December 21: THE PAGAN KING CYRUS (part 1)
Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ 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’ Isaiah 44:26-27
These verses leading up to the naming of Cyrus are not the first indications that he would be coming onto the scene as a “type” of Christ. The mention of a conqueror from the east and from the north (see 41:2,3,25) also implied that his coming would be great news for God’s people (41:27). Isaiah accurately predicted him by name, and also accurately described his activities.
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.”’ (44:28)
To gain perspective, Isaiah had been dead 146 years when Babylon fell. Thus, this particular prophecy was penned a century and a half ahead of its literal fulfillment. When Isaiah wrote of Cyrus the Persian, there were yet seven decades before Judah would suffer the first of three invasions by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the event that marked the beginning of the seventy-year exile of God’s people in Babylon (see Jeremiah 25:11 & 29:10).
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 (45:1-4). The Hebrew word translated anointed is the word from which we get the word Messiah. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, this word could apply to an anointed high priest (Leviticus 4:3,5,16; 6:22), an anointed Israelite king (1 Samuel 24;6,10; 2 Samuel 22:51), or the promised Messiah, a future king from the line of David who would be the Deliverer (Psalm 2:2; Daniel 9:25,26). Cyrus was the only non-Israelite type of Christ in the Scriptures. This is meant to cause us to step back and see what Cyrus accomplished, and it was exactly as predicted: he would defeat God’s enemies, release His people from Babylonian captivity, and authorize the rebuilding of the temple. On a spiritual level, Christ came to defeat the enemies of God that reside within us, to release us from the captivity of sin, and to build up our “temple” as a dwelling place for Himself. In both instances, many of God’s people had grown so comfortable in Babylon that they didn’t (and don’t) want to leave.
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons…. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people…” Revelation 18:1,2a,3a