Ezekiel Bible Study: January 8, 2025

Okay, so tonight we've been away for a couple weeks or apart for a couple weeks, and so tonight we're going to continue in the book of Ezekiel. We'll be in chapter 27 tonight, but just to remind us of where we were three weeks ago when we were last together, we were talking, we were in Ezekiel 25 and 26, and we've begun a series of seven or eight chapters here in Ezekiel that where God is talking about the nations that surround Judah in Israel and His judgments on them. You'll remember last time when we were in chapters 25 and 26, we talked about four of those nations. I'm going to put a map up here for you just kind of to remind you of where that was. We talked about prophecies against Ammon, Moab, and Edom, and we also talked about the Philistine states as well, as those were always enemies of Israel. In those chapters, he pretty much laid out what is going to happen. You will remember from our a few Bible studies before that as we talked about Ammon, Moab, and Edom, and even I mentioned this in a sermon last Sabbath, in those three areas, God says in Daniel 11 that as the king of the north marches down through the king of the south, that he's going to spare those areas. We talked about what God might have in mind for those three areas and then what it might mean for the people of God. You see down there in the very southern section of that map, the little area of Petra and what that might mean in Isaiah 16 and in Ezekiel as well. We talked about where God said He will protect His people. Zephaniah 2 verse 3 talks about follow God, seek righteousness, seek Him, who knows you may be hidden in the day of His anger. We talked about those last time. Eventually, all those nations, Ammon, Moab, Edom, of course, Damascus, Syria, which has been in the news in the last month as well, they will all be ultimately destroyed at the return of Jesus Christ. But at least for the time before His return, those three that we mentioned first would be spared, would be spared from the king of the north's hand.

So this week, and I think we began, I'm going to go back to chapter 26 and refresh my memory, I'm pretty sure we began to talk about, yes, we did talk about Tyre last time as well.

Tyre is a remarkable prophecy that God gives us. We talked about that in the book of Isaiah as well and three chapters here are dedicated to a prophecy on Tyre. So tonight, we're going to be in chapter 27. We're going to get into chapter 28 as well, because God, as He looks at Tyre, which was an extremely wealthy city, a merchant city in the world, much like in New York, much like London, Hong Kong, any of those very, very rich, very merchant, merchant-friendly cities where there are trading wares all over the place and the cities become wealthy, they become centers of the world, and Tyre became that. Well, also, we may get at the very end of chapter 28 into the prophecy, against Sidon, and Sidon was also a very wealthy country. It was really, it was more of a city before Tyre, and then Tyre grew out of it. But both of those cities, Tyre and Sidon, and I'll put a map up here a little bit later where you'll see where they are. They're north of where Israel is in the Middle East today. They're in the area that is now known as Lebanon. They're both on the coast and whatever, but they're just north of Israel. God has a lot to say about Tyre, and He ties it in, as you know, in chapter 28 into the attitude of Satan. So it's very interesting as we read through these two chapters how God looks at the pride of a city and then ties it right into the attitudes of Satan and what led God to expel him from heaven and cast him down to earth.

So let's look at chapter 27 here. I look at this chapter, and as I read it, it's quite interesting from a number of perspectives. God is talking about just what a beautiful place Tyre is, and in it, as He talks about all the things that they have, He talks about how, you know, this is the best of the best. This is the most beautiful thing. These people came from this area to make this more beautiful. These people came from this, and it's almost like He's giving a charter or a book on all the finest things of earth because you could find them in Tyre, and He likens Tyre to a ship that's out on the sea carrying its merchandise from place to place, and all the world is in awe and aware of Tyre's splendor. So as we go through some of these things, just pay attention to that. God does give every people talents and skills, and so as you go around the world, you can see, well, this group of people has this skill. It's more so than Americans might have. This one over here has skills. The whole world fits together. Again, God fits everything, everything that the world needs, just like in the church, everything we need to do His will, He has provided. None of us have all of it, but all together, we can work to make the world a better, I guess, the place that God will want us to be when He returns to earth. But here in chapter 27, we see that. So let's begin there in verse one. I admit this person here. Okay.

Chapter one of verse one of chapter 27, the word of the eternal came again to Ezekiel saying, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre. So he's going to talk about the destruction of Tyre.

They have departed from God. The pride is going to continue to do them in and say to Tyre, you who are situated at the entrance of the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands, thus says the Lord God. So let me again put up a map here. I think it helps to have these maps and picture where we are.

This is the coastal area of Tyre. You'll remember from last time and in the book of Isaiah as well, there's a unique prophecy about Tyre and how it would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, later on by Alexander the Great. They were going to tear down all the city and throw all of the material, physical material into the coastline there. And this moly and roadway would be out to the island city of Tyre. So it's a unique area there. All done, all prophesied before it happened by God. Only God could have predicted what was going to happen because it's unlike anything that has ever happened to any city on earth.

So God says, you who are situated at the entrance of the sea, and you can see later on, it's going to talk about you're in the middle of the sea and literally today's island city of Tyre, because the coastal city was completely destroyed, is in the middle of the sea, but it became a beautiful, beautiful place. And you can see just how spectacular it was. It has two harbors. It has a Sidonian harbor that comes from the for ships coming from the north, the Egyptian harbor coming from ships in the south.

Very unique in the way it is. So as we go on in chapter 20 says, oh, Tyre, you have said, I, I am perfect in beauty. That will probably trigger something in your mind about another being who has said, I'm the most beautiful. Tyre, you have said, I am perfect in beauty. Your borders are in the midst of the seas, which indeed you can see they are.

Your builders have perfected your beauty. They made all your planks of fir trees from Saint Ar. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast. So again, he's going to kind of take this picture of Tyre being like this ocean vessel. But you can see as he names the things here, this is what was special in the world. planks of fir from Saint Ar, a cedar from Lebanon. The cedars of Lebanon are renowned around the world and certainly there in the Bible, even back in ancient times, where they were building the altar of the temple of God.

They wanted the cedars, the cedars of Lebanon of oaks from Bay. They made your oars. The company of Asherites have inlaid your planks with ivory from the coasts of Cyprus. And that's an interesting, interesting one there. Your margin probably says, but may have a asterisk there by Cyprus. It says it really is the original translation is Chittim or Kittim. That's actually the area around Italy, Italy and Greece. So what God is showing here, Tyre, again, a merchant to the world, a center of the world, trading with people in that entire area of the Mediterranean.

And here they have ivory from the coasts of Italy, Greece, and that area, even out there. Fine, verse seven, fine embroidered linen from Egypt was what you spread for your sale. Blue and purple from the coasts of Elisha was what covered you.

You know, purple in biblical times, you remember from the book of Acts and Lydia was a, you know, a designer or whatever they call it, of purple. It was kind of a royal color and a special thing that was made. Tyrian, purple that came from Tyre was considered among the best in the world. The way they made it, the way they manufactured, of course, blue is a very important color as well. But this coast of Elisha, it's another one that's there that's right on the border of where Asia Minor was. Today, that would be where Turkey is.

In the Bible, when you read Asia Minor, it's, you know, where Turkey is today. So right on the coast there of Greece and Turkey, this blue and purple from those coasts, God says, are here as part of Tyre's, you know, Tyre's bailiwick of all these fine things. Inhabitants of Sidon and Arvid were your oarsmen. Sidon was a group of people. Sidon was just north of where Tyre is. In fact, let me put a different map up here that you can be looking at as we go through here because we're going to be naming a number, a number of areas here. And what this, what do I do here?

Yeah, on this map, you know, it's a map of the areas in red that we're going to see in Chapter 27. So you can see as the merchants of Tyre, they extended throughout all of Europe, up into the Caucasus area, up into the Russian area. And when we see places like Khidim, you see that listed there on Italy and in that area. And we'll read about these places, but you can see they were trading with people all over the world. They were indeed the Phoenicians of their time. They were the ones who were of trade. They went everywhere and they were looked to as a leading city on, a leading city on earth.

So you have the inhabitants of Sidon. Sidon is just north of Tyre, I mentioned. It was the city from which Tyre emerged. Sidon has this place in the Bible too. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Inhabitants of Sidon and Arvid were your oarsmen. Your wise men, O Tyre, were in you. They became your pilots. It was a city. It was one of those cities of commerce where people knew what they were doing there.

It was, again, it was a center, a center of that area. They became your pilots. Elders of Gabel and its wise men were in you to caulk your seams. All the ships of the sea and their oarsmen were in you to market your merchandise. Those from Persia. That's in the area where Iran is today. Lydia and Libya, just west of Egypt, were in your army as men of war. Again, as these places are there, if we had the time and someone look up, you could look up and see where were these places and what was the specialty of their city because they always had something and the best, the best of the best there in Tyre.

They were in your army as men of war. They hung shield and helmet in you. They gave splendor to you. Men of Arvid with your army were on your walls all around and the men of Gambit were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls all around. They made your beauty perfect.

So they had the artistic, they had the artistic element, they had the embroidery element, they had the wood and all the cravings and they are all the engravings of all of that and they had the splendid army and the wise men, the men of war all worked together to make Tyre this almost impenetrable, if you can use that term, formidable city, a city to be desired and the eye of human eyes on earth. In verse 12 it says Tarshish. Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods and if you look at that map there you can see Tarshish was all the way over there in Spain. So that entire Mediterranean area was doing commerce, was doing commerce with Tyre. It's interesting when you look at some of the history of Tarshish, the people that were there, it looks like and look at some of the commentaries and histories of that time, Tarshish when it was in the Middle East or there in the area of Turkey was known as Tarsus and that's where Paul was born. But over time, I guess there were people from that area that navigated the Mediterranean, ended up in Spain and they named the city there Tarshish but they were the people who, you know, but people of the same element that came from that area of the world, Asia Minor as the Bible calls it, where Paul was born. It appears in reading through some of the history there but you can see how things were being spread out around the Mediterranean.

Javen, verse 13, Javen, you can see them in the middle of the map there. You see where it's, or the Mediterranean Sea is. You see Javen, that's right there in that area of Turkey. Meshech, you go up to the Black Sea, Tubal, you moving into the Caucasus area and up toward Russia in that area. Javen, Tubal and Meshech were your traders. They bartered, this is quite an interesting thing, they bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. So slavery would have been part of the trade there in entire as well and from those areas you have people who are trading in human lives. You look at that a little bit and they will talk about how in ancient times the people of that area were considered very sturdy, very hardy and they were valuable to be sold as slaves because of their strength, because of the way they were able to work. People abused the strength that they had in those areas, sold them as human slaves and that area did that, sold them down their entire. Those from the House of Togorma, you can see that's further up north, way up there north of Gomorro as you get into the Baltic areas almost of Europe there. Those from the House of Togorma traded for your wares with horses, steeds and mules. So obviously they were, that was one of their riches, they were the ones who knew how to best deal with those animals. The men of Dedan were your traders, many aisles were the market of your hand, they brought you ivory tusks and ebony as payment. Again here's one city that became the center of all that area that's around the Mediterranean, north and even north, well primarily north of it because that looks like where all the commerce was with a little bit from Egypt and Libya and northern Africa as well. Syria, Syria today is very close to Israel, you know in Sabbath we talked about Syria a little bit and had a map of that right there. Syria was your merchant because of the abundance of goods that you made. They gave you for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals and rubies, all these areas that had their riches that they were ready to trade for Tyre's merchandise with what they had. Judah, here we have God's people, Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded for your merchandise, they traded for your merchandise, wheat of minith, millet, honey, oil and balm. So Judah and Israel, a very rich and productive land and so they brought food things and foods of specialty designs there that they could trade with Tyre as well. Damascus, capital of Syria, been in the news recently.

Paul was on his way to Damascus, you'll remember when he was stopped and God opened his eyes to the truth. Damascus was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made because of your many luxury items with the wine of Helvin and with white wool. Again, all the necessities of life in Tyre and all the abundance of goods, those many luxuries that you could enjoy there. Dan and Javen paid for your wares traversing back and forth, wrought iron, cassia and cane were among your merchandise. These fine elements that you might not be able to find in other places. Again, kind of like the New York of today, kind of like the London of today, kind of like the Hong Kong of today and other famous world centers where people go and you find things that you can't find in other areas of the world. Arabia, no, Dedan I guess again. Dedan was your merchant. That was a city down south, down south in those areas of, I don't remember if it was Edom, Edom or Moab, someone there area. Dedan was your merchant in Saddlecloths for writing. Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your regular merchants. They traded with you in lambs, rams and goats. The merchants of Sheba, you remember the queen of Sheba, she came to see Solomon, to see all the, to hear of his wisdom and to see everything that God had blessed that country with. They were there in Tyre as well as they looked at the riches of there. And you'll remember King David and other kings, Solomon especially, had a relationship with the king of Tyre. They were the seafaring nations. They were going about all that Mediterranean Sea. So when Solomon would talk about going up to see the king of Tyre, he was very interested in all the exploration that was going on there as well. So he probably as well was, you know, whatever they were doing up there, he was familiar with what was going on in the Mediterranean Sea. You can see how that world came together and how it was an attraction, rightly so, in a human form to Solomon as well. Where were we? 22. The merchants of Sheba and Rhema were your merchants. They traded for your wares, the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones and gold. And so you remember the queen of Sheba, she brought all those type things to Solomon to honor him for the wisdom and the way she recognized that God had blessed the country there. In verse 23, it says, Haran, Kanna, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria. No, Assyria was an enemy of Israel, but it was there. It was up there in that area. And they were traders as well. T-R-A-D-E-R-S, not traitors. Merchants of Sheba, Assyria, and Kilman were your merchants. These were your merchants in choice items. And notice what God says, Liss here is choice items. In purple clothes, again, that color of purple that was so important and so considered so valuable in those days. In embroidered garments, in chests of multi-colored apparel. And when I read that and I thought multi-colored apparel, all the things that they considered so special, a specialty item, choice items that were of value of that day. And when you think about what they had to go through in order to have those colors in their garments, it was quite an ordeal. It's not like us today that run out to wherever we buy our clothes and any color you want to buy is just there for all about the same price. When I read multi-colored apparel, I had to think back to Joseph, right? And when Jacob gave Joseph that multi-colored coat, that coat of many colors and how his brothers were just completely jealous that his dad would give them that coat of many colors. We might think really just over a coat, but how valuable was that? It was a signal and a symbol of how important Joseph was to Jacob and that that garment is quite a valuable item.

Choice items going on in sturdy woven cords, which were in your marketplace. The ships of Tarshish, the ships from Spain, were carriers of your merchandise. You were filled and various glorious in the midst of the seas. Again, that picture that we had up there before the map of Tyre sitting in the midst of the seas, so easy access into the Mediterranean for people who were coming there to apply their trade with them. Your oarsmen brought you into many waters.

So you have this picture here in the verse 25 verses of just this beautiful city that was so that the world was enamored with. That all the people of the world, all the fine things were there. And when you went to Tyre and when you were trading with Tyre, you were going to see the very finest. It was a beautiful place to be, but they had become full of themselves. A key early on in chapter 27 is when they said, I am perfect in beauty. And it was a beautiful place. It was a beautiful place. I am perfect in beauty. And when the pride comes in and when that people become rich and they become full of themselves and we have need of nothing, who's better than us, who can excel over everything that we've done and how we operate in our lives. We are so good and we are so perfect. You know that a fall is going to come. And Psalms that says pride comes before a fall. And indeed in verse 26, we see that that attitude, that pride that marks so many of the rich kings that we read about in the Bible, mark them as well. But the east wind, verse 26, the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas. Let me turn that phone off for a minute. Your oarsmen brought you into many waters, but the east wind broke you into the midst of the seas.

You know, on one hand we could say that the east wind, you remember a few chapters ago, God said when we were talking about Ammon and Moab, that people from the east, the people from the east would come in and they would inhabit them. And we talked about these tribes that were out there to the east and God would allow those people to come in there. But the east wind, this is something that destroyed Tyre. Tyre was an amazing place in the human eyes to see. And we know that Babylon came in and they began the demise of Tyre. But the Bible also said that there would be many nations come across against them. So Nebuchadnezzar came against them in the 500th BC and was finally in 332 BC that Alexander the Great completed the demise of Tyre with that mole that we had the picture of there before. And the defeat of Tyre was there. But even into the 1200s AD people were still attacking Tyre and they were still under, they were still under seas. So it's no longer the city that it was today, largely because of this pride that they had. So by the east wind, I'll put up another map here.

Just so that you can see the area that we're talking about. This is the Babylonian Empire.

And where you see Syria up there just on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, it's right in that area that Tyre and Sidon are, right above Israel and Jerusalem. And if you look at where Babylon is, it's in yellow in the middle of that map there. They're from the east. So when God says by the east, but the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas, it could well mean that Babylon, a power from the east was going to come in and it would break the power. It would destroy the power of Tyre. That could be one of the explanations and that probably is at least part of it because God does talk about the nations that would come in and that would conquer that one. But there's a verse in Psalm 48, Psalm 48 verse 7. But the 19th tells us exactly what it is and who it was that the east wind is that broke the power of Tyre. So if we go back to Psalm 48, and if we look at verse 7, it's as if God is talking about these verses that we're reading in Ezekiel 27 right now. Let me just read with verse 4 so we get the context coming down. Psalm 48 verse 4. For behold, the kings assembled. They passed by together. They saw it, they saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled. They hastened away. Fear took hold of them there and pain as of a woman in birth pangs. Something was happening. They were about to lose everything that they had done and that they had built up and fear was gripping them.

Pain as of a woman in birth pangs as when you break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

Who is it? Who's the east wind? It tells us there it's God. He was going to be the one who broke the ships of Tarshish. But here in verse 26 of Ezekiel 27, it says, the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas. It was God. It was God. It was time. It was time and the sins of Tyre had mounted up so much that it was God who brought the armies against them. It was time for them, the judgment of Tyre to come on, which is what exactly what this prophecy is about. Hey, Tracy, you have a question I see. Yes, I have trouble getting my speakers tiny. So Tyre is symbolic of Satan. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. And all the red words had to do with Tyre, correct?

All the what? The red lettering. Yeah, the red lettering on there. Yeah, that was those were the merchants that they they associated with. Right. So I saw Magog there. Yes. Did that she somehow relate Tyre, Satan and Magog and Tyre? We're going to get to that in a little bit, because when we get into chapter 28, you're going to see God tie the attitude of Tyre directly to Satan. It's exactly the same attitude that brought Satan down. And we're going to compare that to Babylon too, because in Isaiah 14, where it talks about Satan, God talks about Babylon and how he will bring them down. The same attitude that was in Babylon was found in Satan. The same attitude that we find in Tyre that brought them down was found in Satan. We go to Revelation 18. We're going to see that same attitude at the end of time in that city and that Babylonian system, you know, that's extant there at the at the time of Christ's return.

Okay, thank you. Okay. Okay, so I'll leave that map up for just a little bit. It also gives you a good idea of where we are, where all these countries are. You can see modern day Turkey up there just to the north of the Mediterranean Sea, the northeast corner there where Iraq is, Iran is. This is going to be a very volatile area here in years ahead. It's good to know what the geography is. And that's the same area where the Babylonian Empire and all this war, you know, is taking place back in those times too that involve God's people there in Israel, Israel and Judah. So let's go on in verse 27 of Ezekiel 27. Your riches, wares and merchandise, God says of Tyre. Your riches, wares and merchandise, your mariners and pilots, your cockers and merchandisers, all your men of war who are in you and the entire company which is in your midst will fall into the midst of the seas on the day of your ruin. So this fine ship that was traversing all the known earth at that time, the world at that time trading with everyone, God says, it's going to sink. It's going to sink. Your days are over. The common land, verse 28, will shake at the sound of the cry of your pilots. The world will be taken by surprise. Who could mess with Tyre? Who could challenge it in any area? It was the kind of like the center of the earth for them right then. All who handle the ore, the mariners, all the pilots of the sea will come down from their ships and they will stand on the shore. They will make their voice heard because of you. They will cry bitterly and cast dust on their heads. They will roll about. You can just picture this. They will roll about in ashes. They will shave themselves completely bald because of you. They will gird themselves with sackcloth and weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. Why would they do that?

Because just like it says in Revelation 18, they were made rich by those wares of Tyre. That was the center of the earth. It was all about becoming rich. Everything involved in the physical things, the spiritual elements of it, the gratitude toward God. Every spiritual element was gone. It was all about the physical and what was in it for them rather than anything godly at all. So the merchants of the earth mourn when that's happening. Where will we go now? What happens now that the center of earth is done? We see and we will see here in a minute. We won't go through all of Revelation 18 almost that exact same verbiage that's there that's talking about the system of Babylon at the time of Christ's return. Verse 32, in their wailing for you, they will take up a lamentation and lament for you. What city is like Tyre destroyed in the midst of the sea? Not only were you this great city, but you're alone. You were unique. You were in the midst of the sea. You were the perfect court for everyone that was coming in. When your wares went out by sea, you satisfied many people. You enrich the kings of the earth with your many luxury goods in your merchandise, but you are broken by the seas and the depths of the waters. Your merchandise and the entire company will fall in your midst. Will fall in your midst. All the inhabitants of the isles will be astonished at you.

So you look at that area of the Mediterranean Sea, you go up and you see the islands of Cyprus and Sardinia, even up to England. All the isles that are there be like, what happened to there? What happened to Tyre? How did this great city fall? Their kings will be greatly afraid and their countenance will be troubled. The merchants among the peoples will hiss at you. You will become a horror and be no more forever. That's quite a statement. When you look at the attitude of Tyre and you see this beautiful city on earth, you wonder what is it about them? But there are a lot more things going on in Tyre than meets the eye. If we do take just a second to turn back to Revelation 18, if you read Ezekiel 27 and then you turned right over to Revelation 18, you'd almost think that you were reading this about the same people. But this Revelation 18 is about a system on earth at the time of Christ's return. This system is not unique to just this system.

You could make a case and say much of the stuff that you read about in Revelation 18 is like America today. You might get to the last verses and say, well, today is not the bodies and souls of men that are being killed in the streets. It's clearly an end time, but Tyre was like this. Babylon was like this. We could talk about the cities of the earth today. They become like this. If we look at verse 2, well, let's just read chapter 18 verse 2. This angel cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every pop-fowl spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. The depravity that was in those cities, the whole sexual immorality, all the corruption, all the violence that's part of a place like that. It was all there. God talks about the fornications, permitting fornication with all the idols and all the things of the earth. God warns, in verse 4, to those of us living in this time, come out of her. Come out of her lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues.

We go down to verse 11. The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore. Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citrine wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble, cinnamon, incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and bodies and souls of men. We just read all those things in Ezekiel 27. It's a fine in the human sense, a center, a center of commerce. It talks about how it was going to be, tear down, verse 15, the merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand in a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing and saying, alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors and as many as trade on the sea stood in a distance and they cried out when they saw the smoke burning saying, what is like this great city? They threw dust on their heads and did that mourning just like we read in Ezekiel 27. It was the same type city fueled by the same spirit that was in Tyre, fueled by the same spirit that was in Babylon, fueled by the same spirit that will be at the end time, fueled by the same spirit that any great city who becomes enamored with himself and says, who can be like me? No one is greater than me. I'm invincible. There is no one that can bring me down. As we go back into Ezekiel 28 then and see the continuation of what God is talking about here as he issues his judgment on Tyre, we see that attitude that's there. In Ezekiel 28, the word of the Lord came to me again. Ezekiel says, saying, Son of a man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up and you say, I'm a God.

Who can touch me? I'm a God. I have all the answers. I'm sitting on top of the world.

I'm a God. I sit in the seat of gods in the midst of the seas. And God says, yet you are a man and not a God, though you set your heart as the heart of a God. And then there's this sarcastic comment here in verse three, like, Oh, you think you're so wise. Behold, you're wiser than Daniel. You've got all the answers no matter what the Bible says. I'll ignore it. I'll not listen to what God says, but my answers are the ones. Everything is okay. We are doing fine. We are invincible. No matter what happens, we will always stand. There is no secret. God says it can be hidden from you, again, in a sarcastic way. You think you know it all. You've got all the answers with your wisdom and your understanding. You've gained riches for yourself and gathered gold and silver and your treasuries. Oh, they were wise. They did put together a good human system, a good system of trading and a good system of working with everyone around the earth at that time. But God says, and by your great wisdom in trade, you've increased your riches and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. You have become, you've become enamored with yourself. Anytime, you know, I read about this or anytime I hear about, you know, how rich we are and this and whatever, I always think back to Deuteronomy eight when God reminded Israel through Moses, you know, when you are, when your belly is full and when you have many things and you have houses, don't forget me.

God said, I'm the one who gives you your wealth. I'm the one who's made all these things possible. And yet time and time again in history, mankind always falls prey to the human nature in him because that's just the nature is there that as they become very rich and they become very enamored with all these things, they think it's me. It's me who did it. I, I'm the wise one. I've got all the brains on earth. You know, I, maybe I shouldn't, but we have some very, very wealthy people on earth today, right? The Bill Gateses of the world and some others who are there. And you read things about these men who think now they have all the answers to earth. They know that the world, they know, you know, exactly how mankind has to position himself for the future. They have to do this and they have to do that. And I read something about Bill Gates just, just, uh, just within the last couple of days. And I find myself thinking, who does he think he is? Just because he's a computer genius. He thinks he has all these answers to the world, the world's problems. And, and of course he's a big medicine proponent and vaccine proponent and some of the plans that he had for what going forward in that. And I think about these verses like that, you know, that they become, yeah, they have, they have a specialty. They were really talented in what they did, but it doesn't make them, it doesn't make them God. Only God has the superiority and the superior wisdom in every area. And, you know, in, in, in, in, in entire situation, in Babylon situation. And at the end of the earth, those things brought them wealth. They were good in trade, but really how good were they? I'll be with you just a minute, Tracy, Tracy, by your great wisdom and trade, you have increased your riches and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. It's a warning to us as well, as we do well and we live in times, don't forget God. He's the one who does it, who gives us everything. Always be humble before him and give him credit for everything that, that we have and that we, that we do. And we're capable of. Yes, Tracy.

But I had never expected or imagined that. And what you were touching on Americans, general Americans, not even the wealthy Americans are now getting to call themselves God.

Uh, the, those who are, uh, I mean, some people say that they are, uh, atheist, what they'll call themselves God. And there's normal people everywhere starting to do that in America. And, uh, or at least in the Cincinnati area, could I hear a lot about it? And I find that interesting that America is as tired in a lot of ways. It's, it's, it's, it's there.

We're a very, very proud, proud nation that is departed from God. Absolutely no doubt about that. So, and an element of being God is you set the laws, right? You set the standards, forget what God says. I'll be the one who sets the laws.

We'll see that in the next section there. Hey, Bill Bruce, how you doing? Good. I like it. How he said I'm better than Daniel. You can't keep any secrets from me. I understand it all. Exactly. Uh, Brandon, how you doing tonight? Hey, I'm I'm doing good. Mr. Shabir. How are you, sir? Okay. Uh, yes, you know what I find interesting. I think this is what, uh, what makes Ecclesiastes so interesting to me.

I was just doing some studying and kind of recently revisiting it and they were saying, and I, you know, just kind of looked up some estimates and they said reportedly that Solomon would have been, had a conservatively estimated like $2.1 trillion. Wow. And if someone who effectively had that much wealth and all of the things that he had says, you know what, it doesn't mean anything for one. And then to serve God, keep his commandments. If someone who has that much, well, can turn and tell you, Hey, you need to serve God while, you know, it's just interesting how these people today who believe they have, I mean, obviously it is an incredible amount of money for sure.

There's no doubt about that, but his wolf dwarf theirs. And he said, look, I'm telling you, it won't get you anywhere. If you're not serving him, if you're not doing what he says, it doesn't matter. It's all, it's all empty. That's what's all Solomon came to understand. That's what we understand. Right. Without God, life is meaningless. And no matter what we have, there's no, no purpose or meaning behind it.

Hey Fred, how are you? You're, you're muted, Fred. Yeah. Oh, I'm fine. Mr. Shavey. The thing that worries me most about President Trump is it's not that he wants to make Canada the 51st day is that he is, he's very proud. He, he thinks he's going to fix things. And it's just like what you have been reading, right? I'm going to do this and do that. As we all know, pride comes to me before the fall. So that's the, I'm not really that concerned about his outlandish statements, but it's, it's his pride.

And I'm just wondering if the United States and us will come down sooner than what we think. Yeah. That's a very good point. I've noticed that in the way he's speaking as well, he's like, got all these ideas and the pride is there. And of course, you know, I always go back to first Thessalonians five, three pieces safety and the world seems to just be enamored with him, right?

As things change that, yeah, maybe we'll be the pride that, that brings him down. Hey, Bill. Something that Donald Ward pointed out in a sermon I was listening to, you know, Baron Trump sings all these songs on YouTube. I don't know if anybody's ever seen them. Yeah. It's all done with AI. You know, I, because I have seen a few of those and I just saw it. He doesn't sing any of them, right? It's all done with AI.

That's what Mr. Ward claimed. I did read one time on the bottom. It said some of it was done by AI, but I didn't realize the whole thing was. Yeah. I just saw that the other day. And again, I'm assuming it's right. Cause I know when he doesn't seem like that type of kid, right? That we get on, you know, they're in singing and everything like that. But, but it looks really, really, really real when he does it. So, okay. Let's, let's, let's go on here. Cause God is building, building to something here.

We were in verse five of chapter 28. We go on in verse six, therefore thou says the Lord God, because you tire King of tire, Prince of tire, because you have set your heart as the heart of a God. You think you're equal to us. You think you've got all the answers. Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you the most terrible of the nations and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. Again, throughout the Bible, we see pride is one of those areas when God sees pride, he brings it low. We see it in Obadiah when he talks about Edom and he says your pride has brought you low. And, and we see it throughout proverbs, pride goes before a fall. That's one thing that Satan was marked for, as we'll see in this chapter, but we have to, we have to be cautious of that in ourselves because it is just part of human nature. And we overcome it by the spirit of God, the humility that has to be there to recognize God is owed all glory. He's the one who's, who is to be acclaimed above all.

And that pride will make us think that we're, we're the best. And when God sees that he resists it, as it says in James four, but he gives grace to the humble. So it says he will, they will throw you down. They will defile your splendor. Verse eight, they will throw you down into the pit and you shall die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas. So again, he's playing on, you know, even the land that Tyre had was such a benefit, just like America, the land that we have is such a benefit, a blessing from God. But none of us did anything. None of the Fondi fathers did anything to make this land rich. It's God who created this, God who, who preserved it and allowed us to live on it. He's the one who has all the resources in it, but somehow, and you know, it becomes kind of like an important thing to us, just like the, the position of Tyre there, but God says, they'll die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas. Will you still say before him who slays you, I am a God. When God brings you down, will you say, I'm a God. You know, he can go back to the book of Job, a wonderful book to, you know, to think of of Job. And he, he was blameless, but he did have this attitude of self-righteousness that I've done everything right. And I can't do anything wrong. And God had to reveal that in him. And when Job was faced with what his weakness was and his sin was, he repented immediately, just as David did when it was brought to his attention. And he finally understood the magnitude of what he did, what's Bathsheba and, and her husband, but he repented immediately and turned to God, a lesson for us when it's brought to our attention. Don't resist, don't fight, don't justify, just yield to God and turn to him and repent of what, repent of what we've done and who we are because we all have human nature in us. But you, did I read this already? You will use, will you still say before him who slays you, I am a God, but you shall be a man and not a God in the hand of him who slays you. Verse 10, you shall die the death of the uncircumcised. You know, the uncircumcised there means you're not going to be part of God's plan. You were apart from him.

We can use the biblical heathen, pagan, you were apart from God. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of aliens for I have spoken says the Lord God. So he says, he's very vivid in his judgment of tire. This is what is happening to you. You are going to be brought down. You will know that I am God. Later on in chapter 28, the very end of it, we see that term, that phrase that we've seen so often Ezekiel, then they will know that I am God, son of man. Verse 12, take up a lamentation for the King of tire and say to him, thus says the Lord God. So he's painted a picture of this, this beautiful city on earth that has all this trade going on, all these best things on earth that are all in one place, but the pride that has brought them low and that God is going to destroy them. And then he takes it right to what the attitude of Satan was that led to Satan being cast out of heaven and what happened to him. Thus says the Lord God, you, and it's clear that he's talking about the one who became Satan there, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You can see the parallel. You were in Eden. The Prince of tire wasn't in Eden. Satan was in Eden. We know that he was there. There's the serpent with Eve. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz and diamond barrel onyx and Jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pripes was prepared for you on the day that you were created. God is saying, I made you Satan, you were created. I gave you all these gifts. You were adorned with all these finest things on earth. You were the most beautiful, almost perfect creation that we had. You were created that way. None of it was about you. You were given all those talents by God, and then you let them use them to become enamored of yourself. You were the anointed chair of who covers. You did have a position in heaven. You were one of those archangels that were up there. You had a position. I established you, God says. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways. You were the perfect specimen. You were there. I created you. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until the iniquity was found in you. You became enamored with yourself. You became full of yourself. You thought everything was about you, and you forgot that it's God. Proverbs 3 verse 5 says, In all your ways acknowledge him. In all your ways acknowledge him. Satan forgot that. You and I can't forget that. In all our ways acknowledge him.

By the abundance of your trading, you did have skills. I gave you those skills. You had the opportunity to do that. The gifts I gave you made you good at what you do. It wasn't you, it was me who gave you those. By the abundance of your training, you became violence. Well, I guess I should focus on the word your. By the abundance of your trading, when you became you, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Because pride was found in you, because you know whether God gave Satan an opportunity to repent, who knows what that is? When Christ returns, we'll have some of those answers.

But apparently Satan was absolutely determined he was going to be against God. He wanted to be God. Isaiah 14, when we have the lead into that description of Satan about Babylon, the same type attitudes that were in Babylon that brought them down. And God talks about Satan in Isaiah 14. It's because of this. This is who you were. This is what you did. And you were going to be God, just like the attitude of Tyre here. And God says, so I brought you down. Pride will not be part of his kingdom. Pride will not be part of his family. Pride will not be anything that God tolerates. He hates it. And we must become humble and acknowledge God in all things, just as Jesus Christ did.

Your heart, verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. What I gave you, you turned it all on you. You corrupted it. You perverted what I gave you. So God says, I cast you to the ground. And, you know, well, we were in this chapter before, probably when we were talking about Isaiah 14, you know, the Hebrew word for ground there is really means earth. I cast you to the earth. He was cast out of heaven, down to earth. And so we know from these verses, some of what, some of what Satan, what his domain was, or his project or whatever, when God cast him down to earth, you know, he, that's where he was. And he was there until God's spirit moved on those waters in Genesis one, I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities. Everything you thought you built up, you perverted it. Hey, back, you got a comment. Hi, yes, I have a question, actually, without looking, I think it's Revelation 12, where Satan is cast down. And I wonder about the comparison between what you were just reading and that. Okay. Yeah, Satan was cast down. This was before the, what we're reading here in Ezekiel 28 was before the recreation of the earth for man to inhabit it, right? This happened. This happened before that. Satan, you know, in Revelation 12, the last part of there talks about how he will be cast down to earth again at the end time. That's where the Bible says, woe to the inhabitants of the earth for Satan has been cast down to you. And he knows he has but a short time. And what he does was war against the people of God. You know, he has always, from the time he's been on earth, from the time Eve, you know, first encountered Eve, he's always been about destroying mankind, separating man from God. That's been his legacy on earth. And that's one of the reasons God put him here so that we learn to resist him. And we learn we can't resist him without God's Holy Spirit. But wherever he's been in whatever situation, he's always the accuser. He's always the one who is trying to bring man down and will do anything he can in order to separate man from God and interrupt God's promise. Does that answer that question? I think so. When I look at what you're reading, I know he was cast down well before and you know, he was in the garden.

And you look at the story of Job and he was able to go back to God's throne. So in my thought has always been in Revelation, he's cast out like cast down, he's not allowed in. But I'm just speculating there like, like a final cast out, you know, yeah, that he won't be allowed back in heaven anymore. You mean? Yeah, but right now he is because he was in the Bible, you know, in earlier scripture. Yeah. And he and God does allow him. There is a time where he says you're cast down and he's not he's not going to entertain him anymore, right? That's when he's cast to earth at the end time. And God allows him to reap the havoc on the earth. Yeah, so two different times. Right. Because that's what I was thinking you would concur with that. Yes. Okay, good. One more just quick. I'm sorry, it's in that same verse where it says woe to the earth and the sea. And that's not where we're at. But I've just been thinking on that recently. Do you have any thoughts about that? Where it says and the sea. Thank you for looking at it. I don't mean interrupt. That's okay. Well, to these habits of the earth and the sea, while the inhabitants of the earth.

I can't I can't say that I've actually thought that much about the end of the sea. But you know, it's the whole earth, right? And when you look into the trumpets, the trumpet plagues there, you know, the water, the water is, you know, it's affected and everything else like that. So no, the inhabitants of the earth and the sea. You know, sometimes you read a verse, and all of a sudden it pops out part of it pops out at you. That's kind of what happened to me recently with that verse. I mean, how many times before, but then all of a sudden there's this curiosity and the sea, you know, and I just kept thinking a little about it. Thank you for it. Okay. Yeah, that's a good question. I'll think about that as well. There is a meaning every word in the Bible is there for a reason. And we, God will eventually show us what that is. So good point. Let me see. Andrew? Hello. Hi. Yeah. I was just wondering, is it okay to debate whether God completely destroys Satan so that he's as if he's never been?

Um, I mean, it's okay to debate it. You know, the church, we don't know for sure. I know there are verses there that indicate there might be a complete destruction on him, but there are other places in the Bible that looks like he will, you know, that we don't know for sure. So we can debate it, but only God knows those answers and church doesn't take a stand on that because we don't have the answer directly from the Bible. Yeah. Cause like where it says, I turned you to ashes. I mean, that's pretty clear everywhere else, but you know, does the wages of sin is death? Does that only apply to physical human beings or can it apply to a spiritual being?

There are all those questions. There are questions that God promised the, you know, he promises us, right? Humans who turn to him and yield to him eternal life. Did he promise that to the angels? Wait, you know, those are questions we don't know. So can angels.

And that's, that's why I asked, is it okay to debate it or is it just stirring things up? It's okay. Yeah, it's okay to debate it. You know, we don't know the answer and that's the final answer. And the danger in that is if we start saying, Oh, we believe this and we believe that we can, we can begin saying things that aren't true, right? And putting ourselves in the place of God, he'll reveal, he'll reveal the truth of that in time. We will all know, you know, what, what the state of Satan is, whenever God determines is there, but we don't want to get ourselves into a position of saying something the Bible doesn't say. And then just think, Oh, see, we know that we're, we're smarter than God. He hasn't revealed it yet. And that that's why the church does not, will not answer that question because it's, it's simply not in the Bible. We, we don't know. Just searching for a little wisdom, sir. Yep. Hey, Reggie. Well, it's Andy with the question. Okay. Hey, Sandy. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Yes.

Okay. I'm a little, I'm not real close to the computer. Um, and like what we're talking about here, does verse 18 and 19, is that referring to Lucifer's or is that referring to tire? Because if you read those in context of Lucifer, it seems like it sheds light on what we're talking about. And that, you know, and that may be the key to this, you know, we, God is talking in one sense about the physical, the physical tire, right? The physical Prince of tire. And then he's talking about Satan. And then there is, at least in my Bible, there's a bigger space between chapter 17 and 18. It may be that, you know, maybe that he's referring back to Prince of tire again. And that's there. I, I don't, I don't know, because that is certainly physical by the iniquity of your trading. Therefore I brought fire from your midst. Yeah. Although he didn't really turn tire to ashes upon the earth. So yeah, that's something that hasn't, hasn't happened at least to our knowledge. So I think we're just going to have to wait and see. Okay. Thank you. Rich and Diane. So Mr. Shaby, looking at verse 16 and 18, where he talks about the abundance of your trading, the iniquity of your trading. And then you could also bring in revelation 18, where they talk about all the people that lost their merchandise. There's a part of me, it just keeps thinking that there must be a sermon in connecting the abundance of your trading with the revelation 18 merchants.

It is there. The similarities are very, are very, very much there in all those instances.

You're right. And, and you know, by the abundance of your trading, you became violence, filled with violence within, you know, the demons, the third of the angels who followed Satan are very, very violent angels. It would be quite interesting to see what life is like among Satan's, among Satan's angels, if you will. I don't believe, yeah, it will just be interesting to see. I think it's a very horrid place to even think about being part of. So let me see who we have here. Tracy.

Hello. I have a couple of questions here. First of all, something sort of not right on topic is, I just, I don't read a lot of different versions, but I said this healthy too.

And tonight I was looking at the New Revised Standard version. And I don't know what the church feels about that particular version, but I noticed that their words were stronger. The only one I think of right now offhand was where it said they were astonished by you. And the word that NRSV use was appalled. They just didn't have stronger words. But what does the church think about New Revised? Again, with any of those other versions, you have to be careful. Some verses are very good. I actually think appalled is a better word right then, a better translation of what the original Hebrew is than astonished. Astonished can be, we're just like in awe, right? But appalled is like, whoa, what happened to you? That's an awful thing. So just have to be careful.

When I read it, I always, when I read other versions, I go back and I look and see what is the King James or New King James has to make sure it has the same kind of meaning and the same effect on you. Because the church has always said those two versions are the closest to the original translation. So I always go back and compare. And some of them are very clear at New Living translation is a very good one sometimes for some of those verses to make them come alive as well. But yeah, the other thing is, okay, what he was saying about President Trump, long before he was president, back when he was like a billionaire and just now getting in the race at the interview, and they asked him, either are you arrogant or you prideful? I can't remember which. But his answer was a resounding yes, he was quite proud of that answer. And it kind of made me wonder why God didn't tear him down then and there. But with the time, age that we're in now, it would be surprising if God slashed him down on this term. But the other thing is like, proud and pride. Is it willing to say like, I did something, I'm proud of myself for what I did. But as long as we know that God was the factor behind what we did. Yeah, I think if you say something like that, you know, I'm proud of the way I handled that, doesn't mean that it was all you, we can be, you know, what we yield to God and do things and choose to do things his way, we could be in the right sense, the word proud that we chose to do things God's way and not our way. And that means the right decision. Yeah. So, well, thank you. That's all I have. Hey, Bill. I was just wondering after Tyre fell, is there any way I know who took over and did took over, got rich from the trade after that? You know, I don't know. It's still there a little bit today. Sidon is still there in Lebanon and that's still a port, but it's moved on to some other areas. Tyre just isn't what it used to be after it was destroyed. They just moved into other places. It used to be kind of like, you know, a very renowned area on earth and today it's just kind of there. It's not known for anything specific anymore. So, hey Brandon.

Hey, I was just wanting to tell Tracy, there's an app that you can download on your phone. It's something I always find helpful. So that way, regardless of which version, you can always go to the strong concordance app. And it's a free download. You can just go to the store and download it. And then that way, because obviously there's going to be different words and everything, but you can always look at the original and see what that original word meant. And that usually clears up the majority of questions when it comes to the different versions.

I think Esau does that. Is that the app you're talking about?

No, this one is Strong's Concordance. It's literally named after the concordance. So Strong's Concordance. Yeah, Esau does that. But Esau is good too. It's the same thing. Actually, there's someone working on an app for the church that will do some of that as well. That will, yeah, so that hopefully within the next six months or so, we'll have something to talk about in that. I know it's in development and it'll have commentaries and stuff that go along with the church's teaching. So anyway, we'll get to that when the people working on it are done.

Thank you both for that. Yeah. Cynthia, did you have a question? I know I saw your hand up a few times.

You're muted.

Yep, I don't know. Are you Lenovo? Lenovo Tab? Okay. Yeah, you're muted. If you unmute, if you have a question otherwise.

Let me, while you're figuring that, I'll go over to Xavier, okay? And we'll come to you next. Hey, Xavier. Hi, there's a little place right down there in the bottom left hand. If you're on a computer, Cynthia, the bottom left hand of your screen where you turn your, okay. Hey, Xavier.

Go ahead, Cynthia. You're unmuted.

Yeah, I was thinking, do the round 29, 29 always come to mind to me. You know, there's something God let us know and something's a secret. His secret. So that always comes to mind when I want to start to speculate on something, you know. I'm like, well, maybe it's a secret of God, you know, it's not ready to be revealed to us yet. Yeah, you know, that's a very good verse to remember. And then there are things in the Bible we're going to come across and we think we could use our human reasoning, but that's the worst thing to do, right? Just let God reveal when he's ready to reveal and just trust, just trust it all. That's a very good verse. Thank you. Hey, Xavier.

All right, brother Shaby. Hi, everyone. In regards to that verse 19, it says, all who know you among the people. But maybe these were his peers, his friends that look up to him today, look, I want to be like the Prince of Tyre. They will be astonished or flabbergasted.

Looking at you, you became a terror. Like, I don't want to be like him anymore.

Yeah.

His kingdom is gone. He's had everything about him failed.

You know, that's very good, the way to look at that. All who knew you were astonished at you, you become a horror, right? We used to look up now that we see the end result of who you are.

It has that word among the people, members of one's people, compartrate, countrymen.

But apparently not everybody translates that part. I don't know why. But yeah. And then one more little snippet is, was it Job 41? It talks about the king of pride. Right. We're gonna say he's the only one. They're the only ones who can restrain the adversary or they give Michael or those the party do so. Says no one on the earth. There's nothing like him who is made to be fearless.

He beholds everything that is high. He is king over the children of pride.

Speaking of the adversary, or Levitat, Levitat. Leviathan in chapter 41. Yeah, I'm looking at that there. Okay.

Yeah, you know, the book of Job is always a good one to go back and look at, especially if you don't want to read the whole thing, we know the story in there and how the friends go back and forth. But just looking at those last few chapters of Job is always encouraging and brings us back down to earth when we see what God says, who he is, and then Job's reaction when he realizes and just imagine God telling us, who are you? Who are you to think this and that and whatever, right? Those are very illuminating chapters to look at. So let me say Bill. Bill Bruce. I have a question. Before I had my bypass, I used to use this thing that were you the Greek and all that would be lined up on top of each other. Now I don't remember what it's called. There is just an interlinear Bible. It might be easel. Thank you. Yes. Okay.

Dave Permar. Hi, Mr. Shavey. So I had a thought, just something to consider about turning the ashes.

Turning the ashes also represents total and complete destruction and also the finality of judgment. And when that happens to Satan, remember, he first gets thrown into the bombless pit, but then he must be loose, you know, after the thousand years. Then he's thrown into the lake of fire. And then that's it completely. The totality of that judgment, there's no coming back from that. He's done forever and ever. So that's just something to consider in regards to the turning into ashes. Those are all very, very valid verses. So. Hey Ken. Hello, Mr. Shavey. And greetings to everybody. That first night in this very interesting room where you compare it to the parallel chapter in Isaiah 14. Sorry, 14. Isaiah 14. And in verse 16, it's going to be very interesting, you know, when we're resurrected. It seems like we'll probably even see Satan and we'll think, really? This is the one that deceived the whole world. It's the first thing in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 16. It says, they that see you shall narrowly look upon you and consider you saying, is this the one that made the earth to tremble and did shake the kingdoms? So, sometimes people think of Satan as being very powerful. And of course he is powerful. He will understand that. But when we do see him in reality, we'll think, really?

Really? We've all done that. We've all done that. We've all done that. Yeah. I think that's a good observation. Yeah. Well, it may be that that's, yeah, very good. Okay.

Tracy. When he was talking about the Satan and the bomb was put and all that, is that the subject? Not to be kidding about that, but we don't really debate because I was always wondering about how it said that he and the beast are thrown in the leg of fire to be in forever torment or something like that. And that's the subject we don't know enough about to talk about. Well, I mean, that's, it's the position of the church that we don't know if Satan is going to be burned up. All those verses are very valid. They're very much in the Bible. I mean, all those things are there. God will lead us and there will come a time when it'll be like, yep, that's exactly what that means. And, you know, whether that's after it happens or as we get closer and closer to the time of the end, that God reveals these things to us when we absolutely know, you know, then you just know, right? There's a time when you know, you know. And today is not yet that in the church, in the church yet. So.

That's why I was wondering if that was a topic that we were referring to. And we can discuss it all we want, but you're not going to get me to say yay or nay. I'm going to, you know, I have my own opinions on it too, as we all do, but we will wait. We will wait for God to reveal it at the right time. Oh, but I will get you to say yay or nay. Right. Yes, Andrew.

Yeah, I just if you don't mind answering a question with our brand new website, is there a way to go and find out how to navigate it? I mean, with the old site, I would do something like say, I wanted to know about the late Ken Martin, one of his sermons, I could punch that in, it would list 400 sermons, I'd go pick the one I want, and away we go. Now, if I put in search, I get Ken Martin, I get 14 pages. And I, you know, I don't know how to find which one I want. So just wondering if we've lost that or whether it's. No, I don't think we've lost it. In fact, it should be better. So if you know, like, the topic that you wanted to hear Mr. Martin's sermon on, you could put the topic in as well. And it should list those for you. So if you say Ken Martin, I know he has one on procrastination, I've listened to a few times, right? If you put Ken Martin and the topic procrastination, it should bring that up for you if the topic is, you know, if you've got that nailed. So try that with topics, because that is a new feature of it that it'll search by topics as well as just the speaker.

Yeah.

And you don't have the question I'm asking, though.

The question I'm asking is there some kind of tour about how to navigate the site? Because I'm sure there's lots of features out there I don't have a clue about.

Um, I don't know that there is, but you know, it's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea for someone to put something together like that from that department so that people understand what to do, what's new, how to find what you were looking for before. Let me mention that today. I think that's not a bad day. Permar works in that department. Babe, you can help me remember that as well to see if we can do something like that to help people. I'll talk to Chris about it in the morning. Um, so you got Bill then Ken. Now that they've made it so you don't have to sign in, it's going to be a lot easier to navigate. Yeah, yeah. Agreed. That seems to solve a lot of problems. So yeah, Ken. Just with this matter of Satan and the demons final fight, you know, it's a great wisdom really, but God hasn't outlined it because we know from the scriptures that even the angels look into these scriptures as we do and they're wanting to know the answer to them. And just by letting that hang as to the ultimate fate of Satan and the demon, they know they're going to be cast into the lake of fire where the beast and false prophet were previously cast. They know that. Um, so, um, but it just leaves it hanging and that's really, uh, God's race. That's his wisdom. That's his patience, his, um, forbearance, you know, where it shows that ultimately whatever does happen to Satan and the demons, they will have had absolutely every possible chance to repent and change, but they've refused to do so, so far so stubbornly and so proudly and so resistively. But at the end of the day, whatever is the final judgment of God, we will all know that God will have given every possible forbearing chance and patience, even with Satan and his demons, um, much less for other human beings, you know. So sometimes in God's great wisdom, you lose things hanging because there are certain ones that need to learn a lesson from it, even though they're not learning the lesson. And we learned, like you said, we learned, we learned to wait for God, right? We wait for him. He will reveal and he's got a reason that he does in his own time. Oh, um, I just did a search under the, uh, on the website, under the sermons.

And I did, I did a search for Ken Martin and it came up Len Martin. Um, but when I typed in Kenneth Martin, it brought up all of his sermons. Ah, okay. Maybe that's the key. I'm sure. And perhaps the speaker under his bio was as Kenneth Martin. And so perhaps that's why it was coming up that way. Okay. Yeah. Well, Andrew, Andrew still on. So yeah, try Kenneth Martin and you may find what you're looking for. So okay. Well, I'm looking at the time. I think what we'll do is stop right there in verse 19, which is a good, a good stopping point for tonight. And then the next few verses of Ezekiel 28 has to do with what side. And then there's a few things we could look at, at side in the Bible as we go through those verses. So next week we'll do that. And then we'll go into chapter 29, which begins the first of two or three chapters on God's pronouncement of Egypt. Um, Hey Tim, how are you tonight? Very good. I had a loaded question for you. Okay.

How did, how did you like, uh, Jimmy Carter as a president? Uh, I, I was not impressed with Jimmy Carter as a president. Let me just put it that way.

How about I said, do you respect the office?

Respect the office. It's a good way to put it. Very good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice guy. Nice guy. I guess. Yep. Yeah. Rich and Diane.

Um, can I get Mr. Permars email? Because I'm, I'm struggling every time I, I'm, I'm, um, signed in, but I click on a sermon and it tells me that I have to, um, show that I'm not a robot.

And it brings me to YouTube. So I signed back out and I go back in and then I can click on the sermon. Sure. My email address is Dave underscore per Mar P E R M A R at UCG.org.

But that's really good feedback, really good information. So please send me an email so I can make sure we look at that.

Okay. Very good. Brandon.

Yes. Oh, Mr. Chairman, I was going to tell you, um, it's, oh, I would say probably like at least by the weeks end, maybe even like post Sabbath, uh, I'm going to send you a sample of that disclaimer that we spoke about. And then that way, just to have something to work from. And then we can, you know, make changes or whoever needs or wants to make changes. Sounds good. Sounds good. We'll, we'll look at that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. You're very welcome.

Okay. Anything else? Anyone? Okay. Well, let's call it a night then. Thank you. Thank you for being here with us. It's always good to see all of you and be with all of you. So have a, have a very good bill. Did you have something before we leave?

Have a very good bill. Did you have something before we leave?

Yes. Last minute, last minute guy here. Um, I wanted to give you a pleasing, uh, favor. I was very happy that you got to go and visit the brethren and great Britain and you spoke to the brethren in London. And I've heard that report, read your report about how people from other congregations, other churches of God came and hadn't been around in a while. And I, that's such a wonderful thing to have happen for them. And I hope that they keep coming.

I said, I hope they keep coming because the church of God, and they didn't come just to see a man, but that's another matter. But I'm glad you went there. And I'm so happy that you did. And what happened in Europe, I would like to hear more about what you took, what was happening there, what you discussed about, what activities are planned for the work in Europe, as you talked about the meetings. Yeah. It would take too long to do that tonight. We're in formation. We're in our strategy right now. And that Europe conference, uh, was the beginning of our strategy for Europe that is going to be more of a wide ranging continent, as well as the individual offices that we have there. It has excited a lot of thinking about what we can do, what we should do, what the commission to the church has been. And, you know, one of the things that have been in my mind is making disciples, right? Which is one thing that God commissioned us to do, but also in all nations. And, and you look at the, you know, you look at the map around the world and even in Europe, there's a lot of nations we haven't preached the gospel in, but that conference gave us some possibility thinking and opened up some things where we could all work together to make that happen across Europe. So you will see more of that in the coming months as we put together the strategic plan for next year. So, so right now your sermon from London on the web. Um, you know, I don't know if it is or not. I would have to check with London. The title of it was set apart by truth. That was the, yes, it was there on the web. I don't know. So, okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Let's call it a night. Thank you again. Have a very good rest of the week and Sabbath. We will look forward to seeing all of you next Wednesday. Okay. Okay. Bye.