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For the Lord is God,
    and he created the heavens and earth
    and put everything in place.
He made the world to be lived in,
    not to be a place of empty chaos.
“I am the Lord,” he says,
    “and there is no other.
¹⁹ I publicly proclaim bold promises.
    I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.
I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me
    if I could not be found.
I, the Lord, speak only what is true
    and declare only what is right. (NLT).

I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
    “Seek me in vain.” (from verse 19, NIV).

The prayers of Israel were not in vain. We too may affirm that God does not tell us to seek Him in vain. As we pray we can absolutely count on His publicly proclaimed bold promises. His ”very great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). The ‘Berean Standard Bible’ says His ”precious and magnificent promises.”

‘…God has spoken to his people (and through them to the world) truthfully and clearly, making possible an open and trusting relationship with him (19). He has also backed up his words through the prophets with actions, such as the raising up of Cyrus, that confirm his claim to be the only God and Saviour (21). Barry Webb, p.186.

God is faithful. His Word is dependable. His promises are rock solid. What a blessed people we are. Why would we fail to seek Him with everything we have?

Truly, O God of Israel, our Saviour,
    you work in mysterious ways.
¹⁶ All craftsmen who make idols will be humiliated.
    They will all be disgraced together.
¹⁷ But the Lord will save the people of Israel
    with eternal salvation.
Throughout everlasting ages,
    they will never again be humiliated and disgraced.

No-one who saw the broken, shattered Jewish captives in Babylon could have guessed God’s ultimate purposes for these people. It must have felt to them that the Lord had ”been hiding himself” (15: NIV). His ways truly are mysterious. But our God can bring about great reversals (none more so than the resurrection of Christ); and although their immediate rescue was to be effected by the ‘temporary Messiah’, Cyrus, the ”eternal salvation” spoken of here, will be effected only by ‘the Servant of the LORD’ – their Messiah, Jesus.

In a wonderfully hope-filled section of Romans (chs.9-11), Paul lifts our eyes to expect a day when ”all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Let us pray for that day, with all that it will mean for worldwide evangelism.

I remember David Pawson telling a story about a Jewish lady who was converted. He said words to the effect that in five minutes she was teaching him the Bible! So just think of the impact when the nation as a whole turns to their Messiah.

 This is what the Lord says:

‘The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
    and those tall Sabeans –
they will come over to you
    and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
    coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
    and plead with you, saying,
“Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
    there is no other god.”’

We may well think about the magi, coming to worship Jesus.

‘We have now reached one of the grandest moments in the book. Cyrus fades into the background and the whole scene is dominated by the uniqueness and glory of the one who has chosen to use him. This magnificent poem reverts to the thought of 45:6-7 and develops it. The LORD alone is God, and salvation is to be found in no-one else.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.185.

The embattled Jewish exiles in Babylon will one day be ”…the head, and not the tail” (Dt.28:13). Although the imagery used here is commercial and military, what we witness is the outcome of an intensely spiritual battle. It represents the final triumph of the truth of God. The Kingdom of God will ultimately prove victorious over every enemy.

PRAYER: Lord God, I want to pray today that your presence will so fill your people individually, and your church corporately, that many who do not know you will be drawn to you, in us.

“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,
    those who are nothing but potsherds
    among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
    ‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
    ‘The potter has no hands’?
¹⁰ Woe to the one who says to a father,
    ‘What have you begotten?’
or to a mother,
    ‘What have you brought to birth?’

¹¹ “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?
¹² It is I who made the earth
    and created mankind on it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
    I marshalled their starry hosts.
¹³ 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.”

There is a time and place when we might want to reverently ask questions of God. We don’t understand what He is doing, and we recognise He doesn’t have to give us any further insight, and may well choose not to. But we ask, in a spirit of submission and humility, recognising that ‘God is God, and I am not.’ We freely acknowledge His sovereignty and his absolute right to do as He pleases.

That is one thing.

But to quarrel with Him is quite another.

‘They cannot see past the fact that Cyrus is a pagan, and because God’s chosen way of working does not fit their own notions of what is proper they cannot rejoice in it. They are trapped in small-mindedness, like the Pharisees of later times…We are reminded of the elder brother in Jesus’ famous parable (he ‘became angry and refused to go in)…Theological impertinence is the blight of religion in ever age, and God is rightly angered by it. But he is not deterred by it. He stoutly defends his sovereign freedom as Creator to use anyone he pleases, and the rightness of his choice of Cyrus (11-13). But how sad that he has to press on with his good plans for his people in the face of their complaints instead of to the joyful strains of their praise!’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, pp.184,185.

Verses 11-13 read in ‘The Message:

Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
    “Do you question who or what I’m making?
    Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth,
    and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies
    and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
    I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
    He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
    I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”

“You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
    let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
    let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it;
    I, the Lord, have created it.

I see in these words a picture of ‘revival’.

Notice how genuine revival cannot be humanly manufactured. It comes by God’s decree. When God says ‘let’ a thing happen, then it does. God speaks a move of God into existence, as with creation at the beginning.

‘Saved’ people are enabled to live right (righteously). Salvation is not a plant that grows up alone in God’s garden; righteousness grows with it.

Our great need is for God’s righteousness. When we put our faith in Jesus He gifts it to us. We are given a right standing (relationship) with Himself, and out of this we are enabled to live right.

To put this into context: we have seen that Cyrus was a ‘temporary’ Messiah, preparing the way for the real Messiah, who was still to come. He (Jesus) will bring in this era of righteousness, forming a community of saved people who live right in the world.

“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 armour,
to open doors before him
    so that gates will not be shut:
² I will go before you
    and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
    and cut through bars of iron.
³ 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.
⁴ For the sake of Jacob my servant,
    of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
    and bestow on you a title of honor,
    though you do not acknowledge me.
⁵ 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,
⁶ so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
    I bring prosperity and create disaster;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.

Before moving on, I thought it would be appropriate to quote Barry Webb, with reference to Cyrus:

‘The captives from Judah must have been particularly startled by the title his (God’s) anointed (1). In Hebrew it is massiah (messiah), a title normally reserved for Saul, Israel’s first king, and for the kings of the line of David who followed him. It refers to the human king who is the LORD’s chosen representative, the one who stands at the very centre of his purposes for his people and for the world…Cyrus was only a temporary ‘messiah’, used by God for a very specific task at a time when the house of David was in total disarray. It is the Servant whom we met at the beginning of chapter 42 who stands at the centre of God’s longer-term plans for his people, not Cyrus, and Isaiah will eventually relate the ministry of this Servant to the ‘faithful love promised to David’ (55:3)…In short, God was going to use Cyrus to put his people back in Jerusalem, so that from there, the place he had chosen to be the centre of his kingdom on earth, the truth about him might become known everywhere. In the longer plan of God, of course, it was to Jerusalem that Israel’s true Messiah, the Son of David, eventually came to fulfil his mission, and it was from there that the gospel went out to the whole world.’ (‘Isaiah’, pp183,184).

For the sake of Jacob my servant,
    of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
    and bestow on you a title of honour,
    though you do not acknowledge me.
⁵ 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,
⁶ so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
    I bring prosperity and create disaster;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.

God has the right to use anyone He chooses. Cyrus did not know the Lord, but he was known by Him, and called to a particular purpose. God knew where he was and put His Hand on him, and moved him into position on the world’s chess-board.

Proverbs 21:1 says:

”The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord;
    he guides it wherever he pleases” (New Living Translation).

We know that in the U.K. we will go to the polls before the year is out. It’s the same for the U.S.A also. We may (or, I appreciate, may not!) feel rather distressed when we consider the options. But I can almost guarantee you that if you saw Cyrus’ name on the ballot sheet you would not be happy. We need to remember that the Lord raises up rulers and He puts them down. He is the sovereign Lord of history (7). We may have little, or no understanding of how God is going to use some seemingly ungodly person. Obviously, He sees the much bigger picture.

What we can say for certain is that we are meant to pray for our political leaders, and recognise that they can be converted:

”The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Saviour God wants us to live.

 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.” (1 Tim.2:1-7: ‘The Message’).

“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 armour,
to open doors before him
    so that gates will not be shut:
² I will go before you
    and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
    and cut through bars of iron.
³ 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.

Apparently, as conqueror of Croesus and Babylon, Cyrus was to acquire incalculable wealth.

I often think about Hudson Taylor’s famous dictum: “Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”

I discovered that he went on to say:

”He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.” Hudson Taylor.

Verse 3a points to God’s provision. I am not wanting to suggest that you can have all your selfish, materialistic desires satisfied. But, if God calls you to be somewhere, and to do a particular thing, He will provide for you to be able to do His will. Depend on it! God knows where all the hidden wealth is, and He can get it to you just when you need it. You may find yourself surprised – shocked even – at His bounty.

Chuck Smith said it well: ‘Where God guides, God provides.’

“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 armour,
to open doors before him
    so that gates will not be shut:…

This thought is picked up and echoed in Revelation 3:7:

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

Paul writes, in Colossians 4:2-4:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 

I regularly pray for Jilly and myself that in our lives, and in the places where God takes us:

• we may shine for Jesus, and because of Him;
• we may smell of Jesus – carrying the fragrance, the aroma of Christ;
• and that we will speak about Jesus, as He gives us opportunities. To this end I pray for ‘open doors’ – as Paul did in writing to the church at Colossae