Ezekiel 28-30

[wolfpurplemoon]

More prophecies against various neighbouring countries. God continues to think that the best way to make people know him is to destroy everything they have and evict them from their homelands.

Comments

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

Apparently, the prince of Tyre declared himself a god, or equal to God. Pride of that sort had better be backed by something real or God will let the prideful learn that they are not gods.
Prophecies against Israel's neighbors continue:
Sidon was near Tyre and had a similar history of antagonism to the Israelites. It was conquered and occupied repeatedly from the Persians, through the Romans and was destroyed completely several times during the Crusades fulfilling the prophecy.

Prophecies against Egypt dominate this section of Ezekiel. Egypt was a long opponent of Israel, going back to the Exodus. Egypt's people had brought their idol worship to Israel to tempt the Israelites. God is declaring an end to Egypt's dominance in their area and it is true that Egypt has never since been the powerful and dominant nation that it was.

Sometimes, one must fight one's enemies. That is all that is going on here. God gives the prophecies to Ezekiel so that it will be known that God has predicted what is going to happen and that God's purposes would be served in this fashion. People were going to fight against other people, and God's purposes of removing certain religions and certain enemies were parallel causes, but as with other prophecies that we've discussed regarding Jerusalem, it isn't as if these people were living as good neighbors. They all engaged in wars with each other. They worshiped idols and performed many rites in association with this worship that were horrendous (mutilation, human sacrifice, prostitution, etc.).