Isaiah 23 Commentary
The LORD announces the destruction of Tyre and Sidon. Pride is the reason. They are godless. The Creator God doesn’t exist in Tyre and Sidon. They are commercial centers whose wealth is down to trade, commerce, and industry. Work hard, deal wisely, and schedule your moves properly. That is all you need to succeed. It is a world without the LORD God.
But the LORD has decreed disaster for Tyre.
Tyre’s destruction is one against the ‘run of play’. The sea won’t believe it. When the LORD acts, rules of success stand in amazement. How can this happen? It defeats logic. Tyre shouldn’t fall! But it happens because the LORD has decreed. No stability is stable enough to hold its own when the Creator God decides.
Seventy years look like a figure-of-speech but historic references may confirm these time-based events. Israel had her own seventy years under foreign rule. Could it also refer to the sabbatical period of the Torah? Could it be a reference to the need of rest in the LORD Jesus Christ that the concept of Sabbath seems to so strongly project?
Regardless, the chapter ends with the mention of the worship of the Creator God. It follows the same pattern that we have seen with every judgment. The purpose is the same. Could I salvage value out of punishment? Can I still get back my lost children? Will they see it and return to me? You would guess the Creator God is longing for a moment of restoration.
Let restoration be the last word – even for the lost!
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