lpg */8The American Wisdom Series

Presents pamphlet #6423

The Book of Isaiah
Chapter 23

The 23rd chapter of Isaiah concerns the oracle or revelation of Tyre, a word whose meaning in the Hebrew language is "rock". Students of God's Word who are familiar with the 27th and 28th chapters of Ezekiel, know: 1.) that Tyre, located on a "little rock" island off the coast of Zidon, was the hub of commerce and the World Trade Center (WTC) of the ancient world, and 2.) the "king" of Tyre is that false god, the king of merchandising and trafficking, and political and educational corruption (liberalism), that little rock who is none other than Satan himself.

"The taste of the Tyrians was not for war, but for manufacture, commerce, money-making, sea voyages, and colonization. They produced purple dyes, metal work, and glass ware: and they trafficked even with remotest peoples." (Davis Dictionary of the Bible, Baker, pg. 791)

There is also a wonderfully exciting addendum to this oracle (prophecy) that enables us to pinpoint the timeframe, even the exact timeframe, that Tyre would be revisited, letting us know that our Father is in complete control and His wondrous plan for the consummation of this flesh age is right on track! However, before we begin, let us lay some groundwork concerning "rocks" and then let us understand what event Jesus Christ said we Baby Boomers would see that would trigger the final labor pangs that bring forth the birth of a new age... i.e. the second advent.

First of all, God's elect who love and serve the LORD do not place their trust and security and future wellbeing in the things of this world nor in the systems and traditions of men which seek to find and provide their own path of salvation. Rather they trust and rely upon the Rock of their Salvation, which is Jesus Christ.

Psalm 18:2
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

So there are two "rocks". Which one do you put your trust in? By the way, the one Rock is eternal and cannot be moved. The other rock is temporal and shall be smashed to bits by the Stone that is cut out without hands (Dan. 2:34).

Deut. 32:31-35
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

[32] For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

[33] Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

Now, let us understand what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:6-8 and Mark 13:7-8 that would "be the beginning of sorrows (labor pangs)."

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Mark 13:8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

So what does this verse mean, "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom?" It is really quite simple and is made clear in the Greek from which it is translated. First, the word translated "against" is the Greek word "epi" which can mean "outer", "over", "upon", or "up against" as in "along side of" or "beside". The proper definition and usage of "epi" is important, so here is the Strong's definition in its entirety:

against, epi, ep-ee', Greek 1909; a primary preposition properly meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etc.), as a relation of distribution [with the genitive], i.e. over, upon, etc.; of rest (with the dative) at, on, etc.; of direction (with the accusative) towards, upon, etc. :- about (the times), above, after, against, among, as long as (touching), at, beside, × have charge of, (be-, [where-]) fore, in (a place, as much as, the time of, -to), (because) of, (up-) on (behalf of), over, (by, for) the space of, through (-out), (un-) to (-ward), with. In compounds it retains essentially the same import, at, upon, etc. (literal or figurative).

rise, egeiro, eg-i'-ro, Greek 1453; probably akin to the base of Greek 58 (agora) (through the idea of collecting one's faculties); to waken (transitive or intransitive), i.e. rouse (literal from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death; or figurative from obscurity, inactivity, ruins, nonexistence) :- awake, lift (up), raise (again, up), rear up, (a-) rise (again, up), stand, take up.

agora, ag-or-ah', Greek 58; from ageiro (to gather; probably akin to Greek 1453 (egeiro)); properly the town-square (as a place of public resort); by implication a market or thoroughfare :- market (-place), street.

nations = ethnos, eth'-nos, Greek 1484; probably from Greek 1486 (etho); a race (as of the same habit), i.e. a tribe; specially a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually by implication pagan) :- Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

kingdom = basileia, bas-il-i'-ah, Greek 932; from Greek 935 (basileus); properly royalty, i.e. (abstract) rule, or (concrete) a realm (literal or figurative) :- kingdom, + reign.

Note: You will find standing "left of center" (from our perspective) the man from Little Rock (Little Tyre) who presided over the globalization of the '90s that brought all these world leaders to stand together in the market place. The fact that this "little horn" player

was from Little Rock and that he committed fornication with the harlot, etc., etc., certainly draws the watchful eye of those who are able to discern the times in which we live and the things that are taking place. Matthew 24:33 "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."

You "see", Tyre, that little rock island off the coast of Zidon, is symbolic of the globalization of these last days which began to take place right after the Cold War ended... when the Berlin Wall was torn down and the USSR fell apart as God so declared it would (read the book of Obadiah for the details). It is important as background for this study that we understand that it is neither opinion nor speculation that the 1990's was the decade of globalization! It is indeed a FACT! Here is a direct quote from the International Monetary Fund at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/03/bought.htm.

"For anyone who cares about international economic policy, the 1990s were the decade of globalization, when international trade in goods, services, and financial capital became more widespread than ever before."

Certainly you have heard of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the IMF and the World Bank. The kingdoms of Europe have already risen together economically in the marketplace with the implementation of the Eurodollar and the Americas, including Canada and Mexico, are swiftly being brought together under "Dollarization". Then too, worldwide e-commerce has arrived.

Question: If it is indeed the generation of the fig tree, that generation identified as the post war Baby Boomers, that would see all these things come to pass (and indeed it is as per Mark 13:30)... then sooner or later the Olivet Prophecy must become the Olivet History as "we see these things come to pass". In other words, just as we saw the planting of the "Fig Tree" come to pass in May of 1948, that marked the beginning of the final generation, so likewise we are seeing globalization come to pass which we shall learn in this 23rd chapter of Isaiah is the re-visiting, the re-emergence, of Tyre! And you know what else? That tells us that we are getting ever so close to the end (telos)! Mark 13:29 "So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors."

You "see", this standing alongside side each other of both the ethic nations and the royal nations of the world was a bench-mark to be looked for in the post-war Baby Boomer generation, that generation of the fig tree that was planted on May 14, 1948. It is written that this globalization of trade and commerce (and politics and religion) would follow the "hearing" of (world) wars and rumours (threatening reports) of (world) wars, which was the "Cold War", the constant reporting of the threat of global nuclear annihilation. The fact is that the Baby Boomers never participated in a World War. Instead we listened to (heard) and watched movies about wars, especially WWII, and we were "conditioned" with the terrifying image of that towering mushroom cloud produced by the dreaded A-bomb... an image that with few (if any) exceptions, every Baby Boomer has indelibly etched in his or her mind!

However, all of that "hearing" about wars and living through the Cold War did not "signal" the beginning of the labor pangs that would bring about the culmination of the final events of this flesh age! Here are Christ's words documenting that fact:

Mark 13:7
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

The Greek word for "sorrows" is "odin", o-deen', Greek 5604; akin to Greek 3601 (odune); a pang or throe, especially of childbirth :- pain, sorrow, travail. And the Greek word for "earthquake" is "seismos, #4578" which is also translated "tempest" in Matthew 8:24. That is because "seismos" means a great commotion or shakeup of something, and not necessarily the "terra firma". For although a seismos of the ground is an "earthquake" and a seismos of the air is a "tempest", you can have seismos, a great commotion or shakeup, almost anywhere and in almost any thing... like economics for example. Ever hear of "Enron", that great shakeup in the corporate world of finance? In other words, that these shakeups would be in "divers places" does not specifically refer to plates shifting in different geographical locations under the earth, but rather to earthshaking events, turmoil and commotion, in "all areas (places) of society". Check out the Greek for "divers" and "places". Meanwhile, here is Strong's definition of seismos.

seismos, sice-mos', Greek 4578; from Greek 4579 (seio); a commotion, i.e. (of the air) a gale, (of the ground) an earthquake :- earthquake, tempest.

Let us now begin Isaiah 23, the chapter that proclaims God's revelation concerning the future judgment of Tyre in these last days.

Isaiah 23:1
The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Nevertheless, the point is God is going to destroy Tyre, the rock... both Satan's one world globalized system of commerce and trade, that rock (Little Tyre) that Satan's little people trust in and rely upon, which is the 1st Beast of Rev. 13, and the king of Tyre himself, who is that false messiah who comes at the sound of the 6th Trump and deceives the whole world into believing he is God (2 Thes. 2).  You can find both judgments in the great 28th chapter of Ezekiel.

Furthermore, it shall be from the "land of Chittim" that it is revealed... because the "bruisers" (again, called ships of Chittim in Dan. 11:30) are going to come against the false rock and proclaim to the world when they are delivered up that the "the King of kings and His domain" is coming to this earth and not only shall "the party" be over and the great city flattened, but every knee from every nation and tongue shall bow to Christ's authority.

[2] Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

Since Zidon, the coastal town and mother of Tyre, is mentioned here, we will take a little sneak preview as to why it is God allows this unholy economic system and globalization of trade and commerce to ensnare the world.

Ezekiel 28:20-22
     Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[21] Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,

[22] And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

Isaiah 23:3
    And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

Isaiah 23:4
    Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

Well, that city is coming to nought and those who ride upon her waves, who have put their trust in her care, are going to weep and howl at her demise!

Rev. 18:16-18
And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! [17] For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, [18] And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! [19] And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Isaiah 23:5
As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

[6] Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

[7] Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

The word "antiquity" in this verse should be translated "origin", which precipitates the question: What is the ancient origin of "city building"? It did not come from Adam for he was a farmer, a man who went forth to till the ground. The answer is found in Genesis 4:17: "And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch."  And so it was that Cain left farming, for the ground was cursed to him after that he killed his brother Abel, to become a "fugitive" and a "vagabond" and to build him a city. Here is God's judgment upon Cain:

Genesis 4:12
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

sojourn, guwr, goor, Hebrew 1481; a primitive root; properly to turn aside from the road (for a lodging or any other purpose), i.e. sojourn (as a guest); also to shrink, fear (as in a strange place); also to gather for hostility (as afraid) :- abide, assemble, be afraid, dwell, fear, gather (together), inhabitant, remain, sojourn, stand in awe, (be) stranger, × surely.

One should be able to see that the more we allow ourselves to be drawn away from the wisdom and knowledge of our Father's Word, the more "city" the kenites are able to buildup in our midst and the more authority and power the "village" is given to provide for her children. Again, we have become those children of verse 4 who are "nourished up young men" and cared for by the "village"! We have become slaves to the system and you know what else? The taskmasters who have enslaved us continue to demand that the same tally of bricks be built, even though the jobs and labor resources are being taken away and shipped abroad while at the same time the burden of usury and taxation is made heavier. So now we and our spouses go out to gather the straw ourselves and continue to make bricks for the merchants and taskmasters to build their (international) city.

The good news is that we will not be slaves of and oppressed by the beast much longer, for the deliverer shall come! To wit, the judgment and demise of the "city" has already been declared and we are reading it right here in the great book of Isaiah, Yahveh's Salvation.

Isaiah 23:8
Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

princes, sar, sar, Hebrew 8269; from Hebrew 8323 (sarar); a head person (of any rank or class) :- captain (that had rule), chief (captain), general, governor, keeper, lord, ([-task-]) master, prince (-ipal), ruler, steward.

traffickers, Kena`aniy, ken-ah-an-ee', Hebrew 3669; patrial from Hebrew 3667 (Kena`an); a Kenaanite or inhabitant of Kenaan; by implication a pedlar (the Canaanites standing for their neighbors the Ishmaelites, who conducted mercantile caravans) :- Canaanite, merchant, trafficker.

In fact, here is quote from Meyer Nathaniel Rothschild, a money changer/merchant and kingmaker indeed, in a speech to a gathering of world bankers February 12, 1912. The following year, we subscribed to the "services" of the newly incorporated Federal Reserve, headed by Mr. Rothschild.

"Let me control a peoples currency and I care not who makes their laws..."

Isaiah 23:9
The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

honorable, kabad, kaw-bad', Hebrew 3513; or kabed, kaw-bade'; a primitive root; to be heavy, i.e. in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable); causative to make weighty (in the same two senses) :- abounding with, more grievously afflict, boast, be chargeable, × be dim, glorify, be (make) glorious (things), glory, (very) great, be grievous, harden, be (make) heavy, be heavier, lay heavily, (bring to, come to, do, get, be had in) honour (self), (be) honourable (man), lade, × more be laid, make self many, nobles, prevail, promote (to honour), be rich, be (go) sore, stop.

Here then is some good advice from the One who has all power in both heaven and earth, which is more that enough power to abase the prideful and smash their little rock (Dan. 4:37).

[10] Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.

[11] He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchantcity, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

On the other hand, our fortress and our Rock in whom we trust and rely upon shall never be destroyed. Clearly their "rock", who is the god they love and trust in, is not as our Rock (Deut. 32:31)! Those who trust in that little rock for their provisions and their security are one day going to wake up and find their rock is gone... finis!

Deut. 32:37
And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

Isaiah 23:12
And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

[13] Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, til the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

[14] Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

Let us now read what shall happen in the latter days.

[15] And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.

Jeremiah 27:2-3
Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, [3] And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;

Daniel 11:41
He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

Below are a few excerpts from the Institute for Historical Review.

"In the night of July 16-17, 1918, a squad of Bolshevik secret police murdered Russia's last emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, along with his wife, Tsaritsa Alexandra, their 14-year-old son, Tsarevich Alexis, and their four daughters. They were cut down in a hail of gunfire in a half-cellar room of the house in Ekaterinburg, a city in the Ural mountain region, where they were being held prisoner. The daughters were finished off with bayonets. To prevent a cult for the dead Tsar, the bodies were carted away to the countryside and hastily buried in a secret grave.

The mass slaughter and chaos of the First World War, and the revolutionary upheavals that swept Europe in 1917-1918, brought an end not only to the ancient Romanov dynasty in Russia, but to an enTyre continental social order. Swept away as well was the Hohenzollern dynasty in Germany, with its stable constitutional monarchy, and the ancient Habsburg dynasty of Austria-Hungary with its multinational central European empire. Europe's leading states shared not only the same Christian and Western cultural foundations, but most of the continent's reigning monarchs were related by blood. England's King George was, through his mother, a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas, and, through his father, a first cousin of Empress Alexandra. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm was a first cousin of the German-born Alexandra, and a distant cousin of Nicholas.

More than was the case with the monarchies of western Europe, Russia's Tsar personally symbolized his land and nation. Thus, the murder of the last emperor of a dynasty that had ruled Russia for three centuries not only symbolically presaged the Communist mass slaughter that would claim so many Russian lives in the decades that followed, but was symbolic of the Communist effort to kill the soul and spirit of Russia itself."

So what have we here? Well, 70 years from the end of the Romanov Dynasty in 1918 would have ended in 1988 bringing us to1989, the first year after the 70 years! Do you remember what benchmark in world history happen in that year, i.e. 1989? The "rumours" of large scale wars like a WW III virtually came to an end... beginning with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall on November 11th & 12th, 1989, that symbolically ended the Cold War. It was now time for East to meet West for you "see", you cannot promote globalization and division at the same time!

Then it was in 1991, the very same year that the Iron Curtain fell and the U.S.S.R. with its Warsaw Pact began to crumble, that the Decade of Globalization began to take place and by September of 2000, nation stood alongside nation and kingdom alongside kingdom in the Market Place, in the "Stronghold" of the "merchants", the headquarters of The United Nations and capital of World Trade and Commerce, NYC!

It was also at this same time that the Internet came into being and a World Wide Web began to be cast that would open "gates" and "windows" into virtually every business and household around the globe. Have you ever read of its origin and history? http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/cerf.shtml.

"Both public domain and commercial implementations of the roughly 100 protocols of TCP/IP protocol suite became available in the 1980's. During the early 1990's, OSI protocol implementations also became available and, by the end of 1991, the Internet has grown to include some 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries, serving over 700,000 host computers used by over 4,000,000 people."

And so it is that the harlot has "gone about (encircled) the great city (the whole wide world)!"

Isaiah 23:16
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

[17] And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

Rev. 18:3
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Isaiah 23:18
And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Thank you Father for the precious truth of your Word. Amen