Isaiah 23:15-18 – The bane of materialism

The figure 70 is roughly the average life span of a person. Moses in psalms 90:10 affirmed this saying “for the days of our life, they contain seventy years….” In Isaiah 23:15, the prophet prophesied that Tyre would be forgotten for seventy years, the average life span of a king. With her destruction described in earlier verses, Tyre was out of business for that duration. The after the seventy years she would restart her shipping trade, but the business would not be as buzzing and lucrative as she once used to be. The client was hard to come by. So mockingly, Isaiah referred Tyre to a forgotten harlot and urged her to pick up her harp to play and sing songs to attract her customers so that they would remember her.

Verses 17-18 speak of Tyre’s revival. Her business picked up  and would return to trade with the other nations and regained her wealth. All these could happen because of the visitation of the LORD. In God’s working with the nations, He would demonstrate His compassion. From here we learn that God judges the wicked, but He also leaves room for compassion in His dealings. We take heart because if He could be gracious to Tyre who was not in a covenant relationship with Him, how much more would He be merciful to those whom He has a covenant with. Here we see Tyre reciprocating to God’s graciousness by dedicating their gains to support God’s ministers.   

The two flaws Tyre clearly displayed were pride and greed. In the past two discussions, we talked about her pride. What about her greed? Being a commercial city, wealth and riches would occupy their minds. Here we see God took away everything they had for seventy years. What’s wonderful here was that when they were restored, they could dedicate their wealth to support the work of God. We too need to have a gentle grasp on wealth. Don’t be overtaken by materialism in life. In our affluence society, it is easy to focus on making money. Let us not be consumed with amassing wealth until we leave little or no time for God. It is disastrous for our spiritual well-being!