Trump says U.S. will guide trapped ships through Strait of Hormuz, as gas prices surge

Isaiah 23 is the oracle against Tyre — the ancient world's preeminent maritime commercial power. The chapter's central theme is the LORD's sovereign ability to shut down the sea-lanes upon which entire civilizations depend for wealth and trade.

The 'strongholds' of Canaan in this oracle refer to the port-cities and commercial infrastructure that Tyre controlled.

The plain principle embedded here is that God exercises authority over the great commercial waterways of the earth, and that no maritime power — however dominant — controls them in absolute autonomy. The Strait of Hormuz is the modern world's most consequential chokepoint, and its sudden militarization is an occasion to recall who ultimately holds dominion over the seas.

The United States now positions itself as the sovereign arbiter of who may pass through the Strait of Hormuz — guiding friendly ships and blockading Iranian ports. Isaiah 23 reminds us that even the mightiest naval powers exercise only a derived and temporary authority over the sea-lanes; it is the LORD who 'stretches out his hand over the sea' and commands its disruption.

The gas-price surge felt by ordinary citizens is the downstream consequence of this high-stakes contest over a waterway no nation truly owns.

Revelation 18 depicts the fall of 'Babylon the Great' — the archetypal world-commercial system — and the immediate, catastrophic disruption of global maritime trade. The shipmasters, sailors, and merchants stand helpless as the sea-lanes they depended on for wealth are suddenly cut off.

This is a future eschatological event, but the structural pattern — naval disruption causing sudden, widespread economic pain to 'all whose trade is on the sea' — is the same pattern at work in the Hormuz crisis.

The parallel is not identity: this is not the fulfillment of Revelation 18. But the image of shipmasters 'standing far off,' unable to conduct their trade because a strategic waterway has been militarized, mirrors exactly what trapped neutral shipping in the Strait of Hormuz now experiences.

Ships from nations not party to the U.S.-Iran conflict are now 'trapped' in or near the Strait of Hormuz, their commerce halted by the blockade. Citizens worldwide feel the surge in fuel costs within a single week — 35 cents per gallon.

Revelation 18's vision of maritime trade suddenly interrupted and wealth 'laid waste in a single hour' is not yet fulfilled, but the Hormuz crisis is a concrete forewarning of how quickly the world's commercial order can be disrupted when a single chokepoint is militarized.

Ezekiel 38-39 describes a great end-time coalition drawn into conflict around the land of Israel, with Persia (Ezekiel 38:5, the ancient name for the Iranian plateau) explicitly named among the forces. The 'hooks in the jaw' imagery conveys that the great powers are drawn into escalating entanglement not entirely of their own choosing — a force larger than geopolitical strategy is at work.

It is important to exercise caution here: Ezekiel 38 describes a specific, future invasion of Israel, and this article does not describe that event. However, the ongoing militarization of Iran's surrounding seas and the drawing of U.S. forces into direct confrontation with Persia/Iran is a legitimate echo of the prophetic pattern — nations being drawn into the Persian theater.

Iran (ancient Persia, explicitly named in Ezekiel 38:5) is now under naval blockade, with U.S. forces controlling the waterway that is Iran's economic lifeline. Whether or not this specific confrontation is the Ezekiel 38 scenario, the alignment of great military power against Persia in the region of Israel's near neighbors is a pattern Scripture said would characterize the last days.

The reader is warranted in watching carefully.