However, in chapters 13 – 23 Isaiah stretches his vision and issues a whole series of oracles and prophecies against some of the kingdoms of the world. While the major sin of them all is pride expressed as splendor, idolatry, insolence, fame and haughtiness, it takes different forms. For some it is pride in their military strength, for others it is their economic power, and for others pride in their political systems. In each case the punishment is the same: shame, fear, destruction, devastation, bringing low, humiliation and their prosperity and power being turned into a wilderness – a place where owls and jackals dwell. For each kind of pride there is an appropriate punishment.
But then, in Chapter 23, we encounter the pride of Tyre and there is something unique about it.
First, because Tyre began as a city and culture with such promise. Look at Ezekiel 28:12
“‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
You won’t find any other city or kingdom described that way in Isaiah other than Jerusalem. There was something special about Tyre. God had given them a gift, a skill, a competence, almost a genius that they had distorted and used for their own purposes.
“‘In the pride of your heart
you say, “I am a god;
I sit on the throne of a god
in the heart of the seas.”
But you are a mere mortal and not a god,
though you think you are as wise as a god.
3 Are you wiser than Daniel?
Is no secret hidden from you?
4 By your wisdom and understanding
you have gained wealth for yourself
and amassed gold and silver
in your treasuries.
5 By your great skill in trading
you have increased your wealth,
and because of your wealth
your heart has grown proud.
17 Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
Second, Tyre is a symbol of what happens when we take a blessing of God and turn it into a curse. It is a symbol of what happens when the ability to create wealth and influence makes a person, a city or a country begin to believe they are gods and their wealth has bought them superior wisdom.
Some have taken this to mean the Bible is against capitalism and enterprise. I don’t think that is true. I do believe the Bible is against the bending of those to the wrong ends.
Capitalism is not perfect, of course, but it is not innately evil. Free enterprise is healthy but it can be abused. There is a dark side to it. There are great benefits to trade and it can bring out the best – and also the worst in us.
When I think of merchants and traders, all kinds of words come up in my mind. Some good and some not. What about yours?
Wily, street-smart, knows the difference between price and value, opportunistic, psychologically astute, looks for advantage, knows what will sell, sensitive to change, thinks about leverage, looking to the future, practical, adventurous, calculated risk taker, and curious.
Trade and traders are good for people and nations. In his book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” Thomas Friedman argued that no two nations with a McDonald’s franchise had ever gone to war with one another: this was known as the Golden Arches theory.
Jeffrey Tucker says, “The overwhelming tendency of markets is to bring people together, break down prejudices, persuade people of the need to cooperate regardless of class, race, religion, sex/gender, and physical ability. It is the market that rewards people who put aside their biases and seek gains through trade. This is why states devoted to racialist and hateful policies always resort to violence in control of the marketplace.
Commerce tends toward rewarding inclusion, broadness, and liberality. Tribal loyalties, ethnic and religious bigotries, and irrational prejudices are bad for business. The merchant class has been conventionally distrusted by tribalist leaders — from the ancient to the modern world — precisely because merchantcraft tends to break down barriers between groups.”
Peter Ackroyd wrote that “Bigotry does not consort easily with free trade”.
Capitalism rightly done and trade practiced with fairness and equity is good for everyone. Merchants are to be respected for the benefits they bring to all societies. Without trade we likely would not have our democracy. We would be in a constant state of war with other nations. Our economy would be weak. Our academic and cultural institutions would be non-existent and our people more bigoted, narrow and parochial. Just as travel benefits the tourist so trade benefits a culture.
Trade is big and getting bigger. It has always defined the power of a city and always will. What are the top trade and financial cities today? Hong Kong, Singapore, New York City, Shanghai, and Beijing.
What will they be in 2035? New York City, Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
The world depends on and rewards trade.
Of course, for every benefit there is a flip side. Countries and populations win and lose according to their ability to compete for markets. Investments pour into some and avoid others. Living standards rise here and fall there. Corruption thrives without adequate laws.
Trade can even turn people into commodities when we stop thinking of them as created by God. There is the huge slave trade that still goes on allowing some to treat people as things to be bought and sold. That is what John may mean when he writes in the Book of Revelation 18: “The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her (Babylon) because no one buys their cargoes any more…cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.” There are 14 million adults and children caught up in sex trafficking who are bought and sold like private property.
The United Nations Office on Drugs estimates the size of the global illicit drug market at $321 billion and making up nearly 1% of the total global trade economy.
What God intended for good we have also managed to turn into a machine for harm.
In fact, this is God’s complaint against Tyre. They have twisted his blessings for the world into a curse. It is not only the Jews who have been given special responsibilities through the use of unique gifts. Yes, they were told to think of themselves as peculiar people and God’s special possession but God has also gifted nations and people with skills, abilities and talent intended to bless the world.
But, like the Jews began to give themselves the credit for their success, to turn inward, and abandon the worship of God, so others have done the same.
Deuteronomy 8
“Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint. He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.”
Nations do not have the same covenant relationship with God as Israel but they have a similar responsibility and the consequences are the same. “If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.”
People, cities, nations are under the obligation to use what they have been given by God for the good of others. Their success is not to be hoarded. Their wisdom is not to make them proud and think of themselves as special much less gods. Their skills are not to be taken for granted or turned toward increasing their wealth at the expense of others.
So, we learn because of her pride, violence, dishonest practices, idolatry, greed, hoarding, and misuse of every gift she has been given, everything good in her has been corrupted. She has desecrated her sanctuaries. Even religion has been compromised by wealth and power.
What is her punishment?
Tyre is to be forgotten for two generations. That must have been worse than being destroyed. To go from being one of the most famous cities in the ancient world to being forgotten. Ezekiel tells us that all the merchants of the earth will roll their eyes in contempt for Tyre and “hiss at you” while all the nations who knew you will be appalled at you. For 70 years you will be reduced to an inconsequential has been, a used to be, a pitiful shadow of what you once were.
But then, something almost miraculous occurs. After 70 years of exile, Tyre is restored to her place. Traders return, wealth and power increase, influence rises, and she is back in the game but this time she is not a beautiful young woman attracting the attention of kings. She is an aging whore, a prostitute forced to flaunt herself to get their attention. “She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.” A second chance at success is not given to many like it is to Tyre – but she cannot change. She is still a whore. She goes back to what she knows.
And then the twist:
Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothes.”
Some have used the verse to justify ministries taking money that has been earned illegally or unethically. The money given is made clean by being given to the church or a non-profit.
Some have read it as proving that while not everyone will become wealthy in the right way there will be a remnant in Tyre who will prosper and bless the church with their wealth.
Some have read it – like John Calvin – to mean Tyre will not repent but that she will return to her old tricks “and hidden stratagems, and deep-laid traps, that it appears to have been contrived for the purpose of ensnaring and deceiving men. How many new and unheard of contrivances for making gain and exacting usury are every day invented, which no one who has not been long trained in the school of merchandise can understand? We need not wonder, therefore, that the Prophet made use of this comparison, for it means that Tyre will have no more honesty than before in mercantile transactions.”
Some read it as Tyre eventually repents and donates all her profits to worthy causes. Again, reading John Calvin: Isaiah “describes, in a few words, the repentance of Tyre, who, having formerly been addicted to avarice, has been converted to Christ, and will no longer labor to amass riches, but will employ them in kind and generous actions; and this is the true fruit of repentance, as Paul admonishes, that “he who stole should steal no more, but, on the contrary, should labor that he might relieve the poor and needy.” (Ephesians 4:28.) Isaiah foretells that the inhabitants of Tyre, who formerly, through insatiable avarice, devoured the riches of all, will henceforth take pleasure in generous actions, because they will no longer have an insatiable desire of gain.”
Maybe it is a little of all those interpretations. As well, it could also be, in the words of Solomon, “Whoever loves money never has enough money; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep. I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner…I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead.”
I think that describes the ironic fate of Tyre – and of individuals, cities and nations who misuse the gifts of God. Their abundance ends up in the hands of strangers. It is a grievous thing under the sun.