5 -Opening Revelation
Who is the Prince of Tyre? And what nation is Tyre?
When studying the Bible’s End Times, most study Revelation and Daniel. However, the third book which gives a lot of information is Ezekiel. I believe Ezekiel covers much of the first three years of Daniel’s final or seventieth week of seven Biblical years with each year equaling 360 days. This period is delineated in Ezekiel 25 which begins the destruction of Islam with Moab, Ammon, and Edom (modern Jordan) plus the people of the land of the Philistines (modern Gaza) being destroyed. (I believe the same destruction is noted in Amos 1 & 2 which adds Syria to the nations destroyed per Amos 1:3-5. Zephaniah, the second chapter, adds Assyria to the nations destroyed. That would likely be modern ISIS. It also adds the black Muslim nations per 2:12 [The black Muslim nations are also noted in the Egyptian attack on Israel per Ezekiel 30:5 and the final Russo-Arab invasion of Ezekiel 38 & 39 per 38:5. Hence, the destruction of the black Muslim nations appears to occur within this period in at least 3 separate attacks.] Isaiah 17:1 notes Damascus will cease from being a city, becoming a heap of rubble. Likely it will be nuked in Islam’s initial attack on Israel. Amos adds Islam’s demise will occur over about a two year span per 1:1. ) Ezekiel 30 then notes the defeat of Egypt, the black African Muslim nations per Ethiopia, the North African Muslim nations, Lydia (in Turkey), and the mingled people who likely are the Muslims that have migrated to Europe recently and in the last few decades and also to America. Ezekiel 29 notes the nuking of the Aswan dam located at Syene, the ancient name for Aswan in Egypt. Ezekiel 38 & 39 note the utter destruction of the Russo-Arab invasion when Russia, Persia (modern Iran), Turkey, and the black and North African Muslim nations invade Israel.
However, three chapters, 26 to 28, are devoted to the destruction of Tyre, the major city of the Phoenicians, and seemingly as a footnote in 28:21-24, Sidon, their second major city. The involvement of either would denote the destruction of Lebanon, so why are they both named? Tyre is also noted in Amos 1:9-10 as one of the nations destroyed in the initial Muslim onslaught against Israel. The Amos reference notes that Tyre was punished for delivering up a whole people to Edom, the whole people being Israel and Edom being Islam. Ezekiel 27:4 notes the borders of Tyre are in the heart of the seas and Tyre was located in verse 26 in the heart of the seas. Verse 32 notes Who is one like Tyre destroyed in the midst of the sea. The prince of Tyre notes I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas in Ezekiel 28:2. In verse 8, God tells him he shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas. Hence, I believe the Tyre reference in Amos 1 refers to Lebanon, but the references in Ezekiel 27 and 28 refer to a nation in the midst of the seas, so it must be a different nation from today’s Lebanon, which likely is also represented in Ezekiel 28 as Sidon. And the Tyre in the midst of the seas may be represented by what became of the tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and/or Manasseh, who had the great blessings of God, as Israel in Amos 2:6-l6. Remember modern Israel is primarily the Jews of Judah, also noted in Amos 2:4-5. As I read the Bible, the lost tribes of Israel and not just the Jews must return to Israel per Ezekiel 37. Perhaps Tyre’s destruction will facilitate this.
First, a little history, Tyre was the main city of the Phoenicians, the great traders of the ancient world. Sidon was the second city of these people. Some say their ships went to Britain and around Africa; others, even to the Great Lakes in North America. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylonian king, destroyed Jerusalem. The following year, he went to the mainland city of Tyre. He besieged it about 13 years, finally taking it in 572 BC as predicted in Ezekiel 26, a prophecy given about the time Jerusalem fell. However, there was a small island in the Mediterranean Sea a quarter to half-mile offshore, controlled by Tyre’s navy. The people of Tyre fled mainland Tyre for this island taking their gold and silver and other valuables with them. Nebuchadnezzar got mainland Tyre but little reward for his 13 year effort.
Tyre remained an island in the midst of the sea until about 332 BC when Alexander the Great passed by. He had twice defeated Persia and was securing his rear before going again after the Persian ruler. He demanded Tyre surrender. Its people laughed at him. After all they were offshore with the world’s best navy. Alexander’s engineers went to the ruins of mainland Tyre and threw them into the Mediterranean Sea building a causeway to the island, one of the greatest feats of engineering in the ancient world, all predicted in the Bible. Per Ezekiel 26: 12 they will lay your stones, your timber and your soil in the midst of the water. This is extra work if you have taken the mainland city, but exactly what the Greeks did over 2 centuries after Nebuchadnezzar’s victory to take the island city of Tyre. Ezekiel 26:14 I (God) will make you like the top of a rock and you shall be a place for spreading nets. Alexander scraped the island city clean, and fishermen now spread their nets on what remains, no longer an island but broadly connected to the mainland. In Ezekiel 26:3 God says he will cause many nations to come against Tyre, like the waves of the sea, but 26: 14 also noted at some point, it would never be rebuilt. This took a little longer. It was last destroyed by the Moslems in 1291 AD. Since then, it has not been rebuilt.
God said to Ezekiel circa 571 BC in Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor they expended on it. 19 “Therefore thus says the LORD God: ‘Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. “20 ‘I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor; because they worked for Me,’ says the LORD God. Now mainland Tyre was loaded with gold and silver, but when its people realized the city was about to fall, they simply left for their offshore island with all Nebuchadnezzar’s potential loot. Tyre was one city filled with gold and silver, but Egypt had several cities filled with gold and silver. From the conquest of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar got so much plunder that his pride soared. And God put him out to pasture for seven years. However, this raises an interesting question. Why did God want mainland Tyre to be destroyed? Or why did God want Tyre to be an island in the midst of the sea? Remember- this is in Ezekiel 25 to 39, the two year time frame beginning with the destruction of the nations surrounding Israel save Egypt and ending with the RussoArab invasion of Israel. It refers to a specific nation during the time God destroys Islam, which is likewise destroyed. I do not believe this is Lebanon, because there is also a reference to Sidon which would include Lebanon. Why would there be two references to Lebanon when one would do? The Tyre of this era is in the midst of the seas as noted above.
This nation referred to as Tyre has several characteristics. Ancient Tyre was a great trading nation, the greatest of the ancient world with the greatest navy. Hence, I believe: 1. It must be a great trading nation (… merchant of the peoples on many coastlands… per Ezekiel 27:3). Its destruction must occur about the time of Islam’s demise. The power of Islam is shattered over about a two year span per Amos 1:1. Initially Islam may appear unbeatable, perhaps from destroying this Tyre in the midst of the seas. 2. With reference to Jerusalem, it must be in the midst of the seas per Ezekiel 27:4, 26, and 32 and 28:2, 8 as previously noted. 3. Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible notes 34 nations are noted in Ezekiel 27 as mentioned with Tyre, i.e. the nation must be a tower of Babel, filled with different people from all over the world. 4. Dake’s also notes thirty-five different types of merchandise that Tyre deals with, i.e. it must be filled with stuff from all over the world- stuff, stuff, and more stuff. 5. It must be ruled by an exceedingly arrogant man who thinks he is a god per Ezekiel 28:2. He will be killed by strangers from the terrible or most terrible of nations per Ezekiel 28:7, 8, also referred to as aliens per Ezekiel 28:10. In other words, he will be killed by immigrants or invaders. To me, the terrible or most terrible of nations in our times would be the Islamics.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 continues with the king of Tyre which one would think is the father of its prince. This king is referred to as the anointed cherub who covers in verse 14. A cherub is a superangel. He was perfect till iniquity was found in him per 15. He was in Eden per 13. Hence, God is referring to Satan as the king or ruler of Tyre. Per Genesis 3:14-15, immediately after the Fall of man, God curses the serpent, Satan, in Eden noting:
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed…
Her seed refers to Christ, but what is Satan’s seed? I take the above to mean that this could be the actual genetic son of Satan, as the above clearly indicates Satan will have descendants, which would likely include the antiChrist. One of Satan’s strategies to destroy mankind was to allow his fallen angels to mate with earthly women destroying the human genome by mixing it with angel DNA as described in Genesis 6 producing giants or nephilim. Per Genesis 6:9, Noah was perfect in his generations meaning his DNA had not been sullied by that of the fallen angels. Men other than Noah and his family were incredibly wicked during the time just before the Deluge, but so were the offspring of the fallen angels. God’s Flood was to destroy all the wicked humans on earth save Noah and his family, but also the fallen angels’ descendants. Apparently God allowed this to occur again after the Flood. Ezekiel 6:4 notes … and also afterward… which likely refers to fallen angels again allowed to propagate after the Deluge, but to a much lesser degree. Their progeny were the nephilim, or “fallen ones,” the giants that the children of Israel feared so much that it cost them almost 40 years in the wilderness before God would allow them to take Canaan. Goliath and his five brothers were such people as was Og of Bashan whose bed was 13 feet long per Deuteronomy 3:11. This may have been one of the reasons God told the children of Israel to destroy every man, woman, and child in the land of Canaan per Deuteronomy 20:16-18. In other words, God may have wished to eliminate every trace of angel DNA.
Matthew 24: 37 (Christ talking about the End Times) For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Christ is indicating the nephilim or giants and the fallen angels must return in the End Times before His coming to reign. Per Revelation 12:7, one day Satan and his angels will be expelled from heaven. Satan will be thrown to the earth. He and his angels may no longer have the power to disappear. Hence, they will need a cover story such as they are extraterrestrials rather than fallen angels. They say they are here to help us rather than to take us to hell with them. They may say they started evolution millions of years ago.
Hosea 9:13 (God speaking) “Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.” Does this represent the Anglo-Saxons planted in Britain and America, islands in the midst of the sea? Who now allow abortion?
Interesting questions: What nation represents Tyre in the midst of the seas with reference to Jerusalem? I believe the prince of Tyre is already in power, or he shortly will be. Who is he?
I have written a book on these questions- The End of the Anglo-Saxon Age and the Coming of the Anti-Christ, available from Amazon, also on E-book. In my book, I did get Psalms 112 to about 119 wrong, though Psalms 116 to 122 looks good to me as a replacement. The rest of the book is solid to me save the battle of Yorktown was in 1781, not 1783. Thanks for reading.
-Richard Gentry