Ezekiel 27:36

The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.

The merchants among the people shall hiss - with astonishment, as in . The merchants among the people shall hiss - with astonishment, as in .

Remarks:

(1) The mercantile greatness and the beauty of Tyre as to situation () only make her disastrous and utter downfall in the end the more awful by contrast. Sooner or hater there is a termination to all the riches, honour, and beauty of the world; like a ship which has been built of the most costly materials, manned with the best mariners, and decked with snow-white sails and flaunting and gay pennants, but which, encountering agitated seas, is broken in pieces by the waves and tempests (Ezekiel 27:4; ). Such was maritime Tyre; and such shall every people be at last whose greatness rests not on the strength of Yahweh.

(2) It was not owing to any lack of troops and arms (Ezekiel 27:9) that Tyre fell; nor yet was it because her commercial stability rested on an unreal basis, in a worldly point of view. Tyre had all these sources of material wealth, permanence, and security, apparently as much as any nation ever had them (Ezekiel 27:12). It might have seemed that it would be against the interest of any nation to go to war with her, inasmuch as she was wholly occupied with the peaceable pursuits of merchandise, and acted as a common center of commerce to all, without the inclination to make a hostile assault on any. But "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (). Tyre, with all her worldly advantages, and even spiritual privileges through her nearness to and alliance with Israel, had not sought the favour of the God to whom she owed her all; therefore all her apparent sources of wealth and stability failed to save her; but these, together with herself, "fell into the midst of the seas in the day of her ruin" (). Let our great mercantile nation, which boasts of her ships of war as constituting her impregnable 'walls' (note, ), take heed that she rests her security, not on her material resources, nor even on the industry, commercial enterprise, and bravery of her sons, but on the favour of the Lord. Let each of us use the means and opportunities for missionary effort afforded by England's extensive empire, to the best of our ability; so shall we, as far as in us lies, lay a sure foundation for our country's safety in that "righteousness" which "exalteth a nation."

(3) The case of Tyre intimates that God's eye is upon men, not only when they are in the house of God praying and hearing, but also when they are in the shop and in the market buying and selling. God sanctions the lawful pursuits of trade, because He hath so constituted countries that some abound in commodities which others have not, serviceable to the needs, comforts, and elegancies of life. But God would have men to remember Him in all their ways, and neither to violate the laws of justice and love to their fellow-man in their commercial dealings, nor to allow their hearts to be engrossed with earthly gain and business, so as to cease to make His glory, and their own and their neighbours' salvation, their chief aim.

(4) The men of the world shall mourn at last when all that they esteemed great, glorious, and permanent, shall, contrary to their expectations, have come to a complete end; just as the various persons connected with Tyre mourned over her downfall (). How vain a confidence is theirs who put their trust in any power of man! There is no solid and lasting help in any son of man, seeing that "his breath goeth forth" and "he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish" (). He alone is "happy that hath the God of Jacob for his help, and whose hope is in the Lord his God." Resting by faith on the Rock of Ages, the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not be, like Tyre, founded on an earthly rock (), but shall be secure forever from the waves of destruction.