23:1-3
The natural tendency is to focus on the military action, for this has the most immediate and devastating effect. However, many of the prophecies against nations are also concerned with the economic aspects, and Isaiah has been dealing with the Phoenician commercial empire. Tyre and Sidon (which are effectively treated as one) were part of that empire. In modern times there are nations that seek to maintain neutrality, eg Switzerland and Sweden in the second world war. There is no neutrality with God. No one knows exactly where Tarshish was, but wherever it was they received news of Tyre being destroyed.
Tyre and Sidon achieved great financial success, becoming the “marketplace of the nations”. She may have felt secure, but everyone is subject to God’s judgement.
23:4,5
The lament attributed to the sea (or fortress of the sea here) is saying that the sea would no longer provide Tyre and Sidon with the riches that it once did. Being a trading centre the sea was vital to the wealth of Tyre and Sidon. Other nations fed off the commercial success of Tyre, and they too would suffer when Tyre fell. Egypt is singled out here as an example of that. Today we see the global economy, with so many interactions. The downfall of one part can have enormously far reaching effects.
No comments:
Post a Comment