Ezekiel 27 Devotional

Everything Aboard Goes Down

God tells Ezekiel to sing a funeral song for a city that is still standing. Tyre has boasted that her beauty is flawless (27:3). She is pictured as a magnificent ship, with cypress planks, a cedar mast, oars of oak, and a sail of embroidered linen (27:5-7). A long roll call of trading partners follows, from Tarshish to Sheba, bringing silver, horses, spices, and jewels for her wares (27:12-24).

Then an east wind shatters the ship (27:26). The wealth, the merchandise, the crew, and everyone on board sink together on a single day (27:27). Sailors stand on the shore with dust on their heads, asking who was ever like Tyre (27:30-32). The lament is a sober kindness, because it tells the truth about anything built only from what can sink. Jesus told his followers to store up treasure in heaven, where nothing rots or is stolen, because the heart goes where the treasure is (Matthew 6:19-21). What is laid up with God cannot be wrecked by any wind.

To think about: What are you loading your life with that could go down in a single day, and what would it look like to store up treasure with God instead?