Blogging the Bible 216 – Ezekiel 27-32 – The Fall of Empires

The winners in conflicts and world affairs generally get to write the history. They shouldn’t get to write the theology as well.
In these chapters the LORD speaks to and through Ezekiel to announce and lament the fall of Tyre and Egypt to the Babylonians. The new superpower is taking over, and the LORD has his own part in that, though in the case of Tyre it brings him sorrow – a reminder that his care and guidance were never only for Israel.
If this account had been written in Babylonian sacred texts, we would probably dismiss it as propaganda. But it’s written as part of the Scripture of Israel, in the setting of the prophecy of the judgement to fall on Jerusalem. There’s no triumph here, just a recognition that Israel’s suffering is not apart from that of other nations – either in human experience or in God’s plan.
Perhaps we should pray more to see world events through God’s eyes today. But we probably need first to give up the assumption that we as a nation of culture are necessarily on the winning side.