Cyrus the Anointed

Text

Isaiah 44:24–45:7 NKJV

24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; 25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness; 26 Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places; 27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; 28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’ 1 “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: 2 ‘I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. 4 For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. 5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; 7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’

Israel’s continual struggle was to turn their back on God and worship the idols of the nations.

Why would they do something so foolish? Unbelief and fear. If God didn’t “come through” with his promises, they would be in serious trouble.

What if things aren’t sorted out in judgment? What if there is no salvation? What if God is unable or unwilling to keep what he has promised to keep?

When those doubts enter, we look for our backup plans.

Like Peter, taking his eyes off of Jesus.

And things get dark. Israel is about to go into exile, into Babylon - where they will suffer.

But God loves his people and gives them words of hope. Not just words - but real words, real hope, a real future -

And these words would be meaningless if there were no resurrection from the dead.

Ultimately, it points to the Great Messiah, of which Cyrus is a type. Like Moses, Cyrus is used by God to deliver Israel - inaugurating the second exodus.

But what good is it if the dead remain dead?

Jesus’ conquest of death is of a different order - if it isn’t true, what is the point of anything?

So the question is this: Can God’s word be relied upon? Can we trust him?

Of course, there is the question of interpretation, so we need to understand exactly what is being taught.

Are we really children of Abraham? Are we really heirs of the new heavens and the new earth? Will Jesus really come to judge the living and the dead?

And are we safe in his arms? Are we truly covered by his righteousness and loved like sons and daughters?

And in our present distress, will he really come and make it right, wiping away our tears and taking away the curse from us?

These are the questions that God knows we all have.

And Israel would have them as well. Will God really deliver us from Babylon? Will the temple really be rebuilt? Will children play again on the streets of Jerusalem?

That is what God is assuring them of in this passage.

God’s decree governs all of history

(45:4) he governs all of history for the good of his people - not the US, not the institution called “the church” - even in the lifetime of the apostles, God would remove candlesticks. But his people, wherever they are scattered and driven. All of the movements of history are to fulfill HIS purposes for his people.

The end result is that the whole universe will know that the only true and living God is Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But what about calamity? What about darkness?

That one is tough - and we need to keep two things in mind”

The goodness of God - it is not the conclusion of a syllogism, but it is an unbending fact by which everything is measured.

We approach things like this:

If God were good and almighty, there would be no calamity

There is calamity, therefore God is not good.

Notice how we make ourselves the judge of God, and we ourselves set up the test.

“Thou shalt not test the Lord” the scripture says,

Here is what we are urged to switch in our thinking:

God is good and almighty

There is calamity.

Therefore, there are things I don’t know, or a future that I don’t know - but I know that he will make it right, for he is good and almighty.

The sufferings of this present day are not worthy to be compared.

We know that God is not wicked, capricious, or cruel. His ways are light and just and merciful.

We just don’t see everything.

Israel, for example, is about to go into Babylon.

Jeremiah 24 NKJV

1 The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” 4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. 8 ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

Those that we taken away in the days of Jehoiakim - it would appear as if God had forgotten them and they were especially cursed.

But the “calamity” created by God was for their good, to preserve them from the terror and slaughter that was coming.

We don’t know what God has in store for us. We know that it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven, and we know that any suffering that we endure on this earth, God will make it right, wipe away all tears, and bring us face to face to where he is.