One Year Bible
Old Testament passage for Tuesday, November 12, 2013: Ezekiel 24:1-26:21
1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: … 3 … therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. 5 She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. Ezekiel 26:1, 3-5 (ESV)
Fulfillment of prophecy is one of the most convincing proofs of the divine inspiration of the Bible. Ezekiel 26 is one of the best examples of this. I first read about this many years ago when I picked up Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict. He lays it out over several pages.
Over the years, Ezekiel 26 has been hotly debated by skeptics and believers. The truth remains. God spoke a six-part word over the mighty city of Tyre, and history shows exact fulfillment.
1. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, would attack Tyre and destroy the mainland city (26:7-8)
2. Tyre would be attacked by many nations (26:3).
3. Her buildings would be flattened and the city would become like the top of a rock (26:4)
4. The debris of the city would be dragged into the sea (26:12)
5. Fishermen would dry their nets where once the city had stood (26:5, 14)
6. The city would never be rebuilt (26:14)
History records that each of these prophecies have been literally fulfilled! Thirteen years after Ezekiel prophesied, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege and destroyed the mainland half of Tyre. Over the years, Alexander the Great, his successor Antigonus, not only attacked Tyre but drug all the broken rocks into the sea to make a causeway to the island half of Tyre. Later, the Muslim Seleucids would also attack. Today, there is in fact a city of Tyre, Lebanon. But it is south of the original cite of the city. The original city was never rebuilt. Today, a fishing village borders the place where once a bustling, world-class city had stood. Daily fishermen lay their nets out to dry on the flat rock area once called Tyre.
This is but one of many examples of the truthfulness of Scripture. We often speak of the miraculous power of God. One of the greatest miracles God has ever performed is right in your hands. It is the Bible.
We can trust the Word of God. He never lies. His Word is truth.