Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 23:7-12 The Lord Has Purposed To Bring Into Contempt All The Honorable of The Earth

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Isa 23:7-12 The Lord Has Purposed To Bring Into Contempt All The Honorable of The Earth

Isa 23:7  Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
Isa 23:8  Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?
Isa 23:9  The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.
Isa 23:10  Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
Isa 23:11  He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
Isa 23:12  And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

These verses are wonderful news for all of us! The Lord has purposed to stain the pride of all the glory of the rebellious, sinful flesh of our old man and to bring into contempt all the honorable men of this earth.  There can be no better news than that.

Who do we all consider to be the most honorable man in the world? This is what we are told:

Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

When Christ tells us how we should treat our wives, He uses this natural fact to make that point. Self-preservation is as natural as breathing. According to the scriptures, our old man literally worships himself as a god:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Christ said this about all mankind:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man [Greek: 'anthropos', mankind] shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Tyre is just another symbol for the great harlot, called 'Babylon' in Revelation 17-18. The fact that we all "exalt [our]selves above all that is called God or that is worshiped" demonstrates that all men are given over to this "great whore", symbolizing the religions of this world, including the religion of self-worship.

I want to read the last two verses of last week's study to give us context to the six verses of our study today:

Isa 23:5  As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
Isa 23:6  Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

Isa 23:7  Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
Isa 23:8  Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

The use of 'Tarshish' as the destination of the "inhabitants of the isle" is for the purpose of letting us know just how universal the knowledge of the destruction of Tyre and Babylon will be.

Tarshish was a city in Spain, and Spain symbolizes the uttermost parts of the known world. The message we are being given is that the whole world, every part of the kingdom of our old man, will be made painfully aware of his destruction and the destruction of his kingdom within us. Just as the Egyptian army marched on their own feet right into their own destruction in the Red Sea, so also does our own old man march right into his own destruction at the hand of his own iniquities:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

"[Our] own feet" is "[our] own wickedness". It is our own ways which will judge us and cause us to be carried off and carried away from our Creator and Savior and into our own destruction.

Pro 14:14  The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

Verse 8 poses the question: "Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?"

Verse 9 answers that question leaving no doubt who "[took] counsel against Tyre... whose traffickers are the honorable [men] of the earth".

Isa 23:9  The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

"All the honorable of the earth" is the "man of sin" who "sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God". "The honorable of the earth" is our own old man whom the Lord is slowly showing as contemptible and not worthy of inheriting the kingdom of God, if for nothing else, his contemptible composition of dying flesh and blood and the deadly fruit of that dying composition:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Our flesh does not like those words and refuses to believe them. Many of the daughters of Babylon actually teach a doctrine of "eternal spiritual flesh", and teach that just as Christ's physical body was raised from the dead, so will we experience a 'corporal resurrection' with a physical body of 'eternal, spiritual flesh and blood'.

Such lies fly in the face of 1Co 15:50 as well as these words of our Lord:

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

These false doctrines notwithstanding, the Lord is bringing down all the flesh of 'all the honorable of the earth' [into] contempt, including far away Tarshish, one of the daughters of Tyre:

Isa 23:10  Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
Isa 23:11  He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

True to life, we all attempt to evade, avoid and nullify the Lord's judgment to make our flesh contemptible to us and to this world, so we seek to get away from His judgments upon us.  However, we cannot get away from a God who is omnipresent and all powerful. When our "day of visitation" arrives (Isa 10:3), we will be judged, and then we will "learn righteousness" (Isa 26:8-9).

Isa 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

Isa 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

The Tyrians who were able to escape fled Tyre and went to Cyprus, but even there they found no rest from the Lord's hand:

Isa 23:12  And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

All the commentaries agree that 'Chittim' is the island of Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean. The wealthy Tyrians were the ancient Phoenicians who had established ports of trade throughout the Mediterranean, including the island of Cyprus, which at that time was known in scripture both as 'Caphtor' and as 'Chittim'. That is why Tarshish, a Phoenician city in Spain way over in the western Mediterranean, is instructed to mourn the loss of Tyre.  In the first verse of this chapter we are told the destruction of Tyre is revealed to Tarshish by Cyprians, who are here called 'Chittim':

Isa 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

In Numbers 24 we have the story of Israel toward the end of their wanderings in the wilderness. The Lord is at last bringing them through the land of Moab, one of the three nations the Lord instructed Israel not to attack because they were Israel's brother via Lot, the nephew of Abraham. The other two nations were the Ammonites, Moab's brother, and the Edomites, the descendant's of Esau, Jacob's twin brother.

The point being made is that these nations are our own self-righteous flesh, and we cannot at first even fight against our own self-righteous flesh. Here is the part of that story where the "ships... of Chittim", along with "all the "honorable of the earth", will be proven by the Lord to be "contemptible" (Isa 23:9).

Num 24:10  And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
Num 24:11  Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour.
Num 24:12  And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying,
Num 24:13  If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak?
Num 24:14  And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.
Num 24:15  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Num 24:16  He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Num 24:17  I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
Num 24:18  And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.
Num 24:19  Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.
Num 24:20  And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.
Num 24:21  And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.
Num 24:22  Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
Num 24:23  And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!
Num 24:24  And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever.
Num 24:25  And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way.

The fact that Seth ("Sheth" verse 17, and "Eber" verse 24) are mentioned among all these nations, is the same as telling us that even the flesh of Christ cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50).

"The ships of Chittim" are also mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel:

Dan 11:30  For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

Tyre, Babylon and the ships of Chittim are all types of the great whore and her daughters who are: "they that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in [the] great waters [of] multitudes and nations [upon which the great whore sits]":

Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

What we have just been told here in Isaiah 23, in Daniel 11 and in Revelation 17, is that we are all brought to "hate the whore, and... eat her flesh, and burn her with fire", while we are in the process of coming out of her. As carnal babes in Christ (1Co 3:1-4), we blame the harlot for being a harlot and for deceiving us for so long. Joseph, a type of the Lord's elect, was upset with his brothers when they cast him into a pit and sold him into Egypt. It was over 13 years before he was given to see what the Lord was working in his life. As long as he was in the pit, in the possession of the Ishmaelites, in Potifar's house or in prison, he could not possibly see how any good could come of his situation. Only after he was seated with Christ in the heavens was he able to see that "it was not [his brothers]" who had sold him into Egypt. It was God who sent him there to save Egypt and his own apostate family.

Outwardly the beast that is mankind is becoming, and will become, disillusioned with the religions of this world, and will blame them for all the evil in this world, when, of course, the Truth is that the Lord Himself has put it in her heart to be the whore she is within us, just as He puts it into our hearts to hate her and to burn her with fire.

In time we come to know that it was all a work of God. When the Lord opens our eyes, we finally see that all of Israel's enemies, all the enemies of the kingdom of God within us, whether they are symbolized by the literal kinsmen of Israel as the descendants of Abraham, "a Syrian" or the nations of giants within the land or the Assyrians, they are one and all "the first man Adam" who is within us all. All our enemies, inward and outward, represent and symbolize our own flesh and our own carnal, rebellious old man and his kingdom:

Gen 25:20  And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

Gen 28:5  And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Deu 26:5  And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see that our experience in Tyre and in Babylon is absolutely essential "to save many people alive", just as Joseph's betrayal by His ten brothers accomplished that same end (Gen 45:4-8).

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Here are the last six verses of Isaiah 23. These will be our study for next week.

Isa 23:13  Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
Isa 23:14  Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
Isa 23:15  And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Isa 23:16  Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
Isa 23:17  And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Isa 23:18  And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

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