Isaiah 23 Commentary
The LORD God decrees disaster for Tyre and Sidon, two Phoenician/Canaanite cities. They are proud and godless.
The Creator God doesn’t exist in Tyre and Sidon. They are commercial centers whose wealth is due to trade, commerce, and industry.
Work smart, deal hard, and schedule your moves properly. That is all
Tyre’s destruction is one against the ‘run of play’. The sea won’t believe it. When the LORD acts, the 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 it. No stability is stable enough to hold its own when the Creator God decides!
Seventy years look like a figure of speech, but historical references may confirm these time-based events. Israel had its own seventy years under foreign rule. Could it also refer to the sabbatical period of the Torah? Could it also reference the need for 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 there be value in punishment? Can I still get back my lost children? Will they see it and return to me?
These “punishments” are a message to humanity. Will humanity see it and return to the LORD God?
Let restoration be the last word – even for the lost!
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