Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
As you and I watch events unfold all around our world which seem so wicked, so devastating to so many people; or as we watch wicked leaders rise to positions of great power in so many places around the world, do we sometimes find ourselves losing hope, maybe even wondering if the world is near coming to an end? Are you aware my friends that our world has often been in this same or even worse conditions? Let’s travel back in time to one of those eras of history and the city of Jerusalem.
Over the last several days we’ve been looking at some of the powerful prophetic messages the prophet Isaiah received from God around 690bc. At that time the world looked much like our day, maybe even worse, did you know that? Let’s take a quick glimpse: The vicious Assyrian empire, with its capital Nineveh, was expanding rapidly as it invaded, decimated and conquered nations, including the northern kingdom Israel in 722bc. (2 Kings 17:5-23)
Does that sound familiar to our day? Their tactics were so horrific they are almost beyond description. However, as time passed another great power, Babylon, was rapidly becoming a rival power and soon would defeat the Assyrians and the Babylonian empire ruled the world for a while. (626-539bc) It was during that time Jerusalem was invaded three times by king Nebuchadnezzar and Jerusalem was finally destroyed and the great Temple of God demolished and burned in 586bc! (2 Kings 25:8-21)
Meanwhile… the city of Susa and the Persian empire was growing in power and in 539bc king Cyrus conquered Babylon and the Persian empire spread across much of the known world and dominated the world for 200 years! During all this time God was speaking His powerful messages to His people Israel through His prophets like Elisha (848-797bc) and Jonah (793-750bc) and Hosea (753-715bc) and Micah (742-695bc) and Isaiah (740-680bc) and Nahum (663-650bc) and Jeremiah (627-580bc) and Daniel (605-535bc) and Ezekiel (593-570bc). Because the world was so vicious, so corrupt, so dangerous then, as it is now, we’ve been spending the past several weeks looking at what the Bible tells us God was doing then, so we might gain a much better perspective on what God is doing today, in our day!
Let’s turn again to Isaiah 45. You’ll recall yesterday we saw God actually identified BY NAME the great world ruler who would lead a future world dominating empire, king Cyrus the Persian. (Is. 45:1-4) Cyrus was born more than 100 years after Isaiah died, yet God foretold it in detail because God can see the future clearly.
Let’s continue in Isaiah 45:5 as God spoke to Isaiah about this future king Cyrus who would be the most powerful man in the world in 539bc: “I am the LORD and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you, (Cyrus) though you have not acknowledged Me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is no God besides ME. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster, I the LORD, do all these things…” (Is. 45:5-7)
For a second time God declares that He has chosen to use a future king named Cyrus, even though Cyrus would know nothing about God. Also did you notice the phrase that explained WHY? Oh yes, my friends, God had a very clear purpose in all He was doing through global leaders and armies as empires rose and fell in global influence at that time, do you see it? “So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is no God besides ME. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” There is God’s purpose in those days!!
Now here’s my question: Has God changed His global PURPOSE? Or is God, still today, working in our world with the very same objective? Does God want ALL the world’s populations to: “know there is no God besides ME. I am the LORD, and there is no other”? And more than that, does God want every living human being to know Jesus Christ, God the Son who came to earth to provide a way for anyone to enter into the relationship with God for which God created and designed them? Is your answer a strong, resounding YES to both questions? If so, can you see HOW God is working to accomplish His ultimate purpose in your part of the world today? Is it possible God has allowed terrible events, or corrupt leaders to rise into power in your country to help draw desperate people to search for God?
Look again at this statement from God to Isaiah: “I am the LORD and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster, I the LORD, do all these things…” (Is. 45:7) So here’s a question for us to consider: If God will go to the extreme of sending God the Son to earth to die on a cross to save any repentant person, how far, to what extreme do you think God might go to draw our world to HIM, as He oversees the climate of our planet; or the rise and fall of world leaders; or the terrorism in our world; the invasion of one country into another; or global disease pandemics; or addictions that ravage lives and families; or whatever causes you to ring your hands in despair today?
And so, here’s one more remarkable statement God made to Isaiah for us to close our reflections with today: “This is what the LORD says – the Holy One of Israel and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question ME about My children, or give Me orders about the work of my hands?” (Is. 45:11) Does that sound similar to what God asked Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who marked off its dimensions? Who stretched a measuring line across the universe?” (Job 38:4,5)
To both questions God then spoke these words to Isaiah and all humanity: “It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. I will raise up Cyrus in My righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.” (Is. 45:12,13)
It’s one of the most powerful, profound predictions God ever made! God not only named the king He would raise up to power, a king who did not know God, but God would guide that king to do the unthinkable! Cyrus would actually write an edict to free all Jewish captives throughout his huge Persian empire! And furthermore, Cyrus would write an edict urging those Jewish exiles to return to their homeland and rebuild their destroyed city Jerusalem! And furthermore, king Cyrus would issue an edict that these returning exiles should rebuild the great Temple of their God in Jerusalem.
And finally, Cyrus urged all the peoples of his huge empire to give Jews in their communities, resources, if they were heading back to Jerusalem! That is the amazing, miraculous story of Ezra 1 and Isaiah wrote God’s prediction with amazing detail, more than 150 years before Cyrus issued those edicts! Long before the Persian empire existed. Long before the Babylonian empire existed. Long before Jerusalem was destroyed!
And if all that is God’s reality, what do you suppose God sees in what is happening in your city, your country today and how God might work in all events around our world to accomplish His Holy, Majestic purposes?!
I think we need to pause, catch our breath and worship our Majestic God as we contemplate Isaiah’s remarkable messages of promise!
Today’s Scripture: Is. 45:5-13.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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