B. Judgment Against Tyre and Sidon (26:1-28:26)
There is one basic ingredient that must lie behind the fact that Ezekiel prophesied more about Tyre than any of the prophets: as the capital of Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), Tyre was also the capital of Canaanite culture and religion. Canaanite culture and religion had completely saturated Israel, thus bringing upon Israel Ezekiel’s repeated pronouncements of God’s wrath. God promised the city a swift end under the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.
Vv.3-24 of ch. 27 sound on the surface as though God were agreeing with Tyre’s announced opinion of itself: “I am perfect in beauty” (v.3). Indeed, as one of the world’s great trade centers, it had much to be proud of, as this chapter shows. The problem was that she had come to believe and trust in her own opinion of herself. The chapter ends, however (vv.25-36), with the verdict, “Pride goes before a fall.” Those who applauded her will become appalled at her when the end comes, so terrible will it be.
Ch. 28 emphasizes the judgment against Tyre as its king is denounced for his inordinate pride and self-deification. Contrary to some interpretations, this chapter is not a description of Satan and his ultimate fate. The language Ezekiel used is highly symbolic and poetic and makes use of language and imagery that echo Ge 2 and 3. The text and its larger context (chs. 25-28) can refer only to the king of Tyre and his pride. It is unfortunate that later traditions about Satan from the intertestamental period are often read into this chapter and other OT passages such as Isa 14:12, while at the same time the context is ignored. The student of the Bible must begin with the context of any passage to understand it.
It is clear from 28:12-15 that the king of Tyre was an unusual person, with unusual potential and possibilities. Although he was a pagan, God said of him, “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. . . . You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you” (28:12c, 14a). Is this statement to be taken as sarcasm or irony? More likely, it probably reflects God’s sovereign control of all history and nations, as the apostle Paul was to write later, “The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Ro 13:1). Perhaps within God’s grand design God had special plans for the king of Tyre (cf. Isa 45:1 and its reference to the Persian king Cyrus). The tragedy is that although this king had been created blameless (v.15), he allowed pride and wickedness (v.15) to rule his life and to destroy himself, his potential, and his nation. The lesson seems all too obvious: “In the pride and fall of the Prince of Tyre, there is repeated the story of ‘primeval man.’ This is ‘Everyman’s story’” (Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2, 95). It is always true that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled” (Mt 23:12).
Sidon (vv.20-26), a city near Tyre, would be destroyed also. As a Canaanite city it had been a partner with Tyre in its corruption.