Isaiah 23
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Isaiah 23]
1 The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor; It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus. 2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon; Your messengers crossed the sea 3 And were on many waters. The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue; And she was the market of nations. 4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.” 5 When the report reaches Egypt, They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. 6 Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland. 7 Is this your jubilant city, Whose origin is from antiquity, Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?
8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9 The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty, To despise all the honored of the earth. 10 Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint. 11 He has stretched His hand out over the sea, He has made the kingdoms tremble; The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds. 12 He has said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.” 13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. 14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For your stronghold is destroyed.
15 Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: 16 Take your harp, walk about the city, O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, That you may be remembered. 17 It will come about at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the Lord; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] Judah is in trouble. Assyria is on the hunt and Judah looks like prey, so Judah is looking for an ally or maybe more than one.
Throughout this section of Isaiah, God has shown His people that none of the other nations make good allies; God is saying to His people, “I’m the only ally you need, put your trust in me.”
This is not an easy ask because the army of heaven can’t be seen; in fact, even God cannot be seen.
To trust in the Lord and the strength of His might requires Judah to walk by faith and not by sight.
What makes for a good ally?
At the begging of this section, Babylon’s power made it seem like an attractive choice.
Here is Isaiah 23, Tyre’s wealth makes it seem like the right choice.
But both Babylon and Tyre will bow to Assyria, so why doesn’t Judah just take Assyria as an ally? Why doesn’t Judah just align itself with whatever superpower happens to be in power?
Here’s why: even the mightiest of superpowers have a weakness—temporality.
No matter how mighty they are, no nation will stand forever.
Like Tyre, their influence on the world scene will rise and fall until they are finally relegated to the dustbin of history.
But God is a different sort of ally because He is eternal.
His power and influence never wane, and not one (try as they might) will ever relegate Him to the dustbin of history.
The resources of the wealthiest nations will one day run dry, but God’s resource are limitless.
But then again, these resources can’t be seen; they are not of this world because God’s Kingdom is not of this world; and God’s resources can only be accessed by people who are devoted to Him in holiness.
This is a problem for Judah.
On the whole, Judah doesn’t want to be devoted to the Lord in holiness.
It wants to be like the other nations, at lease at heart.
Sure, there is a veneer of holiness in Judah in Isaiah’s day, but Judah’s heart is far from God, and its hard to trust a God you don’t love.
Tyre’s wealth makes it an attractive potential ally for Judah. We can imagine the leaders in Judah saying, “Look at the wealth! Look at the ships! Look at the economy! This is the marketplace of the nations! What an ally it would be! It has sway! It has influence! Imagine where we’d be if we linked arms with a nation like Tyre!”
But although Tyre glimmers, it is not gold.
On the world scene, God is using Assyria to tear down the idolatrous strongholds of men, and Tyre is marked for destruction.
[CIT] In Isaiah 23, Tyre is depicted as the merchant of the nations—the world’s prostitute—who will be brought down by God and ultimately used for His glory and the good of His people.
[INTER] What’s the lesson for us?
[PROP] In the words of 1 Timothy 6:17, it’s this, “Do not fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God., who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.”
God is the only ally we need.
All that we need will come from Him.
[TS] Let’s look at Isaiah 23 in three PARTS…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
PART #1: Is this your jubilant city? (Isa. 23:1-7)
PART #1: Is this your jubilant city? (Isa. 23:1-7)
1 The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor; It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus. 2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon; Your messengers crossed the sea 3 And were on many waters. The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue; And she was the market of nations. 4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.” 5 When the report reaches Egypt, They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. 6 Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland. 7 Is this your jubilant city, Whose origin is from antiquity, Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?
[EXP] A ship of Tarshish was a big merchant vessel that carried grain and other goods to different parts of the world. The scene described here is that of merchants vessels returning to their home port in Tyre only to receive news that Tyre is no more.
It is destroyed without house or harbor (v. 1).
The ships of Tarshish are to wail, but the nearby coastlands are to keep silent (v. 2).
The judgment of God has made for a stunned silence.
Sidon, Egypt, and all nations in this part of the world will be affected by the destruction of Tyre, the market of the nations (v. 3).
Tyre will be like a person without descendants (v. 4); there is nothing about it that carries on once it has fallen.
The news of Tyre’s destruction spreads fast: from Sidon to Egypt, throughout the coastland, even to Tarshish (v. 6).
This is one reason why the destruction of Tyre was so unthinkable. Isaiah 23:7 gives us three reasons…
Reason #1: Tyre was a jubilant city.
Tyre was an active city full hustle and bustle.
Surely such a lively place would always be alive, right?
Reason #2: Tyre was an ancient city.
The island city (before it was connected to the coastland by Alexander the Great) was known to exits thousands of years before Christ was born.
Surely a place that had always been around would always be around, right?
Reason #3: Tyre was a colonizing city or nation.
Tyre had colonies in Carthage, Tarshish, and in other places too.
Surely a place that has that much influence would always exist, right?
Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?
Tyre is destroyed without house or harbor.
[ILLUS] Every now and then, I will travel back to Columbus, Mississippi, the town in which I spent my teenage years.
When I was a teenager in that town, I thought there was no better place.
The stores and restaurants, the movie theatres, the soccer fields and basketball courts—it seemed to have everything I could have ever wanted for my little teenage life.
But when I go back now, most of that stuff is gone.
It’s a reminder to me of what John writes in 1 John 2:17, “The world is passing away...”
[APP] That’s what we see in Isaiah 23:1-7—the world passing away.
First John 2:15-17 says…
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves 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 boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
A good description of Tyre in Isaiah’s day would’ve been the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
But as Isaiah prophesied, it was passing away.
God’s people are not to set their hope in what is passing away.
Their hope is to be set on God.
[TS]...
PART #2: Who has planned this? (Isa. 23:8-14)
PART #2: Who has planned this? (Isa. 23:8-14)
8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9 The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty, To despise all the honored of the earth. 10 Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint. 11 He has stretched His hand out over the sea, He has made the kingdoms tremble; The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds. 12 He has said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.” 13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. 14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For your stronghold is destroyed.
[EXP] Again, that this kind of destruction would befall Tyre was unthinkable.
The city of Tyre was a kingmaker; it’s merchants were treated like princes—the honored of the earth— in every port they landed (v. 8).
Who then could have done such a thing to mighty Tyre?
The Lord of hosts has done it; He has planned it, and He has planned it for a purpose—to defile the pride of all beauty, to despise all the honored of the earth (v. 9).
God is going to bring Tyre down so that its arrogance is revealed as the unclean thing that it is.
God is going to bring down Tyre so that its arrogance won’t be so tempting to His people.
Verse 10 seems to depict the people running wild like the Nile in flood when it overflows its banks.
God has stretched out His hand over the sea—the sea that Tyre thought of as its domain; God has made the kingdoms tremble; He has commanded that the idolatrous strongholds in Canaan—the region of Tyre—be demolished (v. 11).
Tyre will no longer be jubilant, it will not exult in its own glory anymore.
And if its inhabitants try to flee to the island of Cyprus, they won’t find rest from the judgment of God there (v. 12).
If they needed proof, they should consider the Chaldeans (i.e., the Babylonians).
It was thought to be powerful at this time, but in God used Assyria to make it a ruin (v. 13).
Destruction is coming to Tyre from the hand of God, and all the ships of Tarshish can do is look on and wail for they have no harbor; they have no hope (v. 14).
Their stronghold was Tyre, and their stronghold has been broken.
Their situation is hopeless.
[ILLUS] Imagine that we were on the Titanic as it struck its iceberg and began to fill with water.
We weren’t able to get on lifeboat but we were able to float in the freezing water on some items from the ship.
We know we are in trouble; we won’t be able to float on these things for very long, so we begin to look around for help.
Is there a lifeboat nearby that we can get in?
Are there some other items that might be serve us as flotation devices?
That’s when you have a terrible idea: “Let’s get back on the ship!”
The rest of us look at you in confusion; then we ask, “You do know its sinking, right?”
God knows that He is about to sink Tyre, so He is looking at His people who are looking at Tyre as some sort of lifeline in the Assyrian storm, and God is asking them, “You do know Tyre is sinking, right?”
Because God is taking Tyre down, Tyre is no place for Judah’s hope.
[APP] In the same way, this world is no place for our hope. It’s all sinking. It’s all going down.
Jesus said…
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where is your heart?
Where is your trust?
If it’s anywhere other than God, then its in a place that sure to sink.
[TS]…
PART #3: Set Apart to the Lord (Isa. 23:15-18)
PART #3: Set Apart to the Lord (Isa. 23:15-18)
15 Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: 16 Take your harp, walk about the city, O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, That you may be remembered. 17 It will come about at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the Lord; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord.
[EXP] After Tyre’s fall, it will be forgotten by the world for seventy years—an entire generation in the life of kingdom.
It will be like an old harlot who used to be popular with the wicked but now can only sing about her former fame.
Even then she has to play skillfully and repeatedly in order for anyone to remember (v. 16).
But at the end of that 70 years, the Lord will visit Tyre and some of what was lost will be restored (v. 17).
I don’t think this means that Tyre will becoming a God-fearing nation, but I think it means that she will have some of her income restored as she once again sells herself to the nations (v. 17).
But even then Tyre’s wages won’t be stored up or hoarded for itself; Tyre’s wages will ultimately be brought to the Lord and be used to proved food and clothing for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord (v. 18).
God’s question to His people is this, “Why would you align yourself with Tyre and its wealth, when all of it’s wealth is going to come to Me?”
[APP] Or as Jesus asked it in Matthew 16:26-27…
26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
Are you ready for that day or are you trusting in this world and it’s power? This world and it’s wealth?
What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?
[TS]...
Conclusion
Conclusion
To be ready for the Day of Judgement, do not put your hope in this world.
Put your hope in Jesus who, "though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich,” (2 Cor. 8:9).
[PRAYER]
