Sing a Sad Song
One Year Bible: November 13
Ezekiel 27:1-28:26
Sing a Sad Song
Sing a funeral song? Thanks for the offer, but I would rather not! I have helped lead worship for many a funeral or memorial service, but I know better than to even attempt singing a solo at such an event. I am an empath and that means that my empathy spreads from my right brain to my left brain faster than I can finish a verse. The lump in my throat grows and there it goes…
I remember trying to sing “Amazing Grace” at the service for a stillborn baby while I myself was pregnant. The father’s shoulders were going up and down as he cried, and just one glimpse of that sorrow did me in. Funerals are such unchangeable moments.
My father was part of a special group of the bugle corp that played taps for funerals and burials. What a touching and heartbreaking role to play in people’s lives. It actually helped him because at that young age he learned lessons that would help him perform uncountable numbers of services for people and minister to their families in grief.
Make no mistake here, Ezekiel is not there to comfort, sing, play taps or mourn with the people. He is there to bring a funeral song of stern judgment! Who would ever want a role like his?
His first funeral song is for the mighty gateway to the sea that was the trading center of the world, Tyre. They had often boasted, “My beauty is perfect!” (27:3)
They were like a great ship… until they SUNK! Their story reminds me of the Titanic. They thought they were the latest, greatest, envy of the world until they were NO MORE!
“Now, they are a wrecked ship, broken at the bottom of the sea.” (27:34)
God has a little tune for Ezekiel to deliver to their king as well, “In your great PRIDE you claim, ‘I am a god! I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea. But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast that you are a god.”
Their CATASTROPHIC mistake was rooted in PRIDE. Their heart was lifted up because of their national success and riches. Not only did they have idols, but they had become their own IDOL.
Ezekiel’s funeral song was to LAMENT their fate at the hand of strangers.
This “lamentation” over the ‘King of Tyre” now shifts from describing the ACTUAL KING to describing the ACTUAL POWER BEHIND his throne. (28:11-19)
The description that Ezekiel is giving uses terms that do not apply to the human ruler of Tyre or to any other mortal. He begins describing the “power behind this conflict” by relating it to the supernatural being who empowered this literal king. That power was Satan, himself!
Ezekiel is describing him, “with a seal of perfection” (v. 12), “having been in Eden” (v. 13), “on the holy mountain of God”, and “walked in the midst of the stones of fire”(v. 14), and “created by God”. (v. 15). He is said to have been “blameless” until “unrighteousness was found” in him.
Satan was the anointed cherub in Heaven with God before the fall. He was created to worship God but wanted to be God’s equal. This choice brought about everything that we have been reading about in the Old Testament. It is Satan’s attempt to overthrow God!
The passage goes on to say that his chief sin was PRIDE (I Tim. 3:6) which led to his eternal downfall. In the book of Job, we learned that Satan still had access to God to accuse God and his people, but his time of judgment is coming with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ which will end this war on all of mankind!
The passage ends today with a prophetic promise, “The people of Israel will again live in their own land, the land I gave my servant Jacob. For I will gather them from the distant lands where I have scattered them. I will reveal to the nations of the world my holiness among my people. They will live safely in Israel and build homes and plant vineyards.” (28:25-26)
The Jewish nation did return to Israel, but they do not live securely… YET!
This promise made through Ezekiel awaits fulfillment in the millennial kingdom when God finally punishes Israel’s enemies and blesses His chosen people. It will not be until His nation recognizes Jesus as the Messiah that they will know the true Sovereign Lord. (28:25-26)
And so we are asked to, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” (Ps 122:6)
The saddest song of all is a dirge for a life destroyed through pride and disobedience. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone to “Sing Me A Sad Song”...
Just look up, smile, and send me out with GRACE!
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years. Bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God's praise. Than when we first begun.” (Amazing Grace, Traditional Hymn)
