Can you explain Ezekiel 27-29? Who was the prince and who was the king of Tyre? I gather from my reading that God is dealing with the pride issue but I’m curious as to whether or not He is talking about Satan or some other person(s). And also, what implication or application do these chapters reference in our daily lives and/or in prophesy? Obviously pride being one of the issues, but is there more to these chapters? Tyre itself seems to have been pretty important to God for reasons I’m trying to understand.
In Ezekiel 27, the Lord had Ezekiel give a lament for the Phonecian City of Tyre. It was a rich and powerful city that hadn’t acknowledged God and at His command was about to be destroyed by Babylon (the East Wind of vs. 26.) In Jeremiah 27:1-11 God had warned all the nations of the Middle East to yield to Babylon or be destroyed.
Ezekiel 28 begins with a rant against Ittobaal, the earthly ruler of Tyre. God had Ezekiel call him the Prince of Tyre to emphasize that he was only the number two in power. In verse 11 God shifted His attention to the real King of Tyre, Satan, who is in view from verses 11-19. We know this because no man alive on Earth at that time had been in Eden, nor was any an ever a guardian cherub who walked among the fiery stones of God’s throne. This passage, along with Isaiah 14:12-20, contains the clearest description in all of Scripture of Satan’s origin and fall, and spans the time from before the creation to the end of the Millennium.
Beginning in verse 20 the attention shifts to Sidon, another Phonecian City, and chapter 29 begins a 2 chapter prophecy and lament against Egypt.