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God's sovereignty proven by Cyrus

It is quite well known that Isaiah 45 is the Old Testament chapter on the sovereignty of God. It is comparable to Romans 9 in the New Testament. But fewer people understand that Isaiah 45 actually should begin earlier in Isaiah 44:24, 25,

²⁴ Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone, ²⁵ causing the omens of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners, causing wise men to draw back and turning their knowledge into foolishness.”

This is the opening statement, the declaration of God’s sovereignty, showing that He alone is “the maker of all things.” He has the power to make “fools out of diviners” and to turn “their knowledge into foolishness.” Paul picks up on this in the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians. (See 1 Corinthians 1:18, 21, 25; 2:14; 3:19.) The “word [logos] of the cross” is God’s logic, which seems foolish to the soulish minds of men, who cannot comprehend how God would send His Son to subject Himself to the limitations of human flesh and die on the cross to save mankind.

In the case of Cyrus, set forth in Isaiah 44 and 45, the same lack of worldly wisdom and logic is set forth. God calls a pagan king, an unbeliever who does not even know God (Isaiah 45:4), to set the people free, to restore Jerusalem, and to rebuild the temple. Simple logic would say that God must find a believer to do God’s will. But no, He breaks all the human principles of logic and calls a pagan king “My messiah” (Isaiah 45:1).

Why? It is primarily to prove that God does not need believers to accomplish His will. He created all things all by Himself, and He is able to free the people of Judah from Babylon’s captivity at the appointed time seventy years after Jerusalem was captured. Isaiah 44:28,

²⁸ “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’.”

When Cyrus was born in the land of the Medes, it happened that the stars aligned in such a way that the astrologers told the king that someone had been born who would eventually take his throne. They determined that this newborn was the son of one of the king’s officials. So the king commanded his executioner to kill the baby. He took the baby into the woods, but then he found a shepherd whose wife had just given birth to a stillborn baby. The executioner decided to give the condemned baby to them as a substitute.

The boy grew up among shepherds and excelled in wisdom and strength. Eventually, the king discovered who he was, and Cyrus had to flee to Persia. Cyrus joined the army and soon rose in rank until finally becoming the king of Persia. So God says, “He is My shepherd!”

Isaiah 45:1 prophesies how Cyrus was “to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings.” Cyrus did indeed defeat the Medes and made an alliance with them by marrying the daughter of King Darius. In the night when Cyrus and Darius took Babylon, King Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall, which frightened him greatly. Daniel 5:6 KJV says,

⁶ Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

In other words, Belshazzar soiled his underwear just before he was killed (Daniel 5:30).

Daniel Led No Revolutions

Daniel understood from the writings of Jeremiah that this captivity would last only seventy years. Yet he also knew by revelation that Babylon was merely the first of four empires that would rule, each in succession. More important, he was led to serve the king of Babylon, and he never sought to overthrow the king but to let God handle it.

We are not told if Daniel had read Isaiah’s prophecies. If so, he certainly knew that Cyrus would be used by God to overthrow Babylon and to restore Jerusalem and the temple. Yet no doubt he had to keep Isaiah’s prophecy a secret from Belshazzar, lest the king should consider it treason to possess a copy.

The Lessons Today

The lesson for us today is that we ourselves have been required to serve the kings of Mystery Babylon since its setup in 1913. We are to recognize that Babylon today has functioned as God’s agent of justice to put us in bondage on account of our refusal to repent during the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900’s. The outpouring of the Spirit in those days was designed to be a final opportunity to repent of all the broken treaties of the 1800’s.

The Pentecostal movement was delighted at all the miracles and other benefits that God had bestowed on the church; however, they failed to repent of their sin. The Holy Spirit was sent, in part, to convict the world of sin (John 16:8), but most Pentecostals of that time assumed that the Spirit was sent to validate their righteousness, rather than to convict them of sin.

God knew that if He would send a foreign nation to conquer America and enslave the people, the American patriots would resist occupation and thereby fight against God’s agent of judgment. That was the pattern seen in Jeremiah’s day, where the people refused the wooden yoke that the prophet offered to them (Jeremiah 27 and 28:10-13). So in 1913 God engineered a secret, hidden government to overthrow America. This plan worked perfectly, because the vast majority of the people did not realize that their nation had been overthrown and replaced by “Mystery” Babylon. Hence, they submitted to this new government, thereby avoiding an iron yoke captivity.

But we are today nearing the end of this captivity, not only the final form (since 1913) but also going back thousands of years to the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C. All four of the beast empires have now completed their time to rule, including the extensions (“horns”) and the final economic phase called “Mystery Babylon.” It is called “Babylon” to draw our attention to the fact that it will be overthrown by the kings from the east.

We ourselves are not called to engage in revolutionary activity to overthrow Babylon. God is raising up unbelievers to do this work, even as He did with Cyrus and Darius. Our calling is to know the plan of God by studying Bible prophecy, so that we know what to expect and will not be taken by surprise. It is our duty to submit to the divine plan and not try to fight it. This was true in 1913, and it is again true today.

We must also understand that Babylon is not America. Babylon is America’s captor/occupier. Our definition of patriotism must be seen in that light if we hope to avoid being patriotic toward Babylon rather than to America. But more importantly, our ultimate loyalty is to the Kingdom of God and its King, over and above any loyalty to men or earthly nations.

When Mystery Babylon collapses, it will be primarily an economic and financial event. We see this collapse even now, as many companies and corporations are laying off workers by the thousands. We saw the “harbinger” of the Day of the Lord on September 11, 2001. We saw a second warning seven years later on September 11, 2008 when the world financial system came within hours of imploding. We are now once again heading for economic disaster, along with the Zionist state, which is soon to be destroyed as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi prophesied.

You, however, are aware of these things, for as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6,

⁴ But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day [of the Lord] would overtake you as a thief; ⁵ for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; ⁶ so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.