Cyrus - God's weapon

Isaiah 45:1-7

You awoke this morning, the sun is coming up in the East as it has everyday of your life, and yet today is very different, you feel the calling to act and to do something bold.  You are going to engage the mighty Babylon and many other nations and bring them into submission.  Your name is Cyrus and you are the king of Persia, and you are God’s weapon, and on this morning you make a proclamation throughout all your kingdom and put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” (Ezra1: 2-4)

Cyrus was God’s chosen instrument in freeing His chosen people from the 70-year judgment of being carried off to Babylon and other nations, for turning their heart away from God.  Almost 150 years before Cyrus was born the prophet Isaiah proclaimed his birth, his name and the task God would give him to accomplish.  The fact that Cyrus is named 150 years before his birth and his task to be accomplished should not come as any surprise to a student of the Scriptures.  For we find this about the prophet Jeremiah in chapter one and verse five, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”   In the gospel of Luke 1:11-17, we find where the angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a child and his name would be John, and he would be a forerunner to Jesus.

As we examine these verses God is speaking in the present tense, for God is always in the present.  “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.  For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name; I name you, though you do not know me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

As one who follows Christ, never forget, Jesus knows your name, for He is the Good Shepherd, and John 10:3 and 14 are very clear, He knows your name and the plans He has for you, look it up in Jeremiah 29:11.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice