Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Did you notice the date on your calendar today? 9.11 It’s a ‘jolting’ date for most people in our world over about age 25! This date was a Tuesday in 2001, as new words like “terrorism” came into our vocabulary over the skies of New York City and Washington DC. Now, 23 years later, the results of the tragedies of that day have tainted almost every aspect of public transportation and even public life! Today, in too many places in our world, people live with ‘terrorist alerts’, even young school children having ‘terrorist-live shooter” drills as years ago we had fire drills. People in most parts of Israel even have ‘safe rooms’ built into their homes! But of course, living under the threat of terror is not new for Israel, is it?
I have an important question for us today: Does God sometimes work in cataclysmic tragedies, even what might be terrorist events, to accomplish God’s great purposes? Join me again today in Jerusalem as we look closely at one of the most amazing statements God made through His prophet Isaiah!! You’ll remember Isaiah was receiving from God and writing these powerful messages in the ever-darkening years of the reign of wicked king Manasseh, the son of God honoring king Hezekiah. We don’t have an exact date, but we can presume Isaiah 45 was written around 690bc. Most Bible scholars believe Isaiah was executed by king Manasseh around 680bc.
Yesterday we saw Isaiah conclude the powerful message of Isaiah 44 which predicted the REBUILDING of Jerusalem and the Temple, and I explained to you that king Nebuchadnezzar conquered and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of God in 586bc, about 100 years AFTER Isaiah 44 was written! (2 Kings 25:8-21) Now today let’s watch as Isaiah continues writing his God given message in Isaiah 45.
“This is what the LORD says to His anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and I will level the mountains, I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel who summons you by name.” (Is. 45:1-3) It’s staggering, shocking, almost unimaginable, isn’t it?
The Almighty, Holy God of Israel called the Persian emperor Cyrus a man anointed by God? God was clearly declaring that God would empower Cyrus and guide Cyrus in ravaging nations, in defeating kings on the battlefield, in breaking down city gates and conquering cities. God declared He would give king Cyrus the treasures of other nations, even those hidden in secret places. All that sounds very much like terrorism, doesn’t it? Does it seem to you contradictory of God’s Holy character that He would use such tactics to accomplish His glorious purposes here on earth?
Here’s a very important question for us to consider: Does history show us that God sometimes raises up a leader who either knows nothing about God or totally rejects God and yet God empowers that wicked leader to be God’s instrument to accomplish God’s purposes, especially His purposes of discipline or judgment? Yes!
Do you remember these examples? God used the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Covenant and kill the High Priest Eli and his wicked sons, priests Hophni & Phinehas, around 1090bc! (1 Samuel 4) God allowed Tiglath-Pileser and his Assyrian army to destroy the northern kingdom Israel in 722bc. (2 Kings 17:5-23) Three times God allowed king Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to invade and ransack Jerusalem, finally destroying the city and God’s Temple in 586bc. (2 Kings 25:8-21) About the same time God was allowing king Cyrus to conquer many nations as the Persian empire was expanding. Eventually Cyrus conquered both Nineveh and Babylon! While God used the Assyrians and Babylonians to punish His people Israel, for their wickedness and idolatry, God used Cyrus to punish both the Assyrians and Babylonians!
And if you think maybe God simply allowed it all to happen, listen to this which God said next to king Cyrus through Isaiah: “For the sake of Jacob My servant, of Israel My chosen, I summon YOU by name and bestow on you a title of honor. I am the LORD and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you 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 none besides ME…” (Is. 45:4-6)
Oh my, does that blow your mind, my friends? How can the decimation of Israel and Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and then Cyrus conquering both Nineveh and Babylon, possibly be for the good of God’s people and draw glory to God?
God’s justice draws glory and honor to Holy, Almighty God because pure justice is based on the unchanging holiness of God. And the holiness of God requires accountability, especially from God’s Covenant people Israel who have had God’s laws, God’s leaders and even God’s Presence from the days of Moses! Thus, God holds Israel to a higher standard than peoples who have no knowledge or understanding of God, or people who have never heard of God’s Commands for living honorable lives.
As God allowed both discipline and judgment of Israel, God did not allow their total annihilation thus new generations arose who had the opportunity to learn very important lessons about being the Covenant people of God and the holy standards to which God expected His people would hold themselves, as they sought to live God honoring lives! Do we understand this important principle of God’s discipline my friends?
And when God said “For the sake of Jacob My servant, of Israel My chosen, I summon YOU by name and bestow on you a title of honor“, what do you suppose Isaiah and the Jewish people imagined as God identified a GENTILE man by name, who had not yet been born, to be a man upon whom God would bestow a title of honor? Do you see God was declaring that His summons of a future man named Cyrus and His use of Cyrus to discipline Israel was in the long run for Israel’s benefit and for the amazement of the world?
It was so Israel would learn, once and for all, that God will not tolerate idolatry among His people and His discipline can include judgment to the point of death and eviction from His land. But it was also proving God’s very clear understanding of the future, even down to the details of a man’s name and role in history, long before he was born!
But in closing today, let’s see one other extremely important statement God made in this prophecy about Cyrus: “Though you do not acknowledge Me!” (Is. 45:4,5) In fact do you see that God repeated that phrase twice in successive sentences? As far as we know Cyrus had no understanding of the God of Israel prior to conquering Babylon and tomorrow I’ll explain why. Yet Cyrus’ spiritual condition was not a prerequisite for his eligibility to be used by Almighty God strategically in the accomplishment of God’s purposes at that time in world history! Now that is so significant in its implications we need to pause right here and ask God to open our minds to understand these first 4 verses of Isaiah 45 and here’s a worship song that helps us honor our majestic God who will accomplish His purposes always, and by HIS ways!
Today’s Scripture: Is. 45:1-4.
Choose below to read or listen.
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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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