Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself . . . who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:24, 28, ESV)
Occasionally I get the pleasure (ha ha) of working on a clogged drain in the bathroom sink. If you have never done this, you would be surprised at what the clog looks like when you take the plumbing apart. Perhaps a better word would be disgusted, but that is why it goes down the drain. Well, when I remove the plumbing, I have to find a vessel to put under the trap to prevent drain water from going all over the bottom of the vanity. Inevitably I cannot find a bowl that fits or that I want to use. So, I found that I could put a plastic grocery bag over the pipes to catch the entire trap and the grunge in the drain when I remove it.
Now, normally we do not use a grocery bag to hold water. This is an unlikely vessel, but I have found that in this application it seems to work the best. Similarly, the Lord often uses some strange or unusual vessels to accomplish His purposes.
In this passage of Isaiah, the Lord speaks of “Cyrus.” He says that Cyrus would be His shepherd and that Cyrus would fulfill His purpose in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. So who was Cyrus? Cyrus was a Persian king who reigned between 559 and 530 BC. This is interesting since the book of Isaiah dates between 701 and 681 BC, over 150 years before Cyrus became king. Moreover, Cyrus does something unheard of for a king of a pagan nation in this time. After he conquered Babylon, the nation that destroyed the city of Jerusalem and deported its inhabitants, he decreed the return of Jewish exiles to Jerusalem for the rebuilding the city and it’s Temple in 538BC.
The passage here displays the sovereignty of God over all things. The Lord planned that Cyrus, a heathen king, would be His choice servant to rebuild the city and return Israel to worshipping in the Temple. Moreover, the Lord declares this a century and a half earlier than when it happened.
The Lord is sovereign over the affairs of men. He has a master plan and He often uses unlikely vessels or people to accomplish His program. Here, he used Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem. Before Cyrus, He used Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to chastise the nation. The Lord God does not change. He still works out His sovereign plan and uses unlikely vessels. Sometimes He will use people outside the body of faith to do His bidding. We do not have to understand how He does this. We must just realize that He is sovereign and that He has a purpose that involves every life.
Often He accomplishes His purposes through others who are like Nebuchadnezzar, who brought hardship upon the nation of Judah, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple, and deporting the Jews to Babylon. In this way, He works through hardship and trials brought about by those outside the faith.
Yet He also works though people who are outside the faith in a positive way, like Cyrus, who decreed the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and it’s Temple. Often unbelievers do things that have a positive effect on society, the church and our lives.
The main thing to remember is this. God is sovereign. He is accomplishing His divine program. He does use unlikely vessels in it. We need to walk by faith, trusting Him regardless of the circumstance, whether good or bad. Remember that He works both the good and the bad for our good and his good purposes (Romans 8:28).
Renewing the Heart 