Ezekiel 26:15-21: a reflection

15“The Lord GOD says to Tyre: ‘Won’t the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made within you? 16Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment, and be astonished at you. 17They will take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, “How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there!” 18Now the islands will tremble in the day of your fall. Yes, the islands that are in the sea will be dismayed at your departure.’ 19“For the Lord GOD says: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep on you, and the great waters cover you, 20then I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living. 21I will make you a terror, and you will no more have any being. Though you are sought for, yet you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Tyre was a proud, wealthy trading city, renowned across the seas, seemingly permanent, a place whose merchants sat like princes. And God pronounces its end in stark terms: the coastlands will tremble at your fall; you will be brought down to the pit; though you are sought for, you will never be found again. The city that seemed it would always be there simply vanishes.

Notice how complete the disappearance is. Not just defeated, but gone so thoroughly that those who look for it later cannot find it. The renowned city, strong on the sea, admired and feared, becomes a place that is no more. Everything that made it seem unshakeable, its wealth, its fame, its trade, could not keep it from being wiped from the map.

There is a sobering clarity in this about where we place our hope. The things that look permanent in human terms, the great institutions, the wealth, the reputations, the powers that seem like they will always be there, are not as solid as they appear. Tyre teaches that even the renowned and secure can vanish without a trace. So hold the impressive and permanent-seeming things of this world loosely, and set your hope on the God and the kingdom that do not pass away. Only what is built on him will still be found.

Lord, even the renowned and seemingly permanent can vanish without a trace. Keep me from setting my hope on impressive things that will not last. Anchor me instead in you and your kingdom, which do not pass away, so that my hope is on what will still be found.