Eschatology : Biblical Prophetic Accuracy - Cont.

3. Prophecies concerning Specific Cities.

1. Tyre in Phoenicia.

The amazing prophecy about Tyre is found in Ezekiel 26. Tyre was actually two cities one on the Coastline some 96 km NW of Jerusalem and the other on an island 800m out in the Mediterranean Sea.

Tyre (Arabic: صور, Ṣūr; Phoenician: , Ṣur; Hebrew: צוֹר, Tzor; Tiberian Hebrew צר, Ṣōr; Akkadian: 𒋗𒊒 Ṣurru; Greek:Τύρος, Týros; Turkish: Sur; Latin: Tyrus), sometimes romanized as Sour, is a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon. There were approximately 117,000 inhabitants in 2003,[1] however, the government of Lebanon has released only rough estimates of population numbers since 1932, so an accurate statistical accounting is not possible.[2] Tyre juts out from the coast of the Mediterranean and is located about 80 km (50 mi) south of Beirut. The name of the city means "rock"[3] after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built. The adjective for Tyre is Tyrian, and the inhabitants are Tyrians.

Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city and the legendary birthplace of Europa and Elissa (Dido). Today it is the fourth largest city in Lebanon[4] and houses one of the nation's major ports. WIKIPEDIA

The Old Port of Tyre

Ezekiel predicted the following:

1. The babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was to capture the City.
2. Other nations would participate in its destruction.
3. The City was to be scraped flat like the top of a rock.
4. It would become a place for spreading nets.
5. It’s stones and timbers would be laid in the sea. [Zecharia 9:3,4]
6. The city was never to be rebuilt

Has all this taken place? Remember that he wrote around 590 B.C.

Nebuchadnezzar surrounded the city. The seige lasted for 13 years and in 573 B. C. the coastal city was destroyed. But he could not capture the Island City. During ther next 241 years the Island city dwelt in safety and would have ridiculed Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning total destruction.

But in 332 B.C. Alexander the Great arrived upon the scene and the island was doomed. Alexander built a land bridge leading from the coastline to the island. He used lots of the ruins from the coastal city and literally scraped the place clean.  (Some years ago the American Archaeologist, Edward Robinson, discovered 40 or 50 marble columns beneath the water along the shores of ancient Tyre.)

After a seven month seige Alexander took the island city and destroyed it. From that point on the local fishermen have used the place to spread their nets.

Ancient History Encyclopedia confirms : “Alexander dismantled much of the old mainland city of Ushu as well as using fallen debris, rock, and felled trees, filling in the sea between the mainland and the island to create a land bridge for his war machines. Over the centuries since, this caused heavy sedimentation to occur and permanently linked the island to the mainland; which is why Tyre is not an island today. After a siege of seven months, Alexander used his man-made causeway to batter down the walls of Tyre and take the city. Tyre’s 30,000 inhabitants were either massacred or sold into slavery, and the city was destroyed by Alexander in his rage at their having defied him for so long. “

Ruins from Tyre

2. Jericho in Israel.

In Joshua chapter 6 we read of the miraculous Fall of the Walls of Jericho and the destruction of the City. Note the Threefold prophecy given by Joshua about Jericho:

1. That Jericho would be rebuilt again by one man.
2. That the builder’s oldest son would die when the work on the city began.
3. That the builder’s youngest son would die when the work was completed.

Jos 6:26  And Joshua charged them at that time, saying, Cursed before Jehovah is the man who rises up and builds this city of Jericho. He shall lay the foundation of it in his first-born, and in his youngest son he shall set up the gates of it.

Ruins of Ancient Jerisho

Joshua uttered these words about 1450 B.C. DID ALL THESE THING HAPPEN?

Some five centuries after this, in 930 B.C. we are told.

1. That a man named Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho.
2. That as he laid its foundations, his oldest son, Abiram, died,
3. That when he had completed the gates, his youngest son, Segub, died.

Read 1Ki 16:34  In Ahab's time Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho. Laying the foundation cost him his firstborn son, Abiram. Setting up the city doors cost him his youngest son, Segub. The LORD had spoken this through Joshua, son of Nun.

3. Nineveh (Nahum chapters 1-3)

During the time of the prophet Jonah, God had spared the wicked city of Nineveh by using the hebrew prophet to preach Repentance. But the city soon returned to its evil ways. So around 650 B.C. another prophet named nahum, predicted the complete overthrow of Nineveh.

At the time of this prophecy Nineveh appeared impregnable; her walls were one Hundred feet high and broad enough for Chariots to drive upon. The City had a Circumference of 96 kms. and was adorned by 1,200 strong towers.

Artists impression of Ancient Ninevah

In spite of all this the city fell to an alliance of Medes and Babylonians in 612 B.C. after a two month siege. The victory was due in part to the releasing of the City’s water supply by traitors within. The destruction was so total that Alexander the Great marched his troops over the desolate ground which had once supported many mighty buildings.

Walls of Nineveh

The fall of Ninevah

Nineveh. Some visible remains at the Ashur Gate.

4. Jerusalem.

Mat 24:1  Jesus had left the Temple and was going on His way, when His disciples came and called His attention to the Temple buildings.

Mat 24:2  "You see all these?" He replied; "in solemn truth I tell you that there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be pulled down." Weymouth’s New Testament.

Luk 19:41  When He came into full view of the city (of Jerusalem), He wept aloud over it, and exclaimed,

Luk 19:42  "O that at this time thou hadst known--yes even thou--what makes peace possible! But now it is hid from thine eyes.

Luk 19:43  For the time is coming upon thee when thy foes will throw up around thee earthworks and a wall, investing thee and hemming thee in on every side.

Luk 19:44  And they will dash thee to the ground and thy children within thee, and will not leave one stone upon another within thee; because thou hast not recognized the time of thy visitation." WNT

Jesus weeps as He

explains the events that will lead up to the desolation of the holy place

Luk 21:20  "But when you see Jerusalem with armies encamping round her on every side, then be certain that her overthrow is close at hand.

Luk 21:21  Then let those who shall be in Judaea escape to the hills; let those who are in the city leave it, and those who are in the country not enter in.

Luk 21:22  For those are the DAYS OF VENGEANCE and of fulfilling all that is written.

Luk 21:23  "Alas for the women who at that time are with child or who have infants; for there will be great distress in the land, and anger towards this People.

Luk 21:24  They will fall by the sword, or be carried off into slavery among all the Gentiles. And Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles, till the appointed times of the Gentiles have expired. WNT

In April of A.D. 70 General Titus with 80,000 men began the siege in earnest. Conditions in the city soon became desperate. Women ate their own children, and grown men fought to the death over a piece of bird’s dung for food. Finally in September of that year the walls were battered down and the slaughter began. When the smoke had cleared, over half a million Jews lay dead. A number of these had been crucified by Titus. Eventually the temple was leveled and the ground under it ploughed just as the Lord had predicted.