to God, and he gets cast out of heaven once and for all in the middle of the Great Tribulation, as it says in Revelation 12:7-9, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,[8] And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.[9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

The final end of the devil is pronounced clearly in Ezekiel 28:18-19, “I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.[19] All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” The devil is a defeated foe. Jesus sealed the devil’s fate when Jesus obeyed the Father and died on the cross for the sins of the world. Concerning the final end of the devil, it says in Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

The Bible says in Ezekiel 28:20-26, “Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,[21] Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,[22] And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; 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.[23] 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.[24] And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.[25] Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.[26] 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.” Tyre and Sidon were two city-states that were very close together, and they shared a common life-style and history. Both were on the Mediterranean Sea coast to the northeast of Israel. Notice that God’s judgment upon Zidon comes for one main reason: God wanted them to know Him. God wants everyone to know Him. There is nothing more important than to come to know Jesus Christ: to meet Him and then to have a personal relationship with Him. That will decide if you go to heaven or not, and God wants everyone to go to heaven. God will do whatever it takes to wake you up. Sometimes it takes pain and difficulty and judgment to wake people up. That is the method that God will use on the whole world during the time of the Great Tribulation, and that is the method that God used on the Sidonians. God said in verse 22, “they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her.”

There is another reason that God brought judgment upon Sidon: they “despised” Israel, it says in verse 22. This is a common theme among the nations that are judged: hatred for Israel. Let this be a warning to the nations today. Wise is the leader and happy is that nation that makes a friend out of Israel. God has a good purpose and a good plan for Israel, and He will fulfill that plan. Eventually God will bring great judgment upon the whole earth in order to fulfill His plan for Israel. Jesus came to bring salvation to Israel first of all. We who are Gentiles fit into the blessing by believing on Jesus too. The future that God has planned for Israel is stated very clearly in the last two verses of this passage: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.[26] 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.” God will gather Israel back into the land. It is their land. God gave it to them. God’s blessings will be upon Israel. Gentiles are invited to partake of those blessings too, if they will call upon the name of Jesus and be saved. Are you saved?

___________________________________________________