Isaiah
23:6
6 Pass ye over [`abar] to Tarshish [Tarshiysh]; howl [yalal], ye
inhabitants [yashab] of the isle ['iy]. KJV-Interlinear
6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast! ESV
And so what is
the current harbor? Who is told to make
a change? Why?
This advice is
given to the inhabitants of Tyre, to get out, to go and find new and different
harbors, because their current harbor is going to be destroyed.
Jesus Christ
controls history.
In contrast,
Satan and then man, try to control their own destinies, apart from God. Neither angel nor man has the sovereignty, authority,
power, or knowledge with which to control tomorrow let alone the entire
universe.
And this and the
next several verses will pose questions as to who has the power, who has the
authority, who has the wherewithal to comand the elements of nature as well as
the entirety of the future of everything and everyone.
Tarshish, as we
saw from the other day, is a reference to the many islands of the Mediterranean
Sea. The islands and coastal regions,
back then, were the center of commerce and activity. Tyre was a focal point and crossroads of much
of the activity that came out of Africa, from across Arabia, from Persia, and
from across the entire region of the Mediterranean and beyond.
But Tyre also
represents the entirety of the controlled trade of humanity. As power evolves in man, then the controls
and abuse of those controls likewise grow.
When one single place controls all, then when it collapses, then all
suffer.
One of the
fundamental principles of Christianity and of the Laws of Establishment, is the
decentralization of power and control and authority, so that freedoms are not
abused. That is why many nations provide
more security than one single nation. Many
languages, many cultures, many colors, many races and so forth, provide for
greater freedoms and individuality, than only a single of any of them.
When the Tribulation
does finally occur, then the effort for a single government, a single money
source, a single language, a single justice system, and so forth, will become
abusive to the maximum and the entirety of all world systems will collapse with
mind-boggling surprise.
And now we have
our verse.
Get out, change your
ways, find new and better trade resources and sources, is the warning.
The bad source
will be the anti-christ and the one world systems that will be installed. Many of which will probably already exist
prior to the Rapture. Just look around the
world now.
The new and
better and changes needed, are the old systems of free enterprise, of many
governments, of many cultures and so forth.
But the single greatest warning and advice is to change away from all
things false, to all things true, from evil to good, from all things bad to
Christ.
But who will listen?
