When the Towers Fall

Ezekiel 26:1–18

At twenty-three I was already a businessman, and I was proud of it. I built fast, I spoke big, and I guarded what I built like a city behind its walls. What nobody saw was that those same years held my drug use. I was building towers by day and quietly crumbling by night. When I stood before 1,400 students at ACJC this year, I called that young man “the boy who thought he ruled the world”. It was not a joke. It was a confession.

Tyre was a city that thought she ruled the world. She sat on the sea, rich in trade, feared along every coast. When Jerusalem fell, Tyre did not weep. She cried “Aha!”, glad that a rival was gone and more trade would come her way (Ezekiel 26:2). So God spoke through Ezekiel. Her walls would be broken and her towers pulled down, and the proud island would become a bare rock where fishermen spread their nets to dry. Isaiah tells us who planned it: the Lord of hosts, to bring down the pride of all her glory.

I wish I could say I learnt this lesson once. I have not. Nine years into TCE, with The Gateway open, OUE about to open and Batam on the horizon, the old boy still stirs. I catch myself admiring the towers: the number of outlets, the wages paid, the recognition on the wall. I catch myself defending them too, sometimes at the cost of a tired colleague or a Restarter who needed patience more than productivity. Even my routines can become a small Tyre: the checklist done, the numbers reviewed, the Bible left closed. Pride does not always look like arrogance. Sometimes it looks like being very busy building something good.

Star Vista taught me what Tyre learnt. That outlet fell. I did not call it a strategy then, and I will not now. It was a failure. Yet on that bare rock God was not finished. Mercy and grace arrived through people I did not deserve, and our equipment went on to serve another mission’s work. What I could not protect, God redeemed.

In Changi I sit with men who once had their own towers: reputations, money, a name on the street. Now they have a number. Many tell me that the day their walls came down was the first day they truly heard God. Pride leads to the pit, but the bare rock is where grace can start building again.

Hebrews offers us what Tyre never had: a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Nothing I build will last forever. Only what is built for Him, in His strength, will remain.

So let me ask you. What tower are you most proud of today? It might be a career, a business, a ministry, or simply your reputation for being dependable. Whose need have you quietly stepped over to protect it? Stop for a moment, name it, and bring it before God. Then hand Him the keys. He does not tear down to humiliate. He tears down to rebuild on ground that will never move.