#DailyDevotion The LORD Uses Whom He Will To Accomplish His Work
Isaiah 45“The LORD says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whom I hold by his right hand in order to subdue nations before him and disarm kings, to open doors and gates before him, so they will not be shut: 2I will go ahead of you and level the hills. I will smash the bronze gates and cut the iron bars. 3I will give you treasures that are in dark places and hidden hoards, so that you will know that I the LORD, the God of Israel, am calling you by your name. 4For the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel, whom I have chosen, I have called you by your name and given you a title although you don’t know Me. 5I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no god besides Me. I strengthen you although you don’t know Me, 6so people from the east to the west may learn there is none besides Me.
So precise is this prophecy from Isaiah many people who actually believe the prophets can prophecy have a hard time believing that Isaiah actually wrote this. But this prophecy was spoken by the prophet Isaiah before the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C.. It was written before the fall of Jerusalem in around 586 B.C.. It would be fulfilled seventy years after Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed. While the prophecies of the prophets has always been fulfilled calling a person by name who had not even been born yet is a pretty awesome thing.
Yet, that is what the LORD spoke through the prophet Isaiah to Israel and Judah. Most of Isaiah’s, well most of the prophets, prophecies were doom and gloom. Of course they were sent by the LORD to call his people to repentance. A heavy dose of the Law was required for that, unfortunately, that hardly ever worked for the Israelites. In the midst of the gloom and doom of Isaiah’s prophecies we have this detailed Gospel prophecy. The LORD has appointed a messiah to deliver his people from the chains of the Babylonians, who are barely on the horizon at this time. The messiah, their anointed one, will be a Persian king whom the LORD will lift up from the East to save his people and plant them back, once again, in the land he promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The LORD will break down the brass doors of Babylon so Cyrus may enter the city. He will bring Cyrus to all the hidden treasures of Babylon to make Cyrus wealthy. He will make the conquering of the Babylonian empire an easy thing for Cyrus, although Cyrus will not have know who the LORD was at the time. He will use Cyrus to recover his people Israel and Judah even though Cyrus doesn’t know the LORD. But the LORD does this for Cyrus so that Cyrus would indeed come to know the LORD our God. The LORD, the God Israel, does this so Cyrus will know he is God and there is no other. He does it so the people from the east to the west know the LORD is God. The LORD is the God of all creation who lifts us nations and kings and puts them down for the sake of his holy people.
This same LORD became man, our LORD Jesus Christ. Like Cyrus who is an unlikely messiah, Jesus grows up in Nazareth in the north, though born in Bethlehem. Our Father opened up for him the treasures of the earth, used him to free the peoples of the earth from sin, death and the power of the devil to bring you to the promised land of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Heavenly Father, you used Cyrus to accomplish your purpose of bringing the Jews back to Israel. You sent your son Jesus Christ to call all people back to faith in you and to bring them into your kingdom. Grant us faith so we may heed your call and be joined to Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.