“1 An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbour.”

              The message this morning is a message of warning.  I would like to tell you about God’s love, which is real, about God’s mercy, which never fails, about God’s loving kindness, which never ends.  God is real and He cares.  He cares about you and me.  He cares about justice. He cares about his own honor.  We are not the center of the universe, God is.  And so there are blessings and there are curses.

              Tyre is an island city in what is now Lebanon.  It was part of the Phoenecian empire. 

              You will notice a lot of mention of ships and sea and harbors in this passage.  The reason was that the Phonecians were the shippers in the Mediterranean Sea.  They made an enormous amount of money moving goods around the Mediterranean. 

              Most of her colonies were islands or seaport cities.  You will see Cyprus, an island, Tarshish, on the coast of Spain, Sidon, a harbor city in Lebanon, Egypt, which through the Nile and its banks on the Mediterranean was a great shipping port.  Egypt was not one of the Phonecian colonies, but was engaged in heavy trade using their ships.

              It is the ships of Tarshish that are going to wail.  Tarshish is a part of Spain.  Why will they wail?

              They will wail because Tyre is destroyed.  There is no home left, there is no safe harbor.  Imagine being on a ship heading home to find that your home is destroyed, your family is either dead or taken into slavery and that you have no place to go.  You would wail as well.

From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.

              Cyprus would be between Spain and Lebanon, between Tarshish and Tyre.  Ships from Cyprus that met boats returning from Tarshish to Tyre gave them the news.

              It must have been devastating to the men who lost or were uncertain about their wives, children and parents.

2 Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. 3 On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the market-place of the nations.

Be silent!  They were silenced.  Alexander the Great has built a causeway over 700 yards long to reach out to the island of Tyre.  The merchants who carried grain and made their money from the Nile river, the people in whom all the economy ran through were now silent.  They had not more say in economic affairs or anything else.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labour nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

This is how devastating the loss was.  It was as if Sidon and Tyre never existed.  It is as if this sea nation had never been born, that people never lived there.

5 When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

Whereas the sailor mourned the loss of family, the people in these verses mourned the loss of revenue.

6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island. 7 Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?

              A lot of people remembered their time on Tyre as an enjoyable time.  They partied and had good times together.  They thought their city was safe.  It was on an island.  And they thought life would always be as it was.  And now everything has changed.  This might remind some of the stock market crash in America when the rich became poor overnight. 

              This leads us to our first lesson.  When someone falls, many are affected.  You have a person go to jail, his wife, children, friends, coworkers, and all are impacted in some way.  We might agree that if you do the crime you must pay the time, but the principle still holds, others suffer as well.

              Or the family where there is abuse.  A husband who beats his wife and children, wastes his money on alcohol and gambling, never seriously looks for work not only hurts himself, but may look back and see his wife leave him, his children hate him, and his circle of friends forsake him.  When someone falls, many are affected.

              No man is an island.  We all touch other peoples lives. Don’t ever believe the lie that sin doesn’t hurt anyone other than ourselves.

8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?

What a good question.  Tyre did not flex a lot of military muscle. Her crowns may have been her many colonies.  The people in these colonies flourished.  The merchants were the most important people in her society.  The traders traveled the known world and were good at what they did.

 So many nations were dependant on her for her shipping that she had a sort of protection.  If one company is hauling all your goods and making you rich, you don’t want to see that company go out of business.  Who would?  Which is the question asked here.  Everyone benefited from Tyre’s trade, who would want or dare to incur the wrath of the nations and put a stop to this world trade?

9 The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

              This is amazing.  Isaiah identified the Lord Almighty as the one who planned for the fall of Tyre.  Why?

              Tyre was a nation whose god was money.  They were proud of their economic system.  Though small, much like Great Britian, they controlled much more than they owned.  The affluence was great.  And they were very proud of their achievements.  Who is like Tyre?  Who can compare with her?

              I hate to say it, but isn’t that becoming the cornerstone of our country?  Are we not replacing character with commerce as the sign of a good nation?  Isn’t Wall Street the big indicator of how good our life is going, how strong our fortune, how great we are as a nation?

              It is no accident that the terrorists struck at our economic center on 9/11.  In reality, their attack did not have a huge affect on our economy.  But it symbolized for them what America stands for.

              Did you know that many Americans flaunt their riches, are obnoxious and rude to people from other countries?  We are consumers, not producers.  And we have one of the most healthy economic systems in the world.

              It is not the money that is the problem.  It is the pride our money brings us.  No longer do we hear it said, “Great is the nation who’s God is the Lord.”

              But what about you and I?  Pride soon leads to destruction.  There are many of you here that would get up and testify, “My pride caused me to lose my wife, my children, my home.”  There are some of you who have lost jobs because of pride.  There may be some of you with physical problems that came because you were too proud to say no or walk away from sin.

              Tyre didn’t say, “Great is the nation who’s God is the Lord,” and God Almighty noticed.

              We notice the specifics of judgment.

10 Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbour.

Have you been a sailor?  You might as well go back to farming.  You don’t have a harbor left to put a boat into.

11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed. 12 He said, “No more of your revelling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

Notice verse 12.  God says, “No more…”   There is an end to sin in our land.  The reveling, the partying, came to an end.  It wasn’t that joy and happiness were bad, but in their pride their life was consumed with pleasing themselves.

13 Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.

              Babylon had fallen.  No one ever thought she would.  But she did.  The Assyrians came and did a number on this once great nation.  Now Tyre falls.

14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed! 15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: 16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.” 17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.” Isaiah 23:1-17, NIV.

              What is this all about?  Tyre would rise again.  She would become a trader once again.  She would not be totally forgotten.  But she wouldn’t learn from her lessons.

              The most troubling time in our lives is when we don’t learn from our lessons.  We fall and we go through difficult times.  But when God, in his grace, sets us back on our feet, we return to the old ways.

              How many people have promised to stop drinking, been successful and had great things happen, only to start again and lose everything?  Nothing was learned.

              How many people have tried to stop doing a bad habit and have succeeded for a while, but then returned and are now back in over your head.

              When we repeat sin, we are doing what the Bible describes as “hardening our hearts.”  Hearts are hardened after repeated warnings are ignored.  We become less and less sensitive to the pleadings of the Spirit of God.  In our pride, we may find ourselves in the same boat as Tyre.

              So today I tell you, “Seek the Lord.  Call upon Him.  Throw yourself at his feet.  Don’t do what you have planned to do that will bring you ruin.  Listen to the call.  Heed the Spirit of God.”  I hope that some day, one of you who hear my voice will come back to say to me or to the church that you heeded the warning that God is given you today, that you didn’t follow through with the sin you have planned, that God had victory in your life today.  What a joy that would be!

              Today is the day of salvation.  If you are not a Christian, Jesus stands outside your life, waiting to come in to forgive and lead you.  If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit inside you is convicting you that what I am saying is right.  You know this is a warning and I pray that you will be delivered from temptation, to the glory of God.

              Selah.