Ezekiel chapter 28

vs 14

I'd by lying if I said that I fully understood what this was going on about. But I think the point is that the city, and its king, were incredibly blessed, not only with wealth and riches and stuff, but their ability to find and discover God were right there, and yet it would seem that they didn't do much about it.

vs 15

Which I suppose can be said for everyone, can't it? That's actually a pretty good verse for showing that newborns are innocent. Of course, if it is a reference to Adam, then we can safely assume he was older than a newborn.

vs 16

I'm still puzzled about the fiery stones, but the fact is that the excessive trade wealth of Tyre made the people, including its king, selfish and wicked, and God therefore is now driving them from his sight. And God can see a hell of a long way.

vs 17

It's easy to see why people want to see this as Satan - who else was up with God, and could get thrown to earth? Well, the king of Tyre, apparently. Interestingly, the Tarnach seems to link Tyre to the Mount of God, because the king of Tyre assisted Solomon in getting cedar wood for the temple. That seems to make a lot of sense to me.

vs 18

God likes not only individual deterrence, but general deterrence. He doesn't just punish, but sometimes he wants people to see the punishment, and know what's going on.

vs 19

It is rather appalling, and just a little disturbing.

vs 20

And now we get to move on to Sidon, another coastal city, I think, up near Tyre somewhere.

vs 21

As I said, Sidon.

vs 22

God is going to prove his holiness by crushing and destroying Sidon. Well, that kinda sucks for Sidon, but God knows what he's doing, and the assumption seems to be that Sidon should have known better too.

vs 23

While they may well know that God is Lord, it might be a touch too late for them. This reminds me of judgment in general - everyone will know that God is Lord, eventually. But for many, they find out (or more correctly, accept) too late for it to be of any use to anyone but God.

In that way, really, our finding out beforehand can be so obviously seen as really quite gracious.

vs 24

So when God clears out all the foreign briars and brambles that keep pricking Israel, then Israel too will know that God is Lord. This isn't too late for Israel, which is quite nice.

vs 25

See, God is going to be faithful. They are going to go and live in that land that he gave their forefathers, and he's going to clear out the bad influences on them, and he's going to let them know he's still with them.

vs 26

God will give them safety, will punish their enemies, and they will know he is God once more. It's a long arc to bring them through - sin, punishment, exile, return, punishment on surrounding nations, rebuilding - but it does the job.