Fulfilled Prophecy – Part 3 “Sidon”

Last month we considered Ezekiel’s prophecy about Tyre and the many specific predictions regarding the city’s demise that were remarkably fulfilled. Just a 40 minute drive up Lebanon’s Highway 51 from modern Tyre brings one to the slightly larger city of Saida, called Sidon in Bible times. Ezekiel’s Sidon prophecy stands in remarkable contrast to Tyre. Ezekiel 28 states: “Behold, I am against you, O Sidon…for I shall send pestilence to her and blood to her streets, and wounded will fall in her midst by the sword upon her on every side;” In the fourth century B.C. the city was under Persian rule. It rebelled and was besieged. When the situation appeared hopeless, the king saved himself by betraying his city to the Persians. Rather than face the wrath of the Persian King, 40,000 citizens shut themselves up in their houses, set the city ablaze and died in the flames. But the city was immediately rebuilt and inhabited again. It would be re-conquered again and rebuilt again. It was taken three times by the Crusaders and three times by the Muslims, all by the sword. In 1840 it was bombed by western powers. In modern times, the fighting continued. Truly it has had a bloody history. But it was never completely razed like Tyre. No prophetic human eye looking into the future could have seen that one city (Sidon) would be in such a bloodbath and another city (Tyre) would be completely extinguished and all it’s materials thrown into the ocean.

Posted on December 1, 2018 by dwoetzel.