Isaiah is just as perplexed as the rest as to the career of Cyrus. However, faithful to the sovereign God, Isaiah proclaims him as God’s anointed and trusts that he is God’s unsuspecting instrument. How startled Cyrus would have been had he been told that the world-shattering conquests of the Persians were for the benefit of thousands of Jewish captives. It must be that God permits evil for the sake of a greater good. The theme here is that Israel’s restoration is but one instance of Yahweh’s lordship of all creation and history. And, now Israel taunts Babylon with the song about the queen of a nation, now made a slave girl. Defeated Babylon has lost her famed astrologers “they are like stubble, and the fire consumes them.” The foreign merchants with financial ties leave the city. One commentator says ”A city with no more than utilitarian religion and utilitarian associates is left utterly alone. Only ties which transcend self-interest - ties with God and man- endure when disaster falls.” Who is loyal when it is no longer to their financial interest? A church family? True friends?
Isaiah is just as perplexed as the rest as to the career of Cyrus. However, faithful to the sovereign God, Isaiah proclaims him as God’s anointed and trusts that he is God’s unsuspecting instrument. How startled Cyrus would have been had he been told that the world-shattering conquests of the Persians were for the benefit of thousands of Jewish captives. It must be that God permits evil for the sake of a greater good. The theme here is that Israel’s restoration is but one instance of Yahweh’s lordship of all creation and history. And, now Israel taunts Babylon with the song about the queen of a nation, now made a slave girl. Defeated Babylon has lost her famed astrologers “they are like stubble, and the fire consumes them.” The foreign merchants with financial ties leave the city. One commentator says ”A city with no more than utilitarian religion and utilitarian associates is left utterly alone. Only ties which transcend self-interest - ties with God and man- endure when disaster falls.” Who is loyal when it is no longer to their financial interest? A church family? True friends?
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