Ezekiel 26:14: “‘I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the LORD GOD.”

The next 3 chapters of Ezekiel are prophesies of the coming destruction of Tyre, a city known throughout the ancient world for its commerce. During Ezekiel’s day they were a formidable force. The walls of the city were so massive and tall they extended right out into the Mediterranean Sea. Their navy ruled the seas, making them almost invincible by water. Ezekiel spoke these fascinating and specific predictions against them in approximately 589 BC, but they were not completely fulfilled until hundreds of years later.

In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre. History tells us his troops were there 13 years before they finally conquered the city. However, the majority of the people escaped to a small island a half a mile directly off shore from the main city. Verse 12 proclaims that “they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water,” and more than 200 years later, a young man named Alexander the Great came and did just that. He ordered his men to gather up everything left over from the old city and toss it into the sea, forming a roadbed out to the island where he conquered Tyre.

This prophecy and hundreds of others found in Scripture were not completely understood even by the prophets who faithfully wrote them down. But they were recorded for future generations, like you and me, to read and with hindsight understand that God’s word is reliable. When we grasp that these predictions are reliable and then read the other things recorded, we are moved to believe and trust in all that God has said concerning us: that He really did create us, that He really does love us in spite of our sin, and that He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him for eternity. God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.

“LORD, we are grateful to You for Your word, and ask You again to patiently conform us a little more into Your image this day, in Jesus’ name.”