The Fleeting Security of Commerce

Remember that this entire section that began in chapter 13 has been a series of oracles or heavy messages to at least 9 different nations. I believe they were intended for God’s people so they would be reminded to trust in the Lord, not in the nations around them. By this time the evil King Ahaz has died and these warnings would be directed to the godly Hezekiah.

For us, it is just as easy to think that our health comes from doctors, our wealth from our own ability, and our accumulation of possessions from our own wealth or cash flow.

This final Oracles or Burdensome message is directed to Tyre and is a warning against putting trust in the Fleeting Security of Commerce.

A Call to Sorrow Over the Loss of Wealth

Isaiah 23:1–7 HCSB

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?

Trade ships from Southern Spain had to dock in Cyprus with no where to go with their cargo.

Grains ships from Egypt have no port now.

Sidon (another port city) should mourn because she is no longer producing.

Words are used like mourn, be ashamed, anguish. This is a picture of one of the most significant port commerce cities being laid waste. (Assyria hit it, Babylon hit it, and Greece hit it) .

The impact of Tyre’s destruction was wide spread.

THIS LEADS TO A QUESTION: HOW AND WHY DID COULD THIS HAPPEN? Our modern world will hardly ever consider the possibility when calamity comes, that it is God who orchestrated it. But that is exactly the unpopular position that Isaiah takes.

The Root of the Loss of Wealth

Isaiah 23:8–14 HCSB

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. Overflow your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer anything to restrain you. He stretched out His hand over the sea; He made kingdoms tremble. The Lord has commanded that the Canaanite fortresses be destroyed. He said, “You will not rejoice anymore, ravished young woman, daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Cyprus — even there you will have no rest!” Look at the land of the Chaldeans— a people who no longer exist. Assyria destined it for desert creatures. They set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They made it a ruin. Wail, ships of Tarshish, because your fortress is destroyed!

Isaiah’s words of both Tyre’s destruction and God’s Orchestration of it are prophetic. There was no evidence to support that it would happen. If you read the text for clues, this destruction would come from God’s hand AT AT TIME WHERE THINGS WERE GOING GREAT. Egypt had enough grain to sell. Ships were going back from Tarshish to Tyre. The cedars of Lebanon would have been shipped from Tyre. In our day it would like this: Trade was good, new plants were being built, the stock market was reaching all time highs, and employment was at record lows.

But there stood Isaiah, proclaiming that Judah’s faith was misplaced if they were trusting in the prosperity of Tyre. It would all come to a screeching halt. AND it would happen BY GOD’S HAND!

And this was all rooted in Tyre’s pride and arrogance that exalted itself to place that is rightfully ONLY God’s.

The Cycle and Intent of Wealth

Isaiah 23:15–18 HCSB

On that day Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years—the life span of one king. At the end of 70 years, what the song says about the prostitute will happen to Tyre: Pick up your lyre, stroll through the city, prostitute forgotten by men. Play skillfully, sing many a song, and you will be thought of again. And at the end of the 70 years, the Lord will restore Tyre and she will go back into business, prostituting herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. But her profits and wages will be dedicated to the Lord. They will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live in the Lord’s presence, to provide them with ample food and sacred clothing.

The tide comes in and goes out. The stock market rises and falls.

Here God says that Tyre will once again prosper. The language of a prostitute plying her trade is used to describe Tyre’s restoration in commerce and trade with the nations of the world.

The time of Tyre’s destitution is 70 years.

If all this points to the timeframe of Assyria choking them out, it would make sense. At the end of that 70 years, Assyria was weakened, and Tyre saw a resurgence, before Nebuchadnezzar dealt them another blow.

The idea that Tyre’s profits would go to take care of the people of God, I believe, points to a future time when the Nations will turn to the Lord.

But it also points to the idea that God uses the wealth of the world to take care of his people and his missions.

WA Criswell at Valleydale Baptist Church.

We do need to remember that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.