Cyrus and the God Who Controls

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 44 and we will, as you are able, if you are able, we will stand in honor of the reading of God's word. Please stand. In Isaiah 44, God is revealing two things. He's speaking about two things. The first is the promise of the Holy Spirit to His people, and the second is a warning concerning the folly of idolatry. Those are the two things that God has in mind when we begin our reading at verse 21, Isaiah 44. Remember these, these things, O Jacob and Israel, For you are my servant, I have formed you, you are my servant. O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, you lower parts of the earth. Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. 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, who frustrates the signs of the babblers and drives diviners mad, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolishness, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah, you shall be built. And I will raise up her waste places, who says to the deep, be dry. And I will dry up your rivers, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. I am the Lord, and there is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, 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. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things. Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open. Let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making? Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? Woe to him who says to his father, What are you begetting? Or to the woman, What have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands. You command me. I have made the earth and created man on it. I, my hands, stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city and let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts. Thus reads God's holy word. The Lord bless it to our understanding. Please be seated. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Who controls what happens in the world? The religions of the world are basically fatalistic. They believe all events are predetermined by some arbitrary force, by our karma. We are all caught up in a web of circumstance over which we have no control. The Russell family motto, I'm sad to say, is, Que sera sera. What will be, will be. And the rest of the world seems to see life in the same way. I'm sure that the exiled Jews in Babylon must have had great difficulty in believing that God was in control of the discouraging circumstances they were living in. They were languishing under a military power that was so vast that it was utterly unthinkable that they would ever return again to Judah. Jerusalem and the temple were in ruins. and seemed destined never to be rebuilt. It would have been very easy to become fatalistic in such circumstances. Well, it is to that spirit of hopeless fatalism that the prophet Isaiah directs his message in chapter 44 and chapter 45. It's a stirring defense of God's control of every event in the world. And it was written by the prophet 130 years before the Jews went into captivity into Babylon. In chapter 44, verse 21 to 22, God says, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions. Return to me. for I have redeemed you. And then, in verses 24 to 27, God goes on to affirm the first of two important truths concerning the rulership, His rulership of the world. Namely, that God's sovereignty is universal. That's the first truth that comes out of chapter 44. God's sovereignty is universal, for God's throne is supreme over all. He is in firm control of everything that happens in the world. God waits for no one's approval before He does what He wishes, and no one can resist the carrying out of His will. He acts with complete freedom and complete power. Psalm 115 verse 3 says, Our God is in heaven. He does whatever He pleases. And again, Psalm 135 verse 6, Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, both in heaven and in earth. And the thing that pleases Him most is the advancement of His glory. And so verse 23 is a key verse when God says that he has glorified himself in redeeming Israel. But God goes on to say he has also glorified himself in his creation of the universe. Verse 24, thus says the Lord, I am Jehovah who makes all things. In other words, he makes all things besides himself. and he makes them by his design and by his power for his glory. Verse 24 again, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by myself. Now, the analogy of erecting a tent that is used here to describe creation is very fitting, as every child will know who has seen mother and father trying to put up a tent on a camping trip. If it's a large tent, you have to have other hands to help you. Jehovah, however, can stretch out a tent as enormous as the heavens. and spread out the earth as a base underneath it without any help at all. What is more, notice that the verbs are in participle form, indicating that God's activity in maintaining the heavens and the earth is not confined to the past, but is ongoing. Because he can't leave the world he created perfect in a mawed state because of sin. He must, as he says in chapter 65, create new heavens and a new earth and Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people as a joy. That's his great concern, to redeem the earth from the ravages of sin as well as his people. His ongoing activity has only that one end. Verse 24, thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb. And what God is saying there is that the nation of Israel was miraculously formed in the womb of Sarah when she was totally barren and over 90 years of age. And yet God gave her a son, Isaac. I control everything, says God to his redeemed people, and what I am now about to tell you should fill you with confidence in my continuing oversight. of your affairs. I know what the future holds, because as the Almighty Creator and Redeemer of my people, I am the one who has decreed it, who has ordained it. Now, the astrologers, the diviners, the wise men of Babylon, well, they may play their guessing games, but they haven't a clue what I am about to do for you. Verse 25, I am Jehovah who frustrates the signs of the Babylons, literally the signs of those who engage in boastful and empty talk. Astrologers, of course, use signs in the heavens by which to predict the future, by which they claimed to be able to predict the future. Again, God says, I am Jehovah who drives the diviners mad. Now, diviners sought to foretell the future by seeking omens in cultic rituals. They were priests, and they would whisper the question that was being asked into the ear of the animal before it was sacrificed. and then they would examine the entrails to give the answer. Jehovah, however, brings their predictions to nothing, mocking their pretentious claims and making them furious. A third group who claim the ability to predict the future are called wise men. They relied not on stars, not on omens, but upon their own prognostic powers. But every time they make a prediction, Jehovah, quote, makes their knowledge foolishness, unquote. And so they have to go back again to the drawing board. For Jehovah is the only one who knows the course of history, because he is the only one who has predetermined what it is going to be. And his prophets are the only ones to whom he has revealed his plans for the future. Verse 26, who confirms, literally causes to stand, the word of his servant and performs the counsel or guidance of his messengers. And God does this by bringing to pass everything he reveals to his prophets. And what had God revealed through Isaiah and Jeremiah and the other minor prophets who had brought his word to the people before their exile to Babylon? Verse 26 again, this is what they had revealed, who says to Jerusalem you shall be inhabited and to the cities of Judah you shall be built and I will raise up the waste or desolate places. Now the exiles in Babylon might have been tempted to doubt these predictions of renewed posterity for themselves and for their land. But in verse 27, Jehovah counters their doubts by reminding them of what he did for their forefathers when they were in similar bondage in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah, he says, who says to the deep, be dry. And, he says, I will dry up your rivers. In other words, I brought your ancestors out of the bondage of Egypt by drying up the dry sea, or parting the waters of the Red Sea, sorry, and by helping you to cross over the Jordan River at flood season. I removed every obstacle in the way of bringing you to the land that I had promised you. Now, says God, trust me to remove every obstacle in the way of returning you to Judah and rebuilding Jerusalem. So much then for the major lesson that comes out of this amazing prophecy at the end of Isaiah 44. The sovereignty of God is universal. It extends over nature and it extends over His people and all nations. All events in the world are under His control. He is the Maker of all things, who has stretched out the heavens and spread abroad the earth all by Himself. And history merely follows the script of His story, just as He has revealed it to His messengers, the prophets. Especially verse 23, the story of how He has glorified Himself. in his people Israel. The old Israel in the Old Testament and the new Israel, the Israel of God in the New Testament. Now that brings us to the second aspect of God's rulership of the world that must have come as a real shock to the exiles in Babylon when first they heard or read this prophecy in the book of Isaiah. and that is that divine sovereignty is not only universal, it is unconditional. Now, many people think that God can only work through people who believe in Him and are willing to work with Him and cooperate with Him in carrying out His plans for the world and for the salvation of His people. In other words, God can only work through people like Joseph and Moses and Ezra and through women. like Deborah and Esther and the Virgin Mary. But to their great astonishment, God now says to these Jewish exiles, verse 28, I am Jehovah, who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid. To show you my sovereign power, God is saying, I am not going to raise up a miracle worker like Moses, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, And I'm not going to save you through a soldier like David, who brought you into the land of Canaan and delivered you from the hand of the Philistines. No, I am going to raise up a pagan king as my shepherd to bring my sheep home. Now Cyrus was a Persian name, and Persians were great idolaters. This was a shocking revelation to say the least. But it tells us God's sovereignty is unconditional. He can do whatever he pleases through whomever he chooses. And Cyrus is a striking example of the unconditional sovereignty of God. What else do we know about Cyrus? Well, we know that he was born around 585 BC, that is just after the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying of the people into captivity into Babylon. We also know that he began his career as an obscure prince in a remote region in northwest Iran, which was under the control of the Medes at the time. But Cyrus had great ambitions, and so after the death of his father, he unified the Persian nation under his rule and went on to defeat the Medes who was subjugating them, and he did that in 550 BC. And then, with the support of the Medes, he went on to gain Lydia, which we now know today as modern Turkey, in 547 BC. and later conquered the vast Babylonian Empire in 539 BC as predicted by the prophet Daniel in chapters 2 and 7 of his prophecy. The prediction here in Isaiah 45 is given to us in poetic terms but nonetheless very clear and accurate terms. Although the words are addressed to Cyrus If you're following in the script, as I hope you are, you will understand that the real audience is Israel. For the aim of chapter 45 is to lift up God's people from their spirit of despondency and enable them to hold on until Jehovah's deliverance is brought about. by the Persian King Cyrus. Verse 1, Thus says Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and loose the armour of kings, that is, to disarm them. And the word anointed is a very interesting word. It's the same word that is used of Jesus Christ and which is translated the Messiah. But here, in its literal meaning, it is the appointed one, the one whom God has appointed for what he wanted him to do, in subduing nations, disarming them, and rendering them helpless. To achieve this, God says he is going to open the gates of cities to Cyrus' invading armies. Look at verse 1 again, chapter 45. To open before him the double doors, that is, the two leaves of the gates of every city, because the gates were so wide, they had to have two leaves to shut the entrance. Verse 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. It's poetic and it's also literal. It's very significant because city gates were normally made of wood, but according to the ancient Greek, historian Herodotus, the gates of Babylon were all made with bronze and shut, or locked, with iron bars. But in spite of that great protection, because of Belshazzar's continuous drunkenness, as recorded in Daniel 5, Cyrus took Babylon without a fight and was welcomed by the subjugated people who were living in Babylon. How did he do it? Well, he diverted the river Euphrates that went right through the city. And by diverting the Euphrates, he marched his army in the riverbed under the walls of the city and captured it. It was a brilliant military maneuver. Now, the wealth that Cyrus discovered inside the walls of Babylon was unbelievable. Hidden underground vaults that were filled to capacity with all the treasures that the rulers of Babylon had confiscated from their conquered enemies. No wonder Babylon is depicted in Daniel and in the image of Nebuchadnezzar as the head of gold. Here is how Isaiah describes it poetically in verse 3, I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that is vast riches in underground vaults, that you may know that I, Jehovah, who called you by name, am the God of Israel." But friends, the most surprising thing about Cyrus is the policy he implemented to send all his exiled peoples back to their home country. Unlike the Assyrians and the Babylonians, Cyrus saw no need to retain them as slaves, but saw that it was in the best interests of his kingdom, his empire, to send the exiles home and give them cultural, but not political autonomy. And so in 538 BC, one year after Babylon was conquered and the exiles were liberated, he issued a decree that is recorded in Ezra chapter 1 verses 2 to 4, which reads, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, Jehovah the God of heaven has given me and he has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? May his God be with him. Let him go to Jerusalem and build the house of Jehovah, God of Israel. And every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem." It's the language of diplomacy, you see. Cyrus didn't believe that there was only one God, Jehovah, the God of the Jews. He wasn't converted. It was a political move to create a stable and prosperous Persian Empire. God's purpose, however, was spiritual. Verse 4, For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, notice, though you have not known me. God says it again in verse 5, I will gird you, that is, I will equip you, I will give you all your need for success in your military campaigns, though you have not known me, he repeats. Friends, what an incredible prophecy this is. Almost, listen, almost 200 years before Zerubbabel was given permission to take 50,000 exiles back to Judah to rebuild the temple, God gave the name of the king he would use to bring it about. Cyrus thinks he is just promoting the building of a temple of one of his many subject peoples while all the time God is using him to further his plan of salvation for his people. For the Jews have to go back again to Jerusalem in order for the Messiah to come and to be born there and to die there. So Cyrus remains a heathen, and yet God says of him, he is my shepherd, my anointed or appointed one, and he shall perform all my pleasure. It reminds me of the verse in Proverbs 21 verse 1, the king's heart is in the hand of Jehovah. He directs it like a stream of water wherever he wishes. Now, there are some people who have real moral issues with the unconditionality of God's sovereignty. How can God possibly use the unfit and the unwilling to carry out his purposes, they ask. And in Isaiah 45 verse 9, the prophet seems to anticipate some of the exiles will raise this objection when they read his prophecy in Babylon. And in reply he says, woe to him who strives or quarrels with his maker. He who is a potsherd, that is a broken fragment of a clay pot among the potsherds of the ground, And then he asks, shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Woe to him who says to his father, what are you begetting? Or to a woman, what have you brought forth? And all these rhetorical questions are meant to show the arrogance, the utter arrogance of questioning what an all-righteous, all-wise, all-loving, almighty God is doing in history. And so in verse 11, God clarifies the issue. He says to Israel, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons. In other words, I don't want my people to be ignorant of what I am planning to do for them. You may ask me, I encourage you to ask me about those plans. But, this doesn't come out clearly in our English translation, the rest of the verse is not a command to ask, but it is a very indignant question. But, says God, concerning the work of my hands, that is, the details of my plans, will you command me? Will you tell me what I should do and how I should go about it? We are in no position to dictate to God. We are finite, fallible creatures. He is our infinite, infallible God and Creator. Verse 12, I have made the earth and created man on it. And then in verse 13, God moves from the general, the creation of the universe, to the particular, His use of a pagan, unbelieving King Cyrus. And God says, I have raised him up in righteousness. That is to say, I have raised him up to further and to advance righteousness in the earth. And so God goes on to say, I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city and let my exiles go free, not for price nor for reward, says Jehovah of hosts. For God doesn't have to bribe or reward ungodly men to do his bidding, does he? No. Because ungodly men and women do exactly what they want to do. They don't have to be bribed or rewarded. They act as absolutely free agents. And this, of course, is the irony of the cross. There is Satan. Stirring up Judas to betray Jesus. Stirring up the high priest to condemn Jesus. Stirring up Pilate to crucify Jesus. And all the time Satan thinks he has Jesus where he wants him. That God's plan of salvation is now foiled. that with the death of Christ upon the cross God's plan to win back the hearts of men and women and boys and girls that the devil has stolen is foiled. Suddenly the tables are turned and Satan discovers to his chagrin that what God has patiently and secretly been doing through all these events is to work out to accomplish his perfect plan of salvation. That Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate have all done exactly what God purposed they should do. That his son should be offered as a perfect sacrifice for sin to save a perishing world. And yet, God was not the author of their sin. He didn't approve of their murderous conspiracy, nor did he coerce them into participating in it. without ever violating the will of His creatures. God's control over our free, self-determined activities is as complete as it is over every other item in the universe. Every raindrop that falls, every speck of dust, that flies in the air, every hair that drops from the hair of your head, He is in control of everything to the same degree. Now how this can be, neither you nor I nor anyone else can explain. All we can say is that God could not be God. if he is unable to sovereignly overrule all human actions to bring about his own predetermined goals. God, because he is as good as he is and as great as he is, can allow rebel men and angels to do what they will and yet at the same time use all their actions to fulfill his purposes. So he's not confined to holy men and women to accomplish his plan of salvation for his people and the world. He can use agents in spite of their wickedness if he chooses to. Indeed, just as God used Cyrus to free his people from captivity in Babylon, so he used Pharaoh. I mean, Pharaoh. to deliver his people from the land of Egypt. Yes, the same Pharaoh who, fearing a revolt by his Jewish slaves, gave the order for all Hebrew boys, babies under the age of two, to be drowned in the Nile River. He used him. And how did he use him? Well, he used Pharaoh's daughter who found baby Moses lying in the bulrushes of the Nile River, and she took pity upon this baby. And with her father's permission, with Pharaoh's permission, she raised him up in the palace. And so at the same time that Pharaoh was cruelly increasing the bondage of God's people out of his own palace, came the deliverer of God's people to lead them to freedom. It's incredible. I do hope, as I conclude, that all of us have a vision of God that fits in with what Isaiah is saying about Him in chapters 44 and 45. An omnipotent God whose purpose in history is good, and can never be thwarted. There is a purpose in history, friends, for the Sovereign Lord of the Universe has the interests of the earth that He created and of the people He put on it to redeem them, to save them for the perfect purpose for which He created them. And he is moving history forward to accomplish that purpose. So I say, God's sovereignty ensures a bright future for His people who believe in His Son and have the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. In the short term, I agree, the outlook may be bleak. The church in some lands is in decline. and in other lands it is suffering stiff persecution and opposition. Our Lord Jesus told us to expect no less. But it is the mark of a man or a woman of faith that when circumstances seem hopeless, they do not despair. They take the long view of things, not the short view. Although they cannot see any more than the Jews in Babylon, in exile in Babylon could see, they still believe God's Word. Israel languished in exile for 70 years. But remember, believers like Daniel, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, all held on to the promises of God given through Isaiah and Jeremiah. So beloved, this is a passage of scripture that calls you and me to be patient in the day in which we are living. In due time our sovereign God will consummate His kingdom on this earth and give it to His saints. However things may deteriorate, however difficult they may become, God has a bright future for all his people, for which we must expectantly but patiently wait. For God allows iniquity to ripen slowly before he plucks it. Any seeming setbacks are only preparatory for the final deliverance that is going to come when Christ returns. until that bright and glorious day appears. Let me warn you, do not be surprised if God uses some ungodly leader or person to work out his purposes for his people. Even the Antichrist, the final Antichrist himself, that is how God works. We've seen it on a grand scale this morning in the life of Pharaoh and Cyrus and Pilate. Let us never lose confidence in the infinite power of God whose sovereignty is total, who wills as he chooses and carries out all that he wills through good or evil agents. None can stay his hand or thwart his purpose. His sovereignty is both universal and unconditional. His scepter rules over all. Let us pray. O Lord our God, our gracious God, our omnipotent sovereign God, Our hearts are filled with awe at your universal and unconditional sovereignty over nature and history. We marvel at how two hundred years before the event you could name the heathen King Cyrus that you would use to release your people from captivity. And Lord, we today also face increasing darkness and opposition in the church, in the nation, and possibly in our workplace and in our home. Help us to believe that just as you did not forget your people in Babylon, you will not forget us. That in your own time and in your own way, you will deliver us. Lord, until then, give us grace to hold on to your promise and be more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us. In his name we pray. Amen.