Ezekiel 26:7-14: a reflection

7“For the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, with chariots, with horsemen, and an army with many people. 8He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will make forts against you, cast up a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you. 9He will set his battering engines against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates, as men enter into a city which is broken open. 11He will tread down all your streets with the hoofs of his horses. He will kill your people with the sword. The pillars of your strength will go down to the ground. 12They will make a plunder of your riches and make a prey of your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. They will lay your stones, your timber, and your dust in the middle of the waters. 13I will cause the noise of your songs to cease. The sound of your harps won’t be heard any more. 14I will make you a bare rock. You will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more; for I the LORD have spoken it,’ says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel prophesies the fall of Tyre, the wealthy island city that was the great trading power of its day, rich with merchandise, its harbors full, its houses pleasant, its songs and harps filling the air. And God declares that all of it will be brought down: its walls broken, its riches plundered, its songs silenced, until the proud trading city becomes a bare rock, a place for spreading fishing nets. The center of commerce and wealth would be reduced to nothing.

Notice what Tyre trusted and what became of it. Tyre's greatness lay in its wealth and trade, its commercial success, its riches and pleasant houses. It seemed secure in its prosperity, a hub of commerce that would surely endure. And yet all of it, the riches, the merchandise, the songs, was swept away, until nothing remained but bare rock. The prosperity that seemed so solid proved no security at all.

That is a warning against building our security on wealth and prosperity. Like Tyre, we can trust in our riches, our success, our comfortable arrangements, as though they made us safe. But wealth is no true security; it can be swept away, and what we built our confidence on can be reduced to bare rock. Do not rest your security in prosperity, which cannot finally hold. The riches that seem so solid are passing; build your life instead on God, who does not pass away. Tyre trusted its wealth and became a bare rock; let your trust rest on something that lasts.

Lord, wealthy Tyre trusted in its riches and commerce, its pleasant houses and its songs, and yet all of it was swept away until nothing remained but bare rock. Guard me from building my security on wealth and prosperity. Like Tyre, I can trust in my riches, my success, my comfortable arrangements, as though they made me safe. But they are no true security; they can be swept away. Help me not to rest my confidence in prosperity, which cannot finally hold, but to build my life on you, who do not pass away. Let my trust rest on you, not on the riches that seem solid but are passing. You alone are my lasting security.