Ezekiel 28 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application
Ezekiel 28 Bible Study
TIMELINE:
Assuming this chapter is a continuation of chapter 26, Ezekiel 26:1 dates this prophecy to the 11th year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, 586 BC.
Below is a list of kings of Judah and dates for their reign:
Amon (642-640 BC)
Josiah (640-609 BC)
Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum, 609 BC)
Jehoiakim (initially known as Eliakim, 609-598 BC)
Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah or Coniah, 598-597 BC)
Zedekiah (His reign ended when Babylon conquered Judah, (597-586 BC)
WHAT WE STUDIED PREVIOUSLY
Ezekiel 1 – Ezekiel had a vision of 4 living creatures, 4 wheels, and God’s throne.
Ezekiel 2 – God commissioned Ezekiel to be a prophet to his rebellious countrymen.
Ezekiel 3 – The end of the heavenly vision. Ezekiel ate a scroll of God’s words, and God called him to be a watchman over the people of Judah.
Ezekiel 4 – Ezekiel prophesies with an object lesson in the street by laying on his side for 430 days, eating rations of bread, and creating a siege scene with a brick that represents Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 5 – After the 430 days, Ezekiel cut off his hair divided it up into 3 parts and used it as a symbol for what would happen to the people of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 6 – Ezekiel prophesies against the idol worshipers in Judah, telling them their bodies will be thrown at the feet of their powerless gods.
Ezekiel 7 – God spoke to Ezekiel about the day of His judgement. The end was near for the citizens of Jerusalem, and their doom was on the horizon.
Ezekiel 8 – Ezekiel saw a vision of the Temple in Jerusalem. God guided him through the courts and gates of the Temple and showed him the secret idolatries that filled God’s house.
Ezekiel 9 – God sends a man with a writing case to mark the foreheads of those who hated the idolatries of Judah. Afterwards, God sends 6 executioners to kill everyone in Jerusalem who didn’t have the mark.
Ezekiel 10 – God’s glory departed the inner sanctuary of the Temple and ascended to His throne carried by the 4 living creatures.
Ezekiel 11 – God announced judgement on the wicked rulers of Judah. They thought they were safe in Jerusalem, like meat in a cauldron, but God promised to bring them out for death and captivity. At the end of the chapter, God spoke of a future day, when He would regather a remnant of His people and give them a new heart and new spirit.
Ezekiel 12 – Ezekiel prophesied about the downfall of King Zedekiah by carrying his possessions out of his house as if he were going into exile. God promised that His judgement was near, and anyone who suggested otherwise would be put to shame.
Ezekiel 13 – God confronted the false prophets and sorceresses amongst the people of Judah. The false prophets falsely claimed to speak with the authority of God, and the sorceresses hunted the souls of God’s people through witchcraft and divination.
Ezekiel 14 – God condemned the elders of Judah who harbored love for idols in their hearts. He told Ezekiel Jerusalem would not be spared even if righteous men like Noah, Daniel, and Job lived there.
Ezekiel 15 – God compared the citizens of Jerusalem to useless vine wood that was good for nothing except to burn.
Ezekiel 16 – God compared his people to a young woman who he had raised and cared for. When she grew up, she turned her back on God and prostituted herself with foreign nations and idols.
Ezekiel 17 – Ezekiel spoke a parable to the people of Judah about two great eagles. The parable indicated that the King of Judah would betray Babylon and be uprooted by them.
Ezekiel 18 – The people of Judah were accusing God of punishing them for the sins of their ancestors. God clarified that each man was responsible and would be held accountable only for his own sins.
Ezekiel 19 – God lamented the unfaithfulness of His people through two laments, the lament of the lion cubs and the lament of the vine.
Ezekiel 20 - The elders of Israel wanted to consult with God, but God refused them based on their continual and cyclical rebellion against His laws. God spoke of His future judgement on Judah and His future grace that would restore the nation.
Ezekiel 21 – Ezekiel spoke of the sword of the Lord that God had sharpened to punish Judah. The king of Babylon stood at a fork in the road, and God was going to direct him and his army to Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 22 – God condemned Judah for a litany of sins and their total neglect of any attempt to keep His commands. He told them He would melt them down like metal within the furnace of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 23 – God illustrated the unfaithfulness of Israel and Judah with a story about two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah.
Ezekiel 24 – God compared Jerusalem to a corroded pot that would be emptied and melted down. In the second half of the chapter, Ezekiel’s wife died, and God instructed him not to mourn for her publicly as a sign of the fate of the citizens of Jerusalem and their beloved city.
Ezekiel 25 – God prophesied against Ammon, Edom, Seir, Moab, and the Philistines.
Ezekiel 26 - God prophesied against the city of Tyre. God was going to judge them by bringing the nations against them and destroying them. Babylon would attack first, followed by the Greeks under the command of Alexander the Great (332 BC).
Ezekiel 27 – God described the downfall of the city of Tyre. His judgement on them was going to take them from the mountain of wealth, power, and influence, down to obscurity in the depth of the sea, never to rise again.
OUTLINE:
PROPHECY AGAINST THE PRINCE OF TYRE (28:1-10):
God rebuked the prince of Tyre because he had elevated himself to the place of God.
God said, “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god” (28:2).
The prince was very wise, wiser than Daniel, and very savvy in business, but not comparable to the divine.
Because of the prince’s pride, God announced that foreign nations would come against Tyre, strip it of its splendor, and kill the prince.
God asked him, “Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you?” (28:9).
LAMENT FOR THE KING OF TYRE (28:11-19):
Ezekiel was told to raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre
God described the king in a unique way, He said, “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you” (28:12-15).
God went on to say the king grew violent and sinful with his success. His heart was proud because of His beauty.
Because of this, God cast him down from the mountain of God and destroyed him.
He sent out fire to consume him and turned him to ashes.
God summoned Tyre’s neighboring nations to look down at the ruined state of the king and be appalled.
PROPHECY AGAINST SIDON (28:20-24):
Through Ezekiel, God announced His opposition to Sidon, Tyre’s neighbor.
Evidently, they had been a thorn in the side of the house of Israel.
For their sins, God would punish them with disease and the sword.
THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL GATHERED BACK TO THE LAND OF PROMISE (28:25-26):
God promised to regather the house of Israel from their scattered state and “manifest His holiness in them” (28:25).
They would be allowed to return to the Promised Land, and there they would live safely, plant vineyards, and build houses.
This would be a sign to the other nations that the God of Heaven was “the Lord their God.”
BIBLE INTERPRETATION:
The language describing the king of Tyre in verses 12-19 is so unique that it has sparked a lot of questions.
Why did God choose this language? Why does He talk about the king as a Cherub or as being present in the garden of Eden.
Some have suggested, and I believe it’s possible, that God is comparing the downfall of the king of Tyre to the downfall of a great spiritual being, perhaps Satan.
In this line of thinking, Satan is an archetype for other evil rulers, meaning he is the original from which all the copies are made.
The king of Tyre was a copy of Satan, a wicked prince who rebelled against God, and therefore God was informing him that he would suffer the same fate as Satan, humiliation and defeat.
