God’s word concerning Tyre’s judgment in Ezekiel 27:19-21 refers to her demise. Tyre would be an uninhabited ruin after the destruction. The destroyed ruin would be washed over by the sea. In the Bible, the sea is used to picture the dark, bottomless pit of sheol. Ezekiel 26:20 suggests that Tyre would fade away from history and her citizens would join other ancient civilizations that had passed on and gone there.
Verse
20 describes Tyre as being brought down into the pit. This is a figure of
speech, which depicts Sheol or Hades. This is the place where the departed spirit of
mankind would go before God’s great white throne judgment takes place at the
end of the ages. Sheol is said here to be in the “lower parts of the earth.”
The
good news for us Christians is that after Christ’s coming, the departed spirit
of the believers will go to paradise. In Luke 16, in the account of the rich
man and Lazarus, the Lord differentiates Hades from Abraham’s bosom. What Jesus said
to the dying man on the other cross beside His “Today you will be with me in
paradise,” suggests that Abraham’s bosom
most probably is paradise.
The
waiting place for the departed spirit of people who did not believe in Christ is
Hades or Sheol. Those who had acknowledged Jesus as Lord, their departed spirit
go and wait in paradise. What about the spirit of the believers of God before Christ
came? In Ephesians 4:9-10, Paul tells us that Christ descended into the lower parts
of the earth and ascended from there leading captives with Him. The captives we
surmised were the departed saints of those who had believed in God before the coming
of Christ. Praise God that, unlike the people of Tyre, we who belong to Christ are
set for glory in the land of the living.
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