“They will raise a lamentation over you and say to you how you have perished, you who are inhabited from the seas, O city renowned, who is mighty on the sea. She and her inhabitants impose their terror on all her inhabitants. Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall, and the coastlands that are on the sea are dismayed at your passing.”
– Ezekiel 26:17–18
Ezekiel 26:17–18 is the end of two chapters in Ezekiel, chapter 25 and 26, that begin a series of chapters in the book of Ezekiel, where God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against not his people in Judah, the people of God, the people of Israel, instead, to the neighbors, the nations surrounding Judah, surrounding his people. Chapter 25 starts with a prophesy against Ammon and Moab and Seir and Edom and Philistia. Then chapter 26 begins a prophecy against Tyre. That’s what this whole chapter is about.
The reason I read these two verses and want to pray according to them, Ezekiel 26:17–18, is because God is basically speaking to a nation and a people that had prospered. He’s talking about how they were mighty on the sea and imposing terror on others. They were renowned. But now, in an instant, God says all of that would be taken away, and he would bring them low. The coastlands would be dismayed at how this once renowned, powerful people, just like that, were gone. Just like that, went the total opposite direction.
We Are All In God’s Hands
Reading these chapters, these prophecies from God through Ezekiel among the nations, is a sobering reminder that no matter how great, powerful, influential a nation might be, might claim to be, might be perceived to be, nations come and fall, and can fall just like that at the sovereign decree of God. Well, we think about any nation. I know people listen to this podcast in different countries around the world, many, maybe most, from the United States. I just want us to be reminded from God’s word. No matter what nation we live in and no matter how powerful that nation may be, or claim to be, or be perceived to be, it is ultimately in the hands of God. In an instant, everything could change.
Ezekiel 26:17–18 Prays For A Spiritual Awakening In Our Nation
God, we humble ourselves before you, as your people in the United States and many other different nations. We humbly confess, acknowledge that you are Lord and sovereign over all nations, that you hold the United States, every other nation in the palm of your hand. You raise up, and you make low, and you can do either one in an instant. So God, we pray that you would turn our hearts to you.
So God, we pray. Just compelled to pray, based on Ezekiel chapter 26, for spiritual awakening in my own nation, in the United States. God, we need you. Save us from ourselves. We have, in so many ways, turned from you. So much that we have approved is displeasing to you, dishonoring to you. We are not glorifying you in so many different ways. So God, we pray for your mercy. I pray for your mercy across my nation. I pray for the spread of your grace and your mercy in the Gospel, across my nation. God, I pray for that.
Ezekiel 26:17–18 Prays For Mercy In Our Nations
In the city where I live, in greater Washington, DC, God, please, may your gospel, your grace, your mercy, your salvation spread among more and more and more people. May more and more disciples be made. May more and more people trust in you. And may more and more churches be planted. God, I pray for this in greater Washington, DC. I pray for this throughout the United States and in whatever nation we might be praying from right now.
So God, we pray for your mercy in our nations. We know that in an instant you could lay it all low. So we pray, God. We pray for humility before you. We pray for fear of you. Pray for this in our own hearts. We pray for this in the hearts of your people, your church. God, we pray for fear of you and humility before you in the hearts of government leaders. God, we pray that you would turn many in our nations to you, by your mercy, before we fall into deeper sinfulness and to deeper judgment. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
