Isaiah chapter 23 and we're going to read from
verse 1. Isaiah chapter 23 and verse 1. The burden of Tyre howl ye ships
of Tarshish For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no
entering in, from the land of Shittim it is revealed to them. Be still, ye inhabitants of the
isle, thou whom the merchants of Ziran that pass over the sea
have replenished. and by great waters the seeds
of sea her, the harvest of the river is her revenue, and she
is a mart of nations. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon, for
the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying,
I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish
up young men, nor bring up virgins. As at the report concerning Egypt,
so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. Pass ye
over to Tarshish, howl ye inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous
city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own feet shall carry
her afar off to sojourn. Who hath taken this council against
Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose
traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The Lord of hosts
hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring
into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Pass through thy
land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish, there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over
the sea, he shook the kingdoms. The Lord hath given a commandment
against the merchant city to destroy the strongholds thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more
rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon. Arise, pass
over to Chittim. There also shalt thou have no
rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans,
this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them
that dwell in the wilderness. They set up the towers thereof,
they raised up the palaces thereof, and he brought it to ruin. Howl,
ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste, and it
shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten
seventy years, according to the days of one king. after the end
of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go
about the city, thou harlot, that hast been forgotten, make
sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayst be remembered.
And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, that
the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and
shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world
upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire
shall be holiness to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor
laid up, for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell
before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word and perhaps this surprising conclusion
to this interesting chapter. We remind ourselves, brothers
and sisters, that Isaiah's message is the message of Christ and
salvation to his people. The prophet may well be writing
about Babylon and Assyria and here Tyre, but his purpose is
to minister to God's elect, to speak comfortably to the remnant
flock concerning the coming Messiah. concerning the true nature of
the kingdom of God. The Messiah had been promised
long ago but as the prophets spoke and as they coloured in
a little bit more of the person and work and identity of the
Messiah, so we find that the Lord's people learned more and
more as the revelation unfolded. The Messiah had been promised
but time was passing and as the glory days of David's kingdom
receded into history, and the nation of Israel that had once
been great was divided into the kingdom of Judah and the separate
kingdom of Israel as they fought civil wars between them, as they
became subject to the nations around about them who took advantage
of them and who conquered their cities. It looked as though at
any time the line of promise would be forever lost, that it
would be snuffed out like a flickering candle on a stormy night. And even the faith of the elect
was sorely tried. What happens if we've got this
wrong? What happens if we've misunderstood? What will happen if there was
nothing to this? That all this talk about spiritual
things, that all this talk about God's purpose, that all this
talk about a way of salvation was actually no more than just
our imagination. And so the Lord gave the church
Isaiah. and the other prophets, that
these men of God might reassure the Lord's elect of that day,
that all these things concerning Babylon and Assyria and Egypt
and Ethiopia and Moab and Edom and Damascus and Elam and Media
and Arabia, all these burdens, must come to pass before the
Messiah Christ shall appear. The Lord was giving his people
perspective. The Messiah will come, but only
when all these burdens are fulfilled. And not only so, but as these
histories unfolded and the Lord's people could mark them off, they
would realise that they were one step closer to the coming
of Christ. And that was important. We remember
that there was anticipation in Jerusalem at the time of Christ's
birth. There was an expectancy amongst
the people that soon the Messiah was due to come. Why was that? Because they had seen the fulfilment
of the revelations that the prophets had given. And so we find Simeon
and Anna waiting for the imminent arrival and the appearance of
Him who was called the Consolation of Israel. Because they knew
by prophecy and by divine revelation that the time was at hand for
Christ's coming. And these saints eagerly anticipated
that time, as we still, the remnant church, eagerly await Christ's
second coming. They studied the scriptures of
the Old Testament, just as we study all the scriptures, trying
to discern the signs of the times. Babylon and its empire would
fall. Assyria and its empire would
also fall. The empire of the Medes and the
Persians, the empire of the Chaldeans, they would come and they would
go. And here Isaiah in chapter 23 tells his readers about Tyre. Tyre, the strong city. it too will fall with its commerce,
with its trade, with its wealth and with its influence. and we're
told that God would do this. Here we see the sovereignty of
God. Here we see the hand of God. Now, in yesterday's little note,
I gave a bit of a potted history of Tyre, how that it was a coastal
city, how that it was very strong and impregnable, and I'm not
going to repeat these things here and now. But here was a
city that, as it were, had a network of influence across the oceans. And while there were nations
that had military power, Tyre's power was in its commerce and
in its trade. And what I want to speak about
for a few minutes today is what I believe to be the most surprising
part of this chapter. You know, Based on what we'd
read in the past five or six chapters of Isaiah, we could
have anticipated much of what was said in the earlier part
of this passage. But I don't think any of us could
have anticipated what the last couple of verses tell us concerning
the treasure and the profits of this proud, idolatrous people
of Tyre. and how that these profits, how
that these incomes would be thankfully, would be willingly, would be
sacrificially dedicated to the support of the people of God
and to the work of the Gospel. Because that's what we're talking
about here. What we're talking about is the
fact that the Lord would bring Tyre down but in time he would
raise it up again to its old business, to its old trade, but
this time he would dedicate the profits of Tyre to the extension
of the work of the gospel and the support of the ministers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in that context I'm going
to take Three things that I'm going to mention. I'm going to
mention first of all the fact that we're told in this passage
that the Lord will visit Tyre. And then I'm going to make mention
of the fact that Tyre's hire, we've got a bit of a rhyme in
there, Tyre's hire shall be holiness to the Lord. And then thirdly,
we're going to think about the fact that Tyre's merchandise
shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently
and for durable clothing. The Lord would feed and clothe
his gospel ministers. with the product and profit of
Tyre's merchandise. So, let's push on and see what
the Lord has to say to us today. First of all, I want to draw
our thoughts to this opening idea that the Lord will visit
Tyre. Now sometimes, sometimes a visit
from the Lord is a fearful thing. It is a fearful thing when he
comes in judgment and he comes to show and reveal his anger. But here, in this passage, a
visit from the Lord is a blessed thing. Yes, it is true. that
the Lord had taken counsel against Tyre to bring it down so he did
visit it in a sense in judgment in order to bring it down and
to shame it and to stain it we are told. This was God's sovereign
hand at work and although he used the Chaldeans to accomplish
his work and although he expelled the people from the city and
although he drove them into exile, yet it was the Lord who accomplished
this. But then we're told that 70 years
later, a blessed thing would occur, that the Lord would visit
this city once again and prosper it again. For it speaks of gospel
blessings, coming to this city. And that 70 years is not necessarily
an exact period between the destruction of the city and the Lord visiting
it in gospel days, but it shows us that there was a defined period
in which Tyre was forgotten and before it would recover its former
glory. Tyre was brought down because
of wickedness and it was brought down by the Lord and it was kept
low for 70 years. Nevertheless, the Lord had his
elect in Tyre and when the time was right, the Lord went forth
to visit them in grace and saving power. What a blessed truth that
is. May we, brothers and sisters,
be so blessed to be a people whom the Lord visits in mercy
and in grace and in forgiveness. There are many, many people live
upon the face of this earth. There are many, many people who
have lived and died in the world already. And there are many,
many who have never known the grace of God coming and visiting
His mercy upon them. If you and I have been amongst
that blessed people to have known a visit of God in forgiving mercy,
how blessed we are amongst the sons and daughters of this world. This is precisely what happened
during the time of Christ. Here in the time of Christ we
see an example of what happens when the Lord visits a people. We're told in the Gospels that
the Lord visited the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. So even although
the Lord God in his sovereign power visited the city after
these 70 years and brought it back up again and blessed its
trade and its commerce and its prosperity, that was a picture
of the fact that in Christ's own lifetime he visited this
area, this region, the coasts, we're told, of Tyre and Sidon. So whether he actually went into
the city itself or he was just in the suburbs around it is perhaps
questionable based on this phrase, the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. But nevertheless it was here
that he blessed the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter. Remember
that lady who came and spoke to the Lord about the dogs that
fed beneath the table and how she desired even the crumbs that
fell from the master's table. A beautiful, beautiful picture
of faith bestowed. And here was a an inhabitant
of Tyre, a Syrophoenician woman, and here was one upon whom the
grace of God and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested
in the salvation of her soul and in the healing of her daughter. and Mark tells us about this
woman. And then Luke goes on and tells
us about a great number from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. Now, that was a region of about
20-25 miles between Tyre in the north and Sidon a little bit
further south, about 25 miles south. And these two cities,
they were Phoenician cities, historically, by heritage, although
they were in the land of Canaan, but nevertheless here were two
cities and the people from the coasts between and around these
two cities came in their multitudes to hear the Lord Jesus Christ
preach. They came to hear Christ and
they came to be healed of their diseases and that included the
disease of sin. I hope like these inhabitants
of the coasts of Tyre and Sidon that we are able to speak of
a time when the Lord visited us in mercy and healed us of
our sin. When we went to hear the Lord
speak because we knew that that was the only way that we could
find relief from the burdens that we carried, from the sickness
that we had. That the Lord Jesus Christ, as
it were, showed us the way of life, showed us the nail prints
in his hands, spoke to us of the only ground of hope in this
world of everlasting life. It is what occurred in Tyre.
Christ spiritually visited this people. He visited His chosen
people in this city and in this region with life and peace and
He turned them from pursuing their own way of sin which leads
to destruction and to follow Him. To trust in Him and His
accomplishments. And so we learn in the book of
Acts of disciples living entire in the days of the apostles,
perhaps the very same people who came to hear Christ preach,
perhaps the very same Syrophoenician woman and her daughter. What
a beautiful thought that is. And lest I be misunderstood,
Let me just clarify this point. How does the Lord visit his people
today? He visits us through faith, with
spiritual fellowship, in hearing the gospel preached, in worshipping
together with the Lord's people, in prayer, publicly and privately,
in studying the scriptures alone or together, God the Holy Spirit
opens our hearts door and as we read together in the book
of Revelation, Christ comes in to sup with us, to meet with
us, to comfort and encourage us, in times of trial, in times
of trouble, in times of need. Indeed, I should say, we all
ought to come to these, our services, to opportunities that we have
to meet together where the scriptures are open, where the Lord is uplifting. We all ought to come with a prayer
on our hearts that the Lord will meet us today Meet us today and
speak to our heart today and open our spiritual eyes and understanding
and feed and nurture us with his truth. And then if our friend and our
saviour is pleased to answer us, which he delights to do,
we shall be able to say, not only did the Lord visit Tyre,
but he visited me too, and he brought peace to my soul as he
came. One outcome of this visit to
Tyre by the Lord was that, my second point, Tyre's hire shall
be holiness to the Lord. Now what was Tyre's hire? the
higher, when it speaks here of the higher of the city. That
was the profits that it made. That was the money that it generated
through its commerce and its trade. This was a great trading
city. It had colonies all around the
Mediterranean. They think that Carthage was
one of its biggest and most important. But when it speaks of Tarshish,
the thought is that it's actually speaking about Spain and all
that northern coast where it leads into Europe and into Turkey
and all around North Africa was the area in which Tyre plied
its trade. We'll come to this later, but
that's what it calls fornicating with the kings of the nations
of the earth. That's where Tyre's power lay. But here we're told that the
higher of the city would be holiness to the Lord. It's an interesting
fact that this poor remnant people, the believers in Judah and Israel
at the time of Isaiah, they must have wondered what that meant.
when they read Isaiah's words. The prosperity of this city was
legend, but so too was its idolatrous activities. And those idolatrous
activities were well funded by the people of Tyre. Do you know
that Jezebel, who was the wife of Ahab, Jezebel had been a queen
in Israel. at the time of Elijah. She maintained
400 prophets of the grove or 400 prophets of Asherah in Jerusalem. She brought, when she was married
to Ahab, she brought with her her religious practices and supported
400 prophets at her table. and yet someday the wealth of
Tyre would be dedicated to the ministers of the Gospel and the
extension of Christ's Kingdom. What could that possibly mean? Well, here's what it means. When
the Lord Jesus Christ visits His people with transforming
grace, they are transformed. When the Holy Spirit comes in
converting power, we are converted. The old passions of serving pleasure,
of hoarding riches, gives way to the realisation that all we
have is the Lord's. He gives and He takes away. And He promises never to leave
us in need. Because He takes care of His
own. And when that occurs, the Lord's
people offer up for the Lord's work that which previously and
otherwise might have been kept to themselves. But now the Lord
tells us in these final verses, it shall not be treasured or
laid up. And this is entirely consistent
with the Lord's teaching to his disciples. He says in Matthew
6, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. for where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. And our hearts are fixed on Christ
and therefore those treasures that we have, that wealth of
this world, those resources which the Lord has graciously granted
to us, we are pleased to dedicate them to the service of our King. That is not to say that money
is intrinsically holy in any way, but it is when it is by
willing hearts dedicated to holy purposes. The Lord doesn't need
our money, but he teaches, he blesses, he employs his people
by loosening us from the affections of this world's values to love
him more than any of the treasures of this world. The Tyrians, the people of Tyre,
the Tyrians worked and traded and profited from this world's
commerce and its commercial systems, as we all do. But now part of
their profits and their income was to be dedicated to the Lord's
work, so as to support the ministry of the gospel, as well as caring
for their families and fulfilling their duties. The new creation brought about
by the visits of grace exhibited new values. It seeks new paths
of service. It discovers new passions in
the Lord's people. It supports new needs and causes. So that when Paul met some of
these saints in Tyre, when he was returning from his third
missionary journey, and he spent a week with them, that was a
literal fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy. Because these people
cared for the apostle and for his friends and his associates. And they fed him. and they accommodated
him and they provided for his needs. And this is the third
point that I want to leave with you today. Tyre's merchandise
shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently
and for durable clothing. Now eating and being clothed
are the very basics, the very essentials of life and here the
Lord is showing that he can draw from even the profits of the
world's commerce. in order to look after the well-being
of his people. But what does he do? He doesn't
just, as it were, skim off the top of the world's wealth. He
gives that wealth to his people and he causes them to give it
to his service. This is the Lord being gracious
to his people to allow us to participate in the establishment
and the building up of his kingdom upon earth. Now I hope that I'm
not going too far to press this application a little bit further. But Tyre's merchandise was the
fruit of trade and the riches of commerce. And it is noticeable
that Isaiah describes that as the higher of a harlot who commits
fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of
the earth. Now, I don't think you could
get much more emotive vocabulary than that to bring a sense of distastefulness,
if I can put it that way, to this generation of wealth. And
yet John uses the same symbolism and revelation to describe the
systems of commerce and religion and politics in this world. The
angel says to him, or one of the angels present says to him,
come Heather, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great
whore that sitteth upon many waters with whom kings of the
earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. This
is drawing in revelation upon exactly the same language as
Isaiah had been inspired to employ with respect to the whore of
Babylon. Tyre is being prefigured here
as this harlot with whom Babylon has this fornicating association. Trade and religion bound together
in this world system in order to bring power and exercise power
and authority in the systems of this world. Isaiah speaks
of it and it is spoken of in Revelation. And in many ways
we might feel that we ought to have nothing to do with such
activity. Come out from amongst them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord. And yet even although this capitalism,
this trade, this creation and generation of wealth is the great
motivator of so much evil in this world. And while we are able to see
it for what it is, Yet the Lord's people need not shun it, but
rather rightly employ it to the greater glory of God. Let money
be a servant to us. Let us not be slave to riches. If men and women invent and labour
and develop and commercialise everything they can in order
to make money, we can take the benefits of their labour and
employ it to further the gospel of Christ. Paul travelled the
trade routes in merchant ships to preach the gospel to those
that the Lord led him to. He took a ship from Cyprus to
Tyre. It was not his ship This was
not Paul's ship, nor did the captain care for Paul or his
accomplices in any way, as long as he got the fare for the travel. But the Lord thereby led his
preachers to meet and to minister to his people and to gather in
his church. I'm not wealthy enough to own
an aeroplane, or clever enough to build a computer, or motivated
to manipulate the commercial systems that operate in this
world. but I am able to use them to
serve the Lord. And I am happy to believe that
the Lord God in His sovereign omnipotence has brought them
into existence, that I might do just that for His glory. Because all things work together
for good, even the hire of a harlot and the fornications of the kingdoms
of this world. They all worked together for
the glory of God and for the benefit of his people. And for
the poor remnant believers in Judah and Israel to be told that
the wealth of this wicked city would someday feed and clothe
the Lord's ministers must have caused them to marvel indeed. And it stirred up their faith
and it encouraged their confidence and the Lord comforted his people
thereby. It is a reminder that the rise
and fall of nations and the poverty and the prosperity of cities
is in the hand of God and it serves his will and it serves
his pleasure. Here's just one final thought
and then we're done today. I want to take us back to Isaiah
and what he wrote and what it might have meant to those who
heard it. Remember we said before that these prophecies, although
they were directed at Babylon and Assyria and here Tyre, might
never have been heard or read about in those places. They were for the instruction
and encouragement of the Lord's elect principally. And yet there
was in Tyre a remnant people, an election of grace according
to the foreknowledge of God. And the ordained means of bringing
these souls to Christ and gathering them into the church included
the destruction of their city, its complete forgetfulness, it's
not the right way to put it, but it would be forgotten for
70 years and only then would it be raised up. Only when God
had stained Tyre's glory and brought the honourable amongst
men into contempt did he visit Tyre with mercy. perhaps some
of us might be comforted in applying this to ourselves even today. We don't know how God goes about
visiting his people with mercy. It may be that in order to do
us the most good, the Lord will first stain our glory. It may be He brings us into contempt
before he visits us with grace. It may be he has to cut us down
before he binds us up. It may be he has to slay before
he makes alive. Lord, grant us grace to bear
the stain and to endure the contempt if this is the means by which
Christ's visits come to us. And may we learn to say with
Christ, even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today.