In Ezekiel 28 in the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel is given additional prophecies against the city of Tyre, a great commercial city of the Phoenicians to the north of Israel. But this prophesy is against the leader and leadership of the city, who were sinning against the living God. It paints a vivid portrait of leadership corrupted by pride and wealth.
In Iran, since 1979, a handful of religious leaders has ruled Iran, with written and spoken goals of death to America and death to Israel. This also includes an evil theology that women are animals for men to enjoy, and women should be fully covered or punished severely. The 2022 arrest, and death while in custody, of Mahsa Amini for improperly wearing her hijab, by the morality police of the Islamic Republic, shows a small portion of this. And of course lately, this evil regime attempted to stop large protests of its citizens by killing tens of thousands of citizens, who were begging for the U.S., Israel, or anyone to help free them.
Individually, we are grieved by all of this evil, and continue to pray for the love of God to be recognized by all people, and we continue to pray against the spiritual forces promoting leaders of evil. We also call on our government to do the things God has ordained for governments to do, including protecting, rewarding of the good, and punishing evil.
It is my understanding that Israel and the U.S. identified Islamic Republic leadership plotting to deliver a surprise first strike on U.S. targets in the region, and Israel, so immediate approval to attack was given by both governments.
With many of the Islamic Republic’s leadership killed in the first wave of the Israeli and U.S. attack, the Iranian diaspora – those who had to flee this regime and are spread out to many locations globally, are celebrating this.
Recent surveys show 70 to 90% of the Iranian people oppose the Islamic Republic and prefer a democratic government and do not want to be under religious rule with these extremist leaders. That’s why there are many people dancing in the streets of LA, Irvine, London, South America, Africa. There are also some people who have condemned the military actions of the U.S. and Israel.
As Ephesians 6 reminds us, this is a spiritual battle first and foremost, with satan pushing evil through some people on the earth, who don’t know the Lord. But the Almighty God always has His way, and He brings love and justice. So we are thanking God for His justice, and asking Him to replace the evil, with His love and His Spirit – Love of God, and Love of our neighbor as ourselves, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
In Ezekiel 28, Tyre leadership thought they were powerful, full of wealth and wisdom more than other places, and this led to their pride that got to deity levels in their minds. But God said through Ezekiel, “By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches… Because you have set your heart as the heart of god, behold therefore, I will bring strangers against you… And you shall die the death of the slain.”
And herein lies the additional reminder for all leaders in BAM – God did not condemn the leader for having riches, nor for having the wisdom to obtain those riches, but for how those riches turned him or her away from the living loving Lord. We must continue to ensure we, as Christian business leaders, are guarded against the sins of the love of money and pride that could come from business success (and any other sins) by coming back to Jesus over and over again, to make sure success doesn’t lead to our demise.
