4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:

Now, this is a common picture among the peoples and nations of the present day; and the spectacle of their undisturbed, unrighteous might is liable to trouble righteous minds. Because of this, how profitable to listen to the divine estimate of these things in the case of Tyre:

The application of these facts to our own day must be obvious in view of the existence of just precisely the same state of things. We are here in the midst of a small but great country, exercising a wide empire. Britain is the centre of the world's commerce. By reason of her wisdom in a variety of directions, she has multiplied riches; and because of her riches her heart is lifted up.

Seasons 1.98.

5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

Pride and arrogance prevail on every hand. It is considered the right sentiment to foster, nationally and individually. Successful commerce is looked at as the result of skill wisely applied, and a man is considered to be justified in being proud of his abilities, and, therefore, of their results. The popular philosophy on this point is very shallow.

The true key is struck in the words of Moses to Israel on the plains of Moab, on the eve of their entry into the land of promise. He told them of the prosperity that awaited them in the event of obedience, and then cautioned them against wrong "views" on the subject: He told them to beware, lest in the midst of their prosperity, they should say,

"My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth" (Deut. 8:17).

This is the true view of the case. Consequently, pride, national or individual, on account of prosperity, is an unreasonable thing. The true attitude is that of thankfulness to God, and mercy to man; but as for pride, it ought to be put far away. It is an absurd and hateful thing.

Seasons 1.98.

19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished [appalled ] at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more [ad olam].

The meaning of this is obvious to one acquainted with the history of the kingdom of Tyre. It was a royalty of Palestine in Upper Galilee, whose king, Hiram, was in intimate alliance with Solomon. He appears to have been a proselyte worshipper of the God of Israel; whom his successors some time afterwards forsook; and therefore God suppressed the kingdom of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar for seventy years; and finally by the Greeks.

Elpis Israel 1.2.

In this quotation, more correctly and, therefore, more intelligibly translated than in the common version, a political power, headed up in the King of Tyre is styled an Anointed Cherub; and the reason appears to have been because Yahweh had "constituted it a Protector" of people, which function is signified by outspread wings, which are an important element of the Cherubic symbol.

The Tyrian Power was an "anointed" Cherub in the same sense in which the Pagan Cyrus, King of Persia, was "Yahweh's Anointed," or Messiah, who was surnamed of Yahweh before his birth, and 176 years before he appeared upon the page of Bible history (Isaiah 45:1-4).

The Eternal Spirit created and rode the Tyrian Power, as in a chariot; and developed it as an element of that system of powers, whose relations to Israel in the days of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were allegorical of "the powers that be" in their relations to the Hebrew nation, when the Russian Nebuchadnezzar shall make war upon the Anglo-Syrian protector of the Jews in "the holy mountain of the Elohim," and cast it out in the epoch of the thief-like apocalypse of the Ancient of Days and his company of glorified myriads.

Phanerosis - Yahweh Manifested in Cherubim