EZEKIEL 25-26 HOW NOT TO RESPOND WHEN GOD JUDGES YOUR ENEMY2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 25-26 How Not To Respond When God Judges Your Enemy

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. The nations that God is bringing judgment or pronouncing judgment against, you can also find this probably in the back of your Bible if you can't see the screen, but the nation of Judah is right there near the Dead Sea.

And surrounding it are these other nations that we'll be looking at tonight that God will be dealing with. The nation of Tyre up in the north, the nation of Ammon to the east, Moab to the southeast, Edom to the south, and then the Philistines to the west of the nation of Judah. And so these are the nations that God is going to be speaking judgment against today.

And he tells us why. And I want to encourage you to pay special attention to the word because as we read through our portion this evening, noticing why God is bringing judgment upon these nations. Because I think that has some important application for us personally as we look at these things and understand God's heart on some of the things that was going on. And so...

We pick it up in chapter 25 of Ezekiel and we start out looking at the nation of Ammon here in verses 1 through 7. It says this, The word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

Verse 1.

Indeed, therefore, I will deliver you as a possession to the men of the east, and they shall set their encampments among you, and make their dwellings among you. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and Ammon a resting place for flocks. Then you shall know that I am the Lord."

Verse 6, For thus says the Lord God, Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced in heart with all your disdain for the land of Israel, indeed, therefore, I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish from the countries. I will destroy you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Very similar to the judgments that we've been reading about that God has been pronouncing to the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. Now God speaks to the Ammonites. Now the Ammonites were kind of distant cousins of the Israelites. They were Lot's descendants through one of his daughters. And so...

They were distant relatives of the nation. And so God is writing to and speaking through Ezekiel to these other nations, specifically the Ammonites here, who they rejoiced when the judgment came upon the nation of Judah. They watched Babylon conquer the nation of Judah.

And so as they watched this, they rejoiced. They said, aha. They said, oh wow, this is wonderful. He describes them as stamping their feet like, woo, yeah. They watched Babylon conquer Jerusalem and they were excited about it. It was something that brought them joy in their heart. They rejoiced at this sight. They rejoiced at what was going on.

And so as we consider these things and consider why God is pronouncing judgment against the Ammonites, God says, this is why. The reason why I'm bringing judgment is because you rejoiced when I was dealing with my people, when this calamity happened to them. And so God is bringing judgment for their rejoicing over the judgment of the nation of Judah. Now it kind of begs the question,

Didn't Israel deserve judgment? And certainly they did. We've been reading about that for the past, you know, this far up into the book of Ezekiel. We've been reading about how Judah and Israel deserved God's judgment. But just because they deserved judgment, it did not give Ammon the right to rejoice over their judgment. Right?

Just because they deserved for God to deal with them, it didn't make it right for them to be excited and happy at the destruction that took place. Now the next question I think comes to mind is, didn't God bring this judgment? Isn't He the one that brought this judgment upon the nation of Judah? And yes, that indeed is true as well, but still that doesn't give Ammon the right to rejoice and be happy and be excited about

And say, aha, that's wonderful, whenever Judah is destroyed. And so God is declaring here very clearly, He's bringing judgment upon them because this was their attitude. This was their heart that they rejoiced. He says that they had disdain for the land of Israel. They looked down upon the land of Israel. They had this bitterness in their hearts. And so they were so happy.

When their enemy, when the one that they hated so much, when the one that they looked down upon, when they fell, when they stumbled, when they were destroyed, it caused their heart to rejoice. Now let's take that idea, take that thought, and then transplant that into our own lives. Not just looking at the nation of Ammon rejoicing over the nation of Judah and their destruction, but what about you and I today?

I think this is really the point. As God is saying, look, this is a serious issue. It's something that we need to consider for ourselves. Do we rejoice when others fall? Not just when any others fall, but do we rejoice when those that we don't like so much fall? Do we rejoice when tragedy happens to our enemies? Do we rejoice when people that we don't really care for fall?

hit hard times or have destruction happen in their lives? Do we rejoice over the calamities of others? You see, as Christians, that is not to be our heart. Even though God is the one bringing judgment upon the nation of Judah, He doesn't rejoice in it. Even though it's Him doing it, He's weeping over it. He's sorrowful over it.

He doesn't bring judgment with joy. It doesn't bring him joy. And as his followers, we are not to have joy when others are judged. We are not to have joy when others go through difficulty. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12, verse 14 and 15, he says, "...bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse."

The ones who are persecuting us, we are to bless them. But then he goes on to say, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. This is how we are to be as believers, as followers of God, as children of God. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

whomever it may be, whether it be our best friend, our family member, or that one that's been persecuting us, that one that gets under our skin and irritates us, the one that finally gets what they've had coming to them, the one who gets what they deserve. We're to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Do you rejoice when others weep? Is that your heart?

Proverbs 24, 17 says, He says, look, don't rejoice when your enemy falls. Don't let your heart be glad.

Don't let that be exciting to you. If that is your heart, that is wrong. It is sinful and it's worthy of judgment. That is why God is judging the nation of Ammon because that was their attitude toward His people. That was their attitude toward the nation of Judah. You and I as believers are, we're supposed to care more for the person and their soul than whatever is going on in this life. So what if they're persecuting us?

They need to be redeemed. They need to be delivered. They need to be given eternal life through Jesus Christ. And we're to care more for their soul than we care for our own selves. And they're persecuting us and that makes it tough and that makes it difficult. But when we laugh and are excited or happy or joyful when they fall, it's because we care more for ourselves than we do for them. We care more for this life than we do for the eternal life.

We're to have the eternal perspective. We're to have God's perspective. Even when He brings judgment, it's with sorrow. It's not with joy. It's not to cast down, but as an attempt to restore. And so when others fall, it's an opportunity for you and I as believers to reach out and to minister to them and to show them grace and mercy in the same way that God has shown us. We are not to rejoice.

It's not an opportunity to be excited and throw a party. When that co-worker who's been really bugging you or the boss who's crooked comes against you hard. When the neighbor who does things that aren't right. When these people around you, they get what's coming to them. The nation of Judah, the judgment they received was just, it was right. They got what was coming to them. When people around us get what's coming to them.

Get what they deserve. They've been going this way. They've been doing that thing. They've been kind of building up this judgment upon themselves. And we could look and say that's just. It's right for there to be judgment in their life. But that doesn't give us the right to rejoice, to have a glad heart. We are to care more for them and their soul than we are for this life. You know, God expects us to genuinely love people.

To genuinely, to really truly love them, regardless of what they do or how they treat us. Because that's how He is. He genuinely loves people, regardless of how they treat Him. And that's how we're to be as well. And so as God starts out here speaking to the nation of Ammon, He says, look, I'm going to bring judgment upon you because you said, aha, when my sanctuary was profaned,

And when the land of Israel was desolate, and when Judah went into captivity, they were standing there watching them, you know, go by in chains. Oh, this is wonderful. This is so great. We might not do that outwardly, but is that your heart? Is that what's going on? God says, I'm going to deliver you to the nations. They're going to take you captive. Your land is going to be destroyed, and so on and so forth. And so God says, because you did these things,

I'm bringing this judgment upon you. We're going on, verses 8 through 11. It says, Thus says the Lord God, because Moab and Seir say, Look, the house of Judah is like all the nations. Therefore, behold, I will clear the territory of Moab, of the cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-Jeshemoth, Baal-Meon, and Kirjathim.

And so here in verses 8 through 11, we have God pronouncing judgment upon the nation of Moab.

Moab also was a distant relative or their distant relatives of the nation of Israel. They also descended of Lot, who is Abraham's nephew. And so the Moabites, they should have known better. They had a good heritage. They came from one who was righteous, Lot. Now, these guys...

They were not friends of Israel either. They were not friends with the nation of Judah, even though they were distant relatives. They were always against and always causing conflict with the nation.

And so here, as they're watching Judah be destroyed, as they're watching this nation be conquered by Babylon, what's going on through their minds is something different than what the Ammonites experienced. The Ammonites got excited. They were happy because they were like, yeah, finally they get what they deserve. But the Moabites, they looked and they said, look, the house of Judah is like all the nations.

What they looked and they saw is they looked at the nation of Judah and the judgment that was being brought upon them. What they saw is that they're just like the rest of us. There's nothing special about them. They're just like all the other nations. What that means is that they're saying, hey, they're not God's chosen people. They're not the ones that, you know, God has only revealed himself to.

they're also kind of by implication saying their God is just like our gods because they no longer served the true and living God. And so they're looking on and saying, look, there's not a real God there. Look, there's no reality to them being called by God and His chosen people. And so they're looking on and coming to a conclusion about who God is or about their relationship with God based upon God.

what they see based upon this judgment that is happening. Now, I would parallel this with Job and his friends. As his friends come to Job after all this calamity, after all this destruction has come upon them, and they look at Job and they say, Job, there must be some kind of sin in your life. There must be some kind of disobedience that you've done something really bad to have God bring all this judgment upon you.

And they're coming to conclusions about Job and his relationship with the Lord based upon the outward, not knowing what's really going on. Now what's really happening is the nation of Israel, they are God's people. They were then and they still are today. They are God's chosen people. He's still working in them. He still has some pretty incredible plans for them. But what they were experiencing...

as Babylon comes and conquers them, was His chastisement, His discipline. Because He is their God, He is dealing with them in that way and bringing judgment upon them. It's not that He wasn't their God, that they weren't His chosen people, that they were experiencing those things, but it's because they were His people

They were experiencing those things. Where God is bringing them back into right relationship with Him, but they've chosen to go the hard way, through the discipline route, because they refused to turn from their sin. And so they, that is the Moabites, look upon the nation, and they say, oh, they're just like the rest of us. There's nothing special about them. There's nothing special about their God. Coming to conclusions...

about where they stand with the Lord based upon the outward. And again, making it personal. Is that what we do? Is that what you do? Do we look at people's lives and the things that are going on and we think, oh man, they lost their job, they don't have a job, there must be some kind of sin.

They're just like, you know, the rest of the world. They're not right with God. There must be some kind of disobedience. Do we come to those kinds of conclusions? Do we make those kinds of judgments about people based upon these outward things when we don't know the full picture and what's really going on? This is a dangerous, a dangerous practice. Why? Because God tells Moab,

I'm bringing judgment upon you as a result of that. He says in verse 10, to the men of the east, I will give it, that is their land, as a possession together with the Ammonites. So just like the Ammonites are going to be judged, they're going to be judged along with them. He says, I will execute judgments upon Moab and notice they shall know that I am the Lord. God's been saying this all along. Then you're going to know that I am the Lord to the nation of Judah.

But God's not only interested in the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel. He's interested in all nations. He wants all nations to know that He is the Lord.

And so he said in verse 5 and verse 7 to the Ammonites, then you're going to know that I am the Lord. And then here to the Moabites in verse 11, then you're going to know that I am the Lord. So he's also dealing with them to bring them to the understanding, to open their eyes to know that he is the Lord, that they would have the opportunity to submit to him and to have a relationship with God. Verse 12 says,

Thus says the Lord God,

So now we go to the next group, the nation of Edom. God is going to bring judgment upon the nation of Edom. The nation of Edom was also...

distant relatives to the nation of Israel because Edom is another name for Esau. These are Esau's descendants. Remember Jacob and Esau and Jacob also named Israel had the 12 sons and those became the 12 tribes from Jacob descended all the nation of Israel. Well, his twin brother Esau also had many descendants and he became a nation known as Edom.

And so the Edomites are there. They're at the south of the Dead Sea, really directly below the nation of Judah as far as the geography is concerned. And as they're watching what's happening, as they're watching Babylon come and destroy Jerusalem, they take it even a step further than the Ammonites. They don't just rejoice there.

their destruction. They don't just rejoice in what is going on, but they participate with the Babylonians.

They participate. Now, you can read about this in the book of Obadiah, where he gives a little bit more detail about how they participate. But they plunder the nation. They go and they're like, hey, great, you know, they're conquered. They go, let's see what we can find. They go out and they get some of the valuables and things that they could find from the people and from the homes that were left and the things that were destroyed.

But not only that, those who were trying to escape, as Babylon, you know, gets into the walls of Jerusalem and then everybody starts fleeing, the Edomites actually help Babylon by catching those who are fleeing. So they're in, you know, Jerusalem and they're running south and the Edomites are like, hey, all right, you know, we got some guys, we got some runners. And so they catch them and hold them for Babylon.

And so they helped Babylon catch those who were escaping. They participated in this judgment that God was bringing upon the nation of Judah. God says that they are taking vengeance and they're avenging itself upon the Jewish people. They felt hurt. They felt that Israel or Judah owed them something. They wanted to pay them back. And so this is how they did it.

They participated as Babylon conquered and plundered them. They took vengeance upon them, making it personal again. Do you avenge yourself? When others fall, when others stumble, do you take that opportunity to seek out vengeance for yourself? As believers, this also is something that we are not to do. Paul reminds us in Romans 12, verse 19,

He says, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. He tells us, as believers, we are not to take vengeance for ourselves. That is, we're not to take matters in our own hands to make them pay for what they've done to us. Now, this is not a question of, you know, well, it's okay to take vengeance as long as they really deserve it.

This is God saying, vengeance is mine. We are not to take vengeance, but they deserve it. Well, of course, that's why we're not to take vengeance. If they didn't deserve it, it'd be called something else. We're not to take matters into our own hands to pay them back for something that they've done to us, for some hurt that they've inflicted upon us. That is reason for judgment.

That's why the Edomites, God declares, are being judged because they're taking matters into their own hands. They've been harboring this bitterness and this hurt and they say, alright, now's our opportunity. We're going to pay them back. We're going to take vengeance. Do you avenge yourself? Do you take matters into your own hands? Do you use those times when others are hurt or others stumble as an opportunity to try to get them back for something that they've done wrong?

To you or to your family or whoever. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. We see the Philistines in verses 15 through 17, similar issue. It says, thus says the Lord God, because the Philistines dealt vengefully and took vengeance with a spiteful heart to destroy because of the old hatred,

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes and they shall know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon them. Here as we look at the judgment that's pronounced here upon the Philistines, they have a similar issue as what was going on with the Edomites.

They are taking vengeance upon the nation of Israel. Now the Philistines were in no way related to the nation of Israel, unlike the other ones that we've been looking at. But there was always this battle that would go on between the Philistines and the Israelites. You remember way back to David and Goliath. Goliath was a Philistine. The nation always wrestled with these Philistines who were essentially their neighbors in the land.

And so there was always this battle and under King David and under Solomon, they were subdued and they were, you know, under control. They were not able to really have power. And so now they see this as an opportunity to take vengeance upon the nation.

As a result of this conflict that's been a long time going on, he says they had a spiteful heart to destroy because of the old hatred. And so you get the understanding here. This goes way back. This is something that they've been harboring for a long time. It's a very deep root of bitterness that's happening. And so when Israel falls, when this judgment takes place, then they take it upon themselves.

to avenge themselves because of this old hatred. Why is vengeance wrong? It's wrong because God said, that's my right. You remember Paul said in Romans 12, 19, to give place to wrath. You need to leave room for God to deal with that situation. That's God's right. He has declared it. He says, that's my right. You're not to touch it.

I haven't given you the authority to take vengeance. That's an authority that I've reserved for myself, God says. And so we're not to carry out those things on our own, to take vengeance. Even if there's this deep root of bitterness. Even if it goes way back. Even if they've really hurt us from a long time ago. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4,

Verse 31, to let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. That is not an attitude. That is not a heart that we are to have as believers. Those things are to be put away from us.

Much less are we to act upon bitterness, we're not even to hold on to it. We're not even to hang on to those hurts and those wounds that go way back. We're to let them go, to forgive, to set ourselves free from that bondage of bitterness. Again, making it personal. Do you have bitterness in your heart? Are you bitter? Do you avenge yourself?

in order to pay people back for those ways that they've hurt you? Do you have a list somewhere of all the people that have wronged you? Do you have ideas in your head about how you're going to get them back? Do you plot? Do you scheme? How can I make them suffer the way that they've made me suffer?

That type of heart, that type of attitude, those types of actions, God says those are worthy of judgment. And so he pronounces to the Philistines, listen, I'm going to bring judgment. I'm going to stretch out my hand against you. I'm going to execute great vengeance against you. Now God can execute vengeance because that's his right. He's reserved it for himself. And so he says, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to execute vengeance. I'm going to bring it back.

And I'm going to pay you back for your evil heart of bitterness and for you taking vengeance upon my people. As we go into chapter 26 now, we're focusing just on one nation. The whole chapter is dealing with the nation of Tyre.

The nation of Tyre was in the northern part or north of Jerusalem, north of Judah in the land of Israel. It was right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a very prosperous, very rich city, commercial city that dealt in the trade. And it was kind of the port, you know, where if you were going to bring in merchandise to all of the area of Israel and the surrounding areas, it would go through Tyre.

And so it was a very prosperous city. They were very proud. And so God actually will deal with the nation of Tyre for the next few chapters, but we'll just be looking at chapter 26 this evening. So we start out in verse 1 and 2. It says,

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, who is the getaway of the peoples. Now she has turned over to me. I shall be filled. She is laid waste. Here is God focuses now his attention on the nation of Tyre. He pronounces judgment upon them.

For their heart, for their attitude, for what they said when the nation of Judah was conquered, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon. They looked at that, they saw what was going on, and they said, oh, this is going to be great. Now, we're going to have great wealth. Now, we are going to be filled while she is laid waste.

All those things that they're taking out of the rubble, all those things that they're going to go up to us, they're going to cash in, they're going to trade with us, they're going to send it out through us and our ports and send it to the surrounding areas. This is great. This is an opportunity for us. We're going to be filled. That's what the people of Tyre were saying. Again, making it personal, is that your heart, your attitude, when there is some type of destruction or judgment or calamity happening?

and someone else around you? Do you see opportunity when others fall? Do you consider, "Alright, now's my chance. He was just fired. Now's my chance. I'm gonna be filled. I'm gonna get that position. Now's my chance. This person's gone to be with the Lord. I can get that car that I've always wanted. Now's my chance.

This is happening in their life. That's going on in this other person's life. Now is my opportunity to be filled. Do you see the calamity of others as an opportunity for you to advance yourself or fill yourself or to obtain something? Do you get excited? Not necessarily because they've fallen or because they've been judged, but just, alright, now is my chance. I can get what they had. I'm going to be filled because they are laid waste.

God says, that's reason for judgment. Is that your heart? Because that is not to be the heart of the believer. That's not to be our attitude. Again, we are to love the person, the soul, more than this life. More important is it to have an opportunity to minister to them than an opportunity to gain from their destruction.

It's to be more important to us that they hear the good news, that we share with them, that we show them God's love and grace and mercy in the same way that He's shown it to us. That's the opportunity that we should see, not the opportunity to gain because they have lost. We're to love people, the person, more than this life, more than this world.

And so God says, because you saw this as an opportunity for yourself to gain, I'm going to bring judgment. And he spends the rest of the chapter describing this judgment. Verse 3, he goes on to say, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you as the sea causes its waves to come up, and they shall destroy the walls of Tyre.

Verse 1.

Also her daughter villages which are in the field shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. We see that again. God wants all nations to know that He is the Lord. And so He's bringing judgment against the nation of Tyre to teach them, to let them know that He really is God. And that their heart is wrong and they need to repent. So He says, I'm going to bring all nations or many nations against you.

And they're going to destroy your walls. They're going to come against you with much strength. Not only that, he says, they're going to scrape the dust from you. They're going to make them like the top of a rock. This is very interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, again, Tyre was a wealthy city. It was thought to be untouchable. It was thought to be undefeatable. It was very strong.

And so God says, I'm going to bring judgment. And not only am I going to bring judgment, but the land is going to be scraped. It's going to be just completely flattened, unthinkable to the people of the day, unthinkable to those who heard Ezekiel share these things. But as we look back historically now, we see that these things have been fulfilled. Just like chapter 25, all those nations, the things that God said would happen to them happened.

It was fulfilled just like God had said. The nation of Tyre had many nations come against it. It started with Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar. He came against the city of Tyre and he was successful in conquering the city that was on the mainland, on the coast. But what happened is Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city

The people moved out of that city and they had... The second part of the city was on an island just off the shore. And so basically, as he's camped out around them, they, you know...

head out the back way, go out into the Mediterranean Sea and repopulate or populate on the island that they were already inhabiting. And so they move all their valuables, they move everything and they fortify themselves in this island. And so King Nebuchadnezzar conquered the city on the coast, on the mainland, but he was not able to get to the island in order to conquer it. Well then, a couple hundred years later, Alexander the Great comes into the picture and

The city of Tyre is still on that island, well fortified. And so what he does in order to get to the island to be able to conquer them is he takes all the rubble from the city that Nebuchadnezzar conquered and he throws it into the sea in order to build a causeway, to build a bridge essentially across the Mediterranean to this island where they had moved when Nebuchadnezzar conquered them.

And so he was able to go out on this causeway and lay siege to the city of Tyre that was on the island and was able to conquer it. And now today, it's kind of like a peninsula. You see there where Tyre is, it goes out and it's still connected to this day from all the rubble that Alexander the Great and his army threw into the Mediterranean in order to get to that island that was just off the shore. And so what happened? They were scraped.

They took everything. The whole city of Tyre was just completely scraped. That there was just nothing but dirt underneath, rock underneath. Even the dust was scraped in order to make this land bridge to the island for Alexander the Great to conquer it. And so these things have been fulfilled just as God said. Verse 7.

Verse 10.

And so here God says,

Nebuchadnezzar declares what's going to happen when Nebuchadnezzar comes against the city. And again, he conquers the city that's there on the mainland, just like God said. He brings a great multitude against them. They're conquered. Those who are left behind are put to death. It's interesting though, because they moved out to the island, when Nebuchadnezzar finally conquered the city,

There wasn't much valuable there left. It had all been moved to the island. And so they didn't get much reward for conquering the nation of Tyre, the city of Tyre. And so God declares in a couple chapters, we'll see it in Ezekiel chapter 29, God declares, He says, I'm going to give Babylon, I'm going to give Nebuchadnezzar the land of Egypt, Assyria,

As reward. They're going to conquer Egypt. It'll be easier than Tyre. And they'll get the valuables from Egypt as payment for the judgment that they brought upon Tyre for me. And so there's not much left when Nebuchadnezzar gets in there, but he gets paid for it later. Verse 12.

They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. They will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water. I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more. 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."

And so God here continues on the declaration, you're going to be plundered. Again, Nebuchadnezzar didn't plunder them very much, but Alexander the Great did. He leveled the city, took all of their wealth, and God put an end to their songs. He put an end to all of their rejoicing.

And their place, their city ends up as a place where fishermen, even to this day, spread their nets. It's just a little bit of a fisherman's village that exists now. Not a city, it's not wealthy, it's not a great port, it's nothing like it once was. And so all of these things have been fulfilled just exactly as God said. And that should not be a surprise to us. Verse 15.

Thus says the Lord God to Tyre, "Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your fall? When the wounded cry, when slaughter is made in the midst of you? When all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments, they will clothe themselves with trembling, they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment and be astonished at you.

And they shall take up a lamentation for you and say to you, how you have perished, O inhabited by seafaring men, O renowned city who is strong at sea. She and her inhabitants who caused their terror to be on all her inhabitants.

Verse 18, now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall. Yes, the coastlands by the sea are troubled at your departure. Verse 19, for thus says the Lord God, when I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you and great waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit to the people of old.

And I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the pit, so that you may never be inhabited. And I shall establish glory in the land of the living. I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more. Though you are sought for, you will never be found again, says the Lord God. As Ezekiel is proclaiming these things for God, it's unthinkable. It's a wealthy city. It's a very strong city.

God says, look, when all of this happens, people are going to be shocked. People are going to mourn. They're going to wail. All the people who traded with Tyre, all the people who relied upon Tyre, they built their business around this relationship and

Being able to get their crop or their produce or their materials to tire or from tire. They're going to mourn because now this great resource, this great city that was thought to be untouchable has been thrown down and conquered. And so there's going to be great trembling as everybody is in shock. Now why is there this great judgment? Going back to the very beginning, God said...

You say, oh, now's my chance. I'm going to be filled because they are laid waste. They saw opportunity at Judah's fall. They thought, oh, this is wonderful. We're going to be rich. It's their calamity, but it's our blessing. That was their heart. That was their attitude. And that results, that brings upon them this judgment that God describes here in chapter 26. And so what we see here in chapter 25 and 26 is God declaring judgment.

This is why judgment will be happening on these nations. This is what's going to take place as a result of their heart. And so as we consider these things this evening, I would like us, I would challenge us, I think it's important that we consider these characteristics and ask ourselves, is this my heart? Is this my attitude? Is this what I am like? Because this is not how God wants us to be.

So the worship team is going to come up and lead us in a closing song. And as they do, I would ask that you spend time in prayer. Spend time in prayer, number one, for people that you don't like. All of these nations hated Judah. They didn't like them. And that's wrong to begin with. And so we need to take some time to check our heart and pray for the people that we don't like.

Pray for the people that have hurt us. Pray for the people that have abused us. Pray for the people that have treated us wrongly, that have done treacherously to us, to our family, whoever. Let's pray for them that we don't like. Secondly, I would ask that we pray that God would help us to genuinely love people. To genuinely love people.

That we would not be excited or seek opportunity or be thinking, you know, some kind of judgment against them when they fall, when they're destroyed, when something happens to them. But instead that we would rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. That we would love people more than we love this life. That we would love people more than the opportunity to get back at them, to take vengeance upon them.

And so let's pray, number one, for those that we don't like. And number two, let's pray that God would teach us to genuinely love people. If you need to ask forgiveness, it's a great opportunity. Say, God, forgive me for rejoicing when others have fallen. Lord, forgive me for harboring bitterness.

And seeking to take vengeance. Seeking to take things into my own hands. Lord, forgive me for judging others based upon the outward things that are happening to them. Not knowing what's really going on. Lord, forgive me for seeking opportunity at the expense of others or when others fall. So let's take this time, just between us and the Lord, to pray to get right with Him. And to ask Him to help us to love people genuinely and truly the way that He does. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.