Isaiah 23 - 25

Prophecy Against Tyre, and The Little Apocalypse

Why was God angry with Tyre? Joshua was unable to capture Tyre, which was part of the tribal land of Asher (Judges 1:31). King Ahab married the Phoenician princess Jezebel who aggressively promoted the worship of her pagan gods in Israel (1 Kings 16:31). Over time, the good relations between Israel and the Phoenicians soured. The prophet Joel accused the people of Tyre and Sidon of plundering the Israelites of their gold and silver. They were also known for being slave traders who sold some of the people of Judah into slavery to the Greeks. Joel 3:5-6, “For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasure to your temples. You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.” 

Here is what Isaiah says, verse 1, “Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed!”

Where’s Tarshish and why would it be grieving the loss of Tyre? Tarshish is in southern Spain. That’s the city where Jonah fled to when he was called to go to Nineveh. Tarshish seems to have exported to Tyre a large quantity of metal. So they lost one of their bigger customers. Not only would Tarshish wail, so would other places such as Cyprus and Egypt because Tyre was “the marketplace of the nations.” If they had a stock exchange, their markets would plummet when they received the news.

Besides what Isaiah has to say about its future, Ezekiel had a thing or two to add. Ezek. 26:3-5, 14 says, “I am against you O Tyre, and will bring many nations against you…They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea, she will become a place to spread fishnets. I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt.” 

These prophecies did come true. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the mainland city after thirteen years of seige (585-572 BC), but the island city had not been destroyed. The destruction of New Tyre, on the island, would occur 250 years later by Alexander the Great in 322 BC. How did he do that? He took all the rubble from the destruction of Tyre and built a road out to the island, turning an island into a peninsula. 

The prophecy says that the city would never be rebuilt. That doesn’t mean that the island would remain desolate, but it would never be rebuilt to the size and glory it once had. 

Verses 15-18 speaks of a restoration of Tyre. “… after seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: “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.” A prostitute nation is one which seeks to make as high a profit regardless of the means. It goes on to say, verse 18, “Her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord.” In other words, there will come a day when Tyre will be able to return to the business that it knew best but some of the wealth it acquires will be sent to Jerusalem. This happened when King Cyrus of Persia paid for the construction of the second temple. Ezra 3:7, “And they gave money to the masons and carpenters and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring Cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus King of Persia.”

Tyre was wealthy, and much of their money was hoarded. Can you recall someone in the Gospels who went beyond investing for the future and hoarded his wealth? Luke 12: 16-21, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

In Chapters 24-27 we have what has been called, The Little Apocalypse. Much of what is here is also found in the Book of Revelation Chapters 8-9. Between Rev. Chapter 6, (where we find the seal judgments), and Chapters 8-9, (where the trumpet judgments are seen), there is a chapter that describes 144,000 Jews preaching the gospel to the entire world.

Chapter 24:1, “See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it.” WOW! So much for the meek and mild image of Jesus. What brought this on? Verse 5, “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statues and broken the everlasting covenant.” He’s not talking about punishing one nation, Judah, he’s talking about the entire world. 

And what is this “everlasting covenant”? The Hebrew word olam, translated “everlasting” or “eternal” doesn’t always mean forever, everlasting or permanent, it could mean “for a long time” or “until it expires.” One’s marriage covenant is everlasting in the sense that it is until death. Lev. 16:31 speaks of fasting on the Day of Atonement which is part of an everlasting or permanent ordinance that is in effect forever. Yet, we know that the Law of Moses expired when the Messiah came.

Which covenant is being spoken of in this passage? If the destruction is coming upon the whole world, then the covenant in question must be one that was made not just with Israel but the whole world. Which covenant is that? The Jews will say it is the Noahic Covenant found in Gen. 9:1 and includes the Seven Laws of Noah. These include prohibitions against worshiping idols, cursing God, murder, adultery and sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh torn from a living animal, as well as the obligation to establish courts of justice. 

It has been suggested that the custom of eating an amputated limb of a living animal was a way to keep the rest of the meat fresh before there was refrigeration. The obligation to establish a court system, though not listed in Gen 9, is implied. You can’t have laws with penalties if you don’t have a court system.

According to Jewish law, since the Law of Moses came years later and was for the Jews only. The non-Jews (gentiles) are not obligated to obey the Law of Moses or convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come. The non-Jews who choose to follow the Seven Laws of Noah are regarded as "Righteous Gentiles” or Hasidic Gentiles”. The term “hasidic” means “pious.”

But I have a problem with this explanation. When I read Gen. 9, I don’t see all seven of these laws. Gen. 9:1-6, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”

Verse 7, “As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

How many of the seven Laws of Noah did you count? Seven? 1. be fruitful and multiply. 2. Eat whatever you want, including any meats. 3. Those who commit premeditated murder are to be executed. 4. The commandment to judge and punish murderers implies the need for a court system. 5. Don’t eat any part of an animal that is still alive. Where are the commandments to not worship idols, curse God, sex crimes, and theft that are part of the Seven Laws of Moses? I don’t find them in the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve were told to reproduce and subdue the earth and to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Where are these “missing laws”? Well, as one Jewish website says, “These laws are derived from the Torah and elaborated upon in the Talmud (a commentary on the oral traditions). There you have it! These seven laws come from Scripture and traditions. No wonder I couldn’t find them in Gen. 9.

An argument can be made that all mankind knows right from wrong, even if they never heard of Noah, Moses, Jesus or Paul. It is what is referred to as Natural Law, a set of universal moral principles which are can be discovered by reason alone and is not dependent on laws enacted by a government or societal norms. The Apostle Paul wrote of this in Rom. 1:18-32, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

So God can punish the whole world even if most of the people never heard of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus or Paul. And this is why you will find in most major religions, common ethical teachings. Do not murder; honor your parents; do not steal, etc. are not teaching unique to Judaism and Christianity.

A good example of this is the Golden Rule, which says, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 7:12)

Islam teaches, “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself.” 

Judaism teaches, “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it.” 

Baha’i teaches, “Choose for your neighbor that which you choose for yourself.”

Hinduism teaches, “One should not behave toward others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.” 

Buddhism teaches, “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.” 

Daoism teaches, “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” 

Confucianism teaches, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.” 

Paul makes this clear in Rom. 2:12, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish...when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves...since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

In other words, we are “hard-wired” to know basic ethical truths. We know right from wrong. So based on this, God can punish the whole world. But this doesn’t answer why the word “covenant” is used and which covenant is being referred to here (Isa. 24:5).

Let’s go back to Isa. 24:6, Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore the earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.” God can’t use another flood, since he promised to not do that again. But that doesn’t mean he can’t accomplish his goal with another weapon, such as FIRE! 2 Peter 3:10-12. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”

Isa. 24:7, the new wine dries up, and the vine withers. Verse 10, “the ruined city lies desolate.” Verse 13, “So will it be on the earth and among the nations.” Verse 20, “The earth reels like a drunkard.” Verse 21 In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.”

This passage concludes with verse 23, “The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.” This means that during the Messianic era, the Shechinah glory of the Messianic King will outshine the moon and the sun. This chapter then leads into Chapter 25 which gives a Song of Praise for the deliverance of the faithful remnant and the destruction of Babylon.

But there’s a purpose behind this destruction? It’s not just to be mean. Chapter 25 begins with verse 1, “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name.” This will occur at the end of the Tribulation. Who will be praising God at this time? Well, in Rev. 7:9 you will find a “Great multitude” from every nation, in white robes (verse 13), have come out of the Great Tribulation, are seen before the throne of God and verse 17, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” These people are those who were saved during that time.

Verse 4 speaks of the remnant of believers, “You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”

In verse 6, it says, “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all people, a banquet of aged wine-the best of meats and the finest of wines.” Does this sound like anything you may have read in the Book of Revelation? Rev. 19:9 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” 

Now if you are anticipating an invitation, you want to get one for the marriage supper of the Lamb, not for the Great supper of God, found in verse 7. There you will find scavenger birds midair waiting to eat the flesh of kings, generals and mighty men, horses and all people free and slave, small and great are killed in battle

At the end of the tribulation, Israel as a nation will repent of rejecting Jesus and will be regenerated.