THE CITY IN THE SEA

L.F. Du Plessis JUST IMAGINE somebody predicting the total destruction of Cape Town, and the casting of her rubble into the Atlantic Ocean! The destruc-tion part we might still believe, but cast into the sea? Well..... Yet, this is exactly what was predicted in Ezekiel 26 for the ancient Phoenician seaport of Tyre... Let's read a few of these absorbing verses. Ezekiel 26:4,5: "They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out of the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become a plunder for the nations." The destruction of the city is not only predicted, but also the destroyer. In verse 7 it says: "For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army." Ezekiel made this prediction approximately 590 BC. Five years later the mighty king Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled the prophecy partially. The Babylonians thought it would take only a few months to destroy Tyre, but months turned into years! The walls of mighty Tyre refused to budge under the blows of the battering rams. But the prophetic word was stronger than the thick walls of Tyre. At long last, after 13 years, the Phoenician god Baal-Merhat could not ‘protect’ the city any more, and mighty Tyre fell. But in Ezekiel 26:12 we read an even more daring prediction: "They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea." The first prediction was miraculous, but this one seemed unthinkable! Who would take the trouble to throw the rubble of this mighty city into the sea? It sounds a bit far-fetched, to say the least. Yet, two and a half centuries later this prophecy was fulfilled in a remarkable way. Let me tell you the fascinating story. When Alexander the Great defeated the Medo- Persian army in 339 BC at the battle of Issus, he became the next world ruler. While his army marched en route to Palestine, all the seaports surrendered to the new world monarch. All except one! History tells us that those inhabitants who survived the destruction of mighty Tyre, decided to build themselves a new city. It was situated on an island of about 60 hectares, and only 1 kilometre from the ruins of ancient Tyre. These inhabitants of new Tyre refused point blank to surrender to Alexander the Great. Alexander tried in vain to capture the new Tyre, yet he refused to acknowledge defeat. As this military leader pensively walked through the ruins of ancient Tyre, he had a stroke of genius. Immediately his soldiers were instructed to dump the rubble of ancient Tyre into the sea and so build a bridge to the new island city. They struggled for seven months to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel, but eventually all of the mighty Tyre had been dumped into the Mediterranean Sea and Alexander could take the city. More than two and a half centuries earlier the prophet Ezekiel had predicted: “...throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea!" (Ezekiel 26:12). From: Messengers in His Steps January - March 2002