Here’s how the study works: Read the chapters mentioned in the heading during the week and share any words, thoughts, verses that stood out to you. Having a week for several chapters creates the opportunity to revisit them and make additional comments as you feel inclined as well as make comments on other people’s insights.
26:14 I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.
“rebuilt” in this context means built up.
Today, Tyre is only a small fishing village and sailors use the rocks to dry their nets. Tyre thought it was strong, self-sufficient and its position as an island fortress impenetrable but God reduced it to a small fishing village. “God chose the weak things to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
26:14 I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.
“rebuilt” in this context means built up.
Today, Tyre is only a small fishing village and sailors use the rocks to dry their nets. Tyre thought it was strong, self-sufficient and its position as an island fortress impenetrable but God reduced it to a small fishing village. “God chose the weak things to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
27:3 Say to Tyre, situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You say, Tyre, “I am perfect in beauty.”’
The disturbing thing about Tyre is that (Constable Commentary) “… those areas in which she excelled and was the envy of the entire ancient world are precisely the fields in which every modern nation seeks superiority.”
NB: The number of countries or areas mentioned and the extensive range of products traded.
27:3 Say to Tyre, situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You say, Tyre, “I am perfect in beauty.”’
The disturbing thing about Tyre is that (Constable Commentary) “… those areas in which she excelled and was the envy of the entire ancient world are precisely the fields in which every modern nation seeks superiority.”
NB: The number of countries or areas mentioned and the extensive range of products traded.
28:16-18 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
Tyre became proud which corrupted its wisdom. Its beauty and splendour led Tyre astray – led them into thinking they had got there by their own cleverness, their own efforts. Pride corrupts.
28:16-18 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
Tyre became proud which corrupted its wisdom. Its beauty and splendour led Tyre astray – led them into thinking they had got there by their own cleverness, their own efforts. Pride corrupts.
29:9 Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “‘Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I made it.”
Such arrogance to claim to have made the Nile! Yet, do we sometimes claim God’s blessings as something we have achieved ourselves?
When God destroys Israel’s enemies, it gives hope to Israel. Hope reminds them God is Sovereign.
29:9 Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “‘Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I made it.”
Such arrogance to claim to have made the Nile! Yet, do we sometimes claim God’s blessings as something we have achieved ourselves?
When God destroys Israel’s enemies, it gives hope to Israel. Hope reminds them God is Sovereign.
30:19 “So I will inflict punishment on Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord.
30:26 I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
A massive defeat causes people to cry out to God. Perhaps this is why God allows suffering, to cause people to cry out to God.
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis in the Problem of Pain.
30:19 “So I will inflict punishment on Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord.
30:26 I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
A massive defeat causes people to cry out to God. Perhaps this is why God allows suffering, to cause people to cry out to God.
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis in the Problem of Pain.