I’ve come across a verse I hadn’t either considered before, or just hadn’t thought about. “Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you! (Ez. 28:3).I know the Lord was sending a message to the ruler of Tyre through Ezekiel, but my question is, how did Ezekiel know about Daniel, and how did the ruler of Tyre seemingly have all this knowledge?
Daniel, being a prince from the tribe of Judah, went to Babylon in the first captivity as a hostage and was probably still a teenager. Ezekiel was a priest and went later, but was probably older. In any case they were both in Babylon for most of their lives and as prophets of God and leaders in the Jewish community they probably knew each other.I think the Lord’s comment to the human ruler of Tyre was heavy on the sarcasm, implying he thought he was wiser than Daniel because of the success he enjoyed, even considering himself to be a god (Ezekiel 28:1-5). (According to tradition, he thought he was the incarnation of the Phonecian god Melkarth.)
But the real God would send ruthless foreigners to defeat him, asking if he would still think of himself as a god while they were killing him (Ezekiel 28:6-10).