19th March 2025

19th March 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ezekiel 27 focus v10-24)


Message (Alan Burke)


I don’t know how much you know about supply chains, maybe you have an intimate knowledge or you may know nothing. Think to the breakfast you had this morning, I’m still raging at the nanny state interfering that means I can’t have Kellogg’s Multi-Grain Start for breakfast anymore because it had too much sugar but that is for another time, anyway your breakfast. I’ll assume you had some porridge because it’s a simple one, it started of with the farmer growing the oat crop, which was harvested, then transported to a mill, like The White’s Mill in Tandragree, then it gets milled, packaged and distributed to shops all over the land and you buy it, add your water or milk and add some tasty tasty salt and cook on the hob or stick in the microwave and you have your breakfast. The supply chain has resulted in you getting breakfast, now if you’re enjoying a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal the supply chain is a wee bit more complicated I don’t know where yellow 5, blue 1, red 40 or yellow 6 come from and I’m not going to try to figure that out. The supply chain is essential. 


Tyre was key in the supply chain in most of the goods that went through the mediterranean at the time, some of the things they exchanged were silver, iron, tin, lead, but also converted raw materials into finished products selling their wears and were a key in the supply chain in the region with slaves, horses, mules, ivory, ebony, purple fabric, fine linen among the many other things they traded in. Tyre was also manned from those from many different places, mercenaries those who were more interested in making money than the ethics of what they did. The city had no morals or ethics, what was important was the accumulation of the great with that they had, living in the world doing what ever they could do to get ahead. Their actions were no different than the nations around them but their wrong was not hidden from the Lord, nor their iniquity concealed from him (Jer 16:17). 


After being told who guarded the ship, bringing their beauty to perfection in their own eyes we are given a list of nations who had trading relationships with Tyre as well as others who have indirect trade. The reach and impact of the city at the time like an octopus with tentacles that reached out because of their trade. Such was the their importance the range of commodities coming through the port. 


Some of the nations that are mentioned in their trade with Tyre still exist, other are reconciled to the pages of history but what we are meant to understand is the sheer reach and importance of this city metaphorically described as a ship, many of those places mentioned were reliant on Tyre for their own economic success, they were key in the supply chain. Remember this is a lament concerning Tyre and that matters because even with all these things their end was in sight. The Lord was sovereign over the strength of Tyre as he was in all those who were listed and all of those today. The strength of this nation is given by the Lord God, he is the one who is sovereign over the strength of the nations as well as their reach, then as he is now. No matter their greatness, their position in the world Tyre would face judgement, it was coming to an end and the Lord was making sure his people knew that he was in control of it all and so they were to live their lives in response to that. The Lord is sovereign over the place of the nations. 


The Lord is sovereign over it all, he rules and he is providentially in control. While Tyre were once great and their influence and reach were vast it would come to an end. The Lord is sovereign and by his providence is at work. That does not only include good and pleasant things but things that are far from good and pleasant, in his holy, wise and powerful way, he governs all. This is one of the hardest concepts to understand, much less accept, is the absolute sovereignty of God. He is not only King of all kings. He is Ruler over every molecule, every quantum of energy, every event, and every outcome. He governs all the nations of the earth whether they recognise His rule over them or not, to direct and guide them for His purposes for history in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:9-10; Psa. 67:4; Prov. 16:9)!


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
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