Today’s passage: Isaiah 23
Helpful thoughts:
- This chapter completes a series of ten consecutive chapters of oracles from nations in the east (Babylon) to the west (Tyre).
- The consistent threads can be found in verse 9.
- God is the LORD of hosts. He will never know defeat.
- Man will be judged for his pride. Pride comes before the fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
- Israel and Judah had been told to be holy, set apart unto God, among these nations. Instead they had come to rely upon them for their safety, worship their gods, and were living with the same pride.
- God gave Isaiah these oracles not to warn all the surrounding nations, but to remind Judah of who they were and who He is.
- The mention of Tyre prostituting herself again in verse 17 is actually a reference to a song or story from those days that evidently would have been known. The story is of an aging prostitute who has been forgotten and then has to go out to the streets to sing suggestive songs to try to lure in new “customers”. Sad…
- Tyre will likewise have to try to lure customers back to her shores to get back in business after the seventy years are over.
Questions to consider:
- What did financial wealth and the feeling of security it brought do for the people of Tyre? How might it have brought about their sinful pride?
- Why would everyone else be weeping over the fall of Tyre? Was it the people they loved our something else? What did they all lose when this financial hub fell apart? Why would this then be compared to prostitution?
- In what ways could the wealth of our nation be seen as a hindrance to our spiritual growth? In what ways has our wealth been a blessing? Is it the money that makes things bad or good, or the condition of our hearts when we possess it and use it?