Ezekiel’s prophecy also addresses nations beyond Israel. Yesterday’s reading included brief proclamations against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia, and began a long proclamation regarding Tyre which continues into today’s reading.

Located on the Mediterranean coast and near the major caravan route from Babylon to Egypt, Tyre was a major center of commerce, with shipbuilding (Ezekiel 27:4-9) and trade in all kinds of goods: metals, animals, precious stones, and cloth (27:12-24). “Now you are wrecked by the seas … all the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled at you, and their kings are horribly afraid … you have come to a dreadful end, and shall be no more forever” (27:34-36).

What brought this about? Pride. The prophecy addresses the king of Tyre: “your heart is proud and you have said, ‘I am a god’” (28:2). It offers him sarcastic mockery: “You are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you” (28:3). And this “wisdom” has apparently amassed great riches (28:4). But successful commerce doesn’t add up to deity: “you are a mortal, and no god though you compare your mind with the mind of a god” (28:2).

Pride may seem to be doing well for itself in the midst of prosperity, but hard times can wipe that away so quickly. “Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who will kill you, though you are but a mortal and no god, in the hands of those who would pierce you?” (28:9).

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Help us, O Lord, for we are so full of pride. We are proud of knowledge and wealth, scarcely recognizing that these gifts come to us from your hand; and our understanding and our economy can both fail so quickly. Teach us to live in humility before you: for you are God, and we are not.

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