To the extent that we feel invulnerable to suffering we will also inevitably, to the same extent, lack empathy for the suffering of others. It is, in other words, very difficult for us to empathise with hardships that we feel immune to. Tyre was a powerful port city. The name “Tyre” means “rock” and referred to the main fortress that was located on a rock outcrop half a mile offshore. Successive empires tried to penetrate this fortress but could not. Even the Babylonians who had destroyed Jerusalem at this time had failed. This is why Tyre felt so smug. When we are smug about our own fortunes it causes us to become aloof to others who are less fortunate. This aloofness alienates us from others which in turn disables us from being empathetic. The fact is, however, that any sense of self-achieved invulnerability is an illusion. We are all vulnerable to suffering and in the end we will all die anyway. Ezekiel predicts that Tyre’s delusion of invulnerability would one day be shattered as it was under Alexander the Great, although this was 250 years after this prophecy. The only thing that is secure in life is the purpose of God, and sometimes that purpose leads through places of great hardship. But, if you are in God’s purpose, whatever you go through, you can know that you emerge all the stronger in the end. So it was with Jerusalem. Today the city of Tyre is but a shadow compared to the international renown of Jerusalem. God has chosen you for his purpose and, whatever this holds, you will emerge victorious in the end.
Commit yourself to God’s purpose.
Read Ezekiel 27
