To show the nature of the evidence we have to offer we take the case of
TYRE.
Its doom is predicted in the twenty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel. A graphic picture is drawn of its siege and capture by Nebuchadnezzar (verses 7-1). The powerful fleet of Tyre swept the sea, and prevented the complete investment of the city; but, after a siege of thirteen years, it was at last taken by the Chaldean army. With this part of the prophecy, however, we do not concern ourselves. The genuineness of the book of Ezekiel will not be questioned, but still it would be difficult to prove that the prophecy was uttered before this event took place.
More, however, was predicted. After describing the vengeance which the king of Babylon will inflict, the prophecy proceeds: “And THEY shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the waters” (verse 12). Let the change of person be noted. Having spoken of what Nebuchadnezzar will do, it is added, “And they shall,” etc., as if others were to be joined with him in the work of destruction. Light is thrown upon this distinction in the third and fourth verses. God will cause many nations to come up against Tyre, “as the sea causes his waves to come up” (verse 3). Shock will succeed to shock, till she is utterly desolate; “and they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock” (verse 4).
Previous to the fall of their ancient city, the Tyrians had removed the bulk of their treasure to an island in their possession, half a mile from the shore. Taught now by bitter experience, they resolved to trust themselves no more within walls, which had not round them the defense of a watery girdle. Tyre was mistress of the sea, and could defend herself there. The old city was therefore deserted, and no attempt was made to rebuild it after the Babylonian army had retired. So far the prophecy had been fulfilled, but only so far. Tyre was overthrown and spoiled; the noise of her songs had ceased; the sound of her harps was no more heard (verse 13); the great and joyous city was abased and desolate. But the ruins still stood. The words which declared that the stones and the timber should be cast into the sea, and the very dust be scraped from the city’s site, had not been fulfilled; and it seemed most improbable that they ever would be. What could the words mean? Nebuchadnezzar had taken a full vengeance, but he had never thought of this. Even in his case, furious though he might be at the long-continued resistance, it would have been the very frenzy of revenge. Who then would be found to wreak such unheard-of vengeance upon the unoffending ruins?
More than two hundred and forty years rolled on, and there was no answer. For two and a half centuries those words of Scripture seemed a vain menace. Then the fame of Alexander’s swift and all-conquering career sent a thrill of alarm through the East. The Tyrian ambassadors, who hastened to meet him, were favorably received. It seemed as if this storm cloud were about to pass harmlessly over them. But suddenly the conqueror expressed a desire to worship within their city. They knew only too well what that request meant. Alexander would not enter alone; and, once there, those who came as worshippers would remain as masters. The Tyrians resolved to abide the issue of war, rather than tamely hand over their city to the Macedonian king. Alexander’s army marched to the seashore, and there, with half a mile of blue waters between them and it, stood the city they had come to attack. How could it be taken? Alexander’s plan was speedily formed. He determined to construct a solid causeway through the sea, over which his forces might advance to the assault. And now this word, which had waited so long, was at last
LITERALLY FULFILLED.
The walls, and the towers, and the ruined houses, and palaces, and temples, of the ancient city were pulled down, and the stones and the timber of Tyre were laid “in the midst of the water.” Her mounds of ruins were cleared away; and so great was the demand for material in this vast undertaking, that the very dust seems to have been scraped from the site and laid in the sea. Though centuries had passed after the word was spoken, and had seen no fulfillment, it was not forgotten; and the event declared that it was His word whose judgments, though they may linger long, come surely, and fall at last with resistless might.
I have dwelt upon this instance simply as an example of the kind of evidence we are able to bring forward. Indubitable though the prophecy is, I press for no conclusion from its fulfillment. It is of the utmost importance, in this inquiry, to place it beyond the possibility of doubt that we are dealing with veritable prophecies, and that the prediction is separated from the event by such an interval as must exclude the possibility of human foresight. It could be proved satisfactorily to most minds that the book of Ezekiel was in existence long before the time of Alexander; but still doubt might creep in. The suggestion might be made that this particular prediction was added, or amended, by a later hand.
We shall therefore limit the present inquiry to those prophecies, regarding whose pre-existence to the events of which they speak, there can, in no mind, be any doubt whatever. I enter into no argument as to the age of the Old Testament Scriptures. I ask no admission to be made in regard to the antiquity of any one of the prophetical books. We shall come down to a time later than any that has ever been named for their origin, and our argument shall stand or fall by the prophecies which have been fulfilled since then. Everyone is fully the Books of the Old Testament were in existence before the time of our Lord. It is also known, that since that time, the Old Testament has been in
A TWOFOLD CUSTODY.
It has been in the hands of both Jews and Christians, between whom there could be no collusion. There is therefore absolute certainty that the prophecies are as old as the coming of Christ, and that, as they existed then, we possess them now. If then we take only such predictions as have been fulfilled at, or since, the beginning of the Christian era, every doubt will be removed and every cavil prevented in regard to the interval between the prophecy and the event; and within these limits we shall confine our present argument.
BUILT NO MORE.”
This sentence of the divine judgment stands as a challenge to all time. It has been unanswered, save by the silence of generations. It is unanswered still. Palm Tyrus, the continental Tyre, which was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, and the ruins of which were cleared away by Alexander, has
NEVER BEEN REBUILT.
The site remains today without even a mound to mark it, and has to be determined solely by the notices in ancient writers which give its distance from the island Tyre.
Let us now turn for a moment from Tyre to
SIDON.
a neighboring and still more ancient city, which had fallen into comparative decay when Tyre was in its splendor. Sidon still remains, possessing even now about ten thousand inhabitants. It has its walls, its castle, and its mounds of ruins, which testify to the city’s ancient extent and greatness. It is still, in that wretched country, a place of importance and strength. But in Ezekiel (28:20-23) there is a prediction regarding Sidon also: “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Zidon, and prophesy against it, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. For I will send into her pestilence, AND BLOOD IN HER STREETS; AND THE WOUNDED SHALL FALL IN THE MIDST OF HER WITH THE SWORD UPON HER ON EVERY SIDE.” Observe the peculiar judgment of Sidon. Blood will be sent into her streets; her wounded shall fall in the midst of her; the sword is to be upon her on every side. No doom of extinction is pronounced against her. She is to be spared, but she is to suffer. One or two facts from her long history will show how the words have been fulfilled. Under the Persian dominion, when Tyre was deserted, Sidon was still great and populous. It rebelled under, Artaxerxes Ochus, and, after a successful resistance, was betrayed to the enemy. When all hope of saving their city was gone, 40,000 citizens chose to die rather than submit to Persian vengeance. They shut themselves up with their wives and children, set fire to their dwellings, and perished amid the flames. The ashes of the city were sold for an immense sum. It was soon rebuilt by the citizens who had been absent at the time of the siege; but the doom of suffering still rested on it. During the Crusades it was taken several times and sacked. It was finally retaken from the Crusaders by Bibars, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, in 1290. But, in every commotion which has troubled that unhappy land, Sidon has had her share. It has been the scene of struggles between the Druses and the Turks, and, again, between the Turks and the French. So late as 1840, when Ibrahim Pasha was driven out of Syria, it was bombarded by the combined fleets of England, Austria, and Turkey, and captured by Admiral Napier, when again blood was sent into her streets, and her wounded fell in the midst of her. Suppose now that the names of Tyre and Sidon had
CHANGED PLACES
—that it had been said Tyre was to live, and Sidon to be utterly destroyed and never to be rebuilt, how complete would have been the refutation of Ezekiel’s claim to speak the word of the Lord! But how is it that this interchange of names did not take place? How is it that the city which has never been rebuilt is that of which this very thing and no other is prophesied, and that the city which has continued to exist is that which by the prophet is beheld as existing? And, even though this could be explained, a harder question remains. Sidon, like many another ancient city, might have dwindled into insignificance, so that, in its misery and defenselessness, it should have offered no resistance to any, and have tempted no one’s cupidity. How has it happened that these words of the prophet paint her as she has been, and as she is today—a place of strength which age after age has been fought for, and has been passed on, wet with blood, from one possessor to another? There is one explanation in which alone, far though it takes us, the mind will rest with perfect satisfaction. It is, that He speaks here whose thought grasps the ages, and before whom the future has no veil, and who, in these proofs of His faithfulness, writes on man’s heart the assurance, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”