The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8 NLT.

Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24 NKJV.

Our chapter, Ezekiel 26, and chapter 27, are a prophecy against Tyre that God gave to Ezekiel in 586 B.C. In the notes below it said that “26:14 After a 15-year siege, Nebuchadnezzar could not conquer the part of Tyre located on the island; thus certain aspects of the description in 26:12, 14 exceed the actual damage done to Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. But the prophecy predicted what would happen to the island settlement later during the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander threw the rubble of the mainland city into the sea until it made a bridge to the island. Then he marched across the bridge and destroyed the island (332 B.C.). Today the island city is still a pile of rubble, a testimony to God’s judgment.” In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord…This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place in you? Then all the princes of the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled at you. Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you: ‘How you are destroyed, city of renown, peopled by men of the sea! You were a power on the seas, you and your citizens; you put your terror on all who lived there. Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall; the islands in the sea are terrified at your collapse.’ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign Lord.” v. 1-6, 15-21.

There is a difference between the fear of the Lord and the fear of people. You put your terror on all who lived there…describes people and nations and empire that sought to conquer for their own glory and who were terrible in their violence toward men. Last night we watched a documentary about Pompeii, the ancient city in Italy, a Roman conquered city that was buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. What archaeologists are finding is testimony to how many people were enslaved and how brutal was their life, and for what? The glory of Rome? The Roman Empire is no more. The Babylonian Empire is no more nor is the Empire that conquered Babylon. Empire does not bring the good Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, knows we need. Let him who glories glory in this…that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight…Only God can exercise lovingkindness…judgment…righteousness…in the earth. We won’t find God in empire. What rules our lives? “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that You are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming…and has now come…when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:19-24. We can know God by reading His word, by praying and drawing near to Him, by joining others who love Him and are eager to learn more about Him. It’s a journey we undertake when we realize He is truth and nothing less will do. Empires fall under the weight of their own lies and violence. God’s truth remains. Always. Lovingkindness…judgment…righteousness…in Spirit and in Truth.