“‘The merchants among the nations scoff at you;
    you have come to a horrible end
    and will be no more.’”
Ezekiel 27:36 (NIV)

Just a week or so ago, the United States was threatened with a strike by the longshoremen’s union which controls all of the ports around our nation’s coasts. The strike was quickly postponed while sides negotiate a settlement, but it did give a hint of how badly a strike could cripple supply lines and the availability of products across the nation. Union leaders bragged at their power to cripple the nation and bring us to our knees:

“I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means...First week, it will be all over the news — boom, boom, boom. Second week, guys who sell cars can’t sell cars because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down. They can’t get the goods from China. They can’t sell clothes. They can’t do this. Everything in the United States comes on on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren’t coming . The steel i s not coming in. The lumber is not coming in. They lose their jobs.”
Harold Daggett as quoted by Quartz

The ancient nation of Tyre had a similar hubris. Because of their location on the Mediterranean, they were an essential trade port at the gateway to Mesopotamia. They did business with everyone and their trade ships went everywhere. Scholars argue that the King of Tyre was actually limited in power because Tyre had a cabal of powerful, wealthy oligarchs who wielded power in incense-filled rooms behind the throne. Tyre bragged of its beauty, its power, and its wealth. They believed themselves and their trade indispensable to the nations and therefore believed themselves untouchable.

Enter the prophet Ezekiel.

Today’s chapter is actually the lyrics to another funeral dirge. He used this same metaphorical device back in chapter 19 to lament the princes of Israel. This time, Ezekiel pens a City Lament. City Laments were a popular literary genre in ancient Mesopotamia. When a city was destroyed along with the temple of its patron deity, a City Lament would be written describing the siege, the destruction, along with an appeal for repentance and protection from the “council of gods” that will allow the city to be rebuilt.

Ezekiel writes a funeral dirge and City Lament for the nation of Tyre while she sat very much alive, fat, and sassy on the coast. Ezekiel’s contemporaries would probably have considered the dirge a bit of insane hubris on Ezekiel’s part to pen the song. No one believed that they would be touched. Their trade was too essential to too many national economies.

But as the Proverb says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Tyre would fall just as Ezekiel pronounced.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reflecting on a funeral that Wendy and I attended yesterday for a friend and colleague. It was one of those sudden and unexpected deaths. He just retired and had all of his golden years ahead of him. He seemed to be in great health. Then came a shocking diagnosis followed by a tragically rapid descent.

I have observed along my life journey that individuals’ hearts and minds tend to be more open to matters of the Spirit when there’s a dead body in the room.

Ezekiel’s lament was a warning to Tyre, but it’s really a warning to me, too. I don’t know what will happen today or tomorrow, of if I even have a tomorrow on this earth. It is hubris and human pride to assume differently.

I enter this day with the lyrics of another ancient song, penned by Moses, rattling around in my soul:

“Teach us to number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.