NOT EVEN A PAGAN KINGDOM IS REMOVED FROM THE REIGN OF YAHWEH

NOT EVEN A PAGAN KINGDOM IS REMOVED FROM THE REIGN OF YAHWEH

By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

The three major prophets of this period, and

some of the shorter ones (Amos and Zechariah)

have sections of prophecies against the

surrounding states, foretelling that they would

incur the divine wrath for their idolatry and other

offences.

A principal purpose of these attacks was to

show that the LORD is the God who controls

and cares about all history, not merely that of

his sacred nation.

The nations who break his laws will be

punished no less than Israel, and indeed their

punishment would be a warning to Israel.

Furthermore, the scourge in the LORD’s hand

would be the same: just as these little nations

geographically surrounding Israel would be

scarified by the great empires of Assyria and

then Babylon, so the same threat stands

against Israel.

Few of these prophecies find a place in the

Lectionary. Today’s passage is the only one of

Ezekiel’s sayings against the nations to be

included.

In this Book of Ezekiel, it is placed between the

first part which concluded with the ultimate

threat against Jerusalem, symbolised by

Ezekiel’s loss of his wife, and the promises of

return. Tyre was a city encompassing a small

island just off the coast of what is now

Lebanon; even now it is still reached by a

causeway. It was traditionally a strong naval

power, a naval base used even in Crusader

times. In ancient warfare it seemed to be

impregnable; certainly it survived several fierce

sieges.

This passage is chosen because, at the same

time as being a delicate satire on the

pretentions of Tyre and its ruler, it has also,

lurking in the background, a commentary on the

story of the fall of Adam in Genesis. What was

the basic sin of Adam? What is the basic

human sin? What was the sin of Tyre?

The answer given to each question is: pride, the

claim to be the equal of God, the claim to

ultimate wisdom, to arrogate to oneself the

power to make decisions which should be

made by God alone. Contributing to the satire is

the name of the ruler of Tyre at the time,

‘Ittobaal’, which means ‘man of God’ or even

‘man-God’.