Isaiah 42-45: Behold My Servant: Chapter 17: The Calling of Cyrus

In Isaiah 44:24 the prophet begins to foretell the rise of King Cyrus of Persia. Critics and unbelievers cannot bring themselves to believe that Isaiah actually wrote this more than a century before Cyrus was even born, so they claim that this proves someone at a later date wrote the second half of Isaiah.

But it forms a natural climax in Isaiah’s theme of deliverance, and the author had genuine revelation about the Messiah, God’s “Servant.” In my view, no one could know the various layers of prophecy regarding the Servant: Christ, Israel, and Cyrus. Apart from revelation, Isaiah could not have known the deep, underlying principles of the New Covenant and its universal application to all nations. Isaiah was a man born out of due season who had a remarkable revelation of the Messiah and His work of Salvation and Redemption.

The Wisdom of God

The wisdom of God in both sections of Isaiah makes fools of the critics as well as the world’s prophets who know not the mind of God. Isaiah 44:24-26 begins,

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, ²⁶ confirming the word of His servant and performing the purpose of His messengers…”

Yahweh gives His credentials first as “your Redeemer” and then as the Creator or “the Maker of all things.” He is also the beginning and the end (alef-tav, or alpha-omega), foretelling the future, having designed all of history from its beginning. The “boasters,” “diviners,” and “wise men” of the earth may prophesy many things, but in the end they fail to know the future, and God turns their knowledge into “foolishness.”

Paul affirms this as well in 1 Cor. 1:20,

²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Who but God would use a pagan king to do His work of rebuilding Jerusalem? Who but God would call this pagan king a “messiah”? The mind of man would normally call a righteous man to represent the Messiah and to do God’s work. To do anything else is foolishness to the world.

But the world generally does things according to the principle of “free will,” which causes them to think that God must search for a man who has decided to follow a path of righteousness.

However, God has no such restrictions in running the daily operation of the universe. He even uses the devil himself to prosecute men for their sin. If God did not raise up His own opposition (as He did with Pharaoh), He would have no challenge at all. How could our faith be tested if it appeared that God was always winning?

So we read in the last part of Isaiah 44:26,

²⁶ … “It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again.”

This was fulfilled in the Edict of Cyrus, which was recorded by Ezra in Ezra 1:1, 2,

¹ Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, ² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah’.”

No doubt Cyrus had spoken with Daniel after hearing how the prophet had interpreted the handwriting on the wall on the night Babylon fell. Daniel had told the king how God had called him by name through Isaiah and how Persia had conquered Babylon after 70 years (Jer. 25:11), according to the word of Jeremiah. So “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,” who did all that the Lord had commanded.

The Conquest of Babylon

Isaiah 44:27 continues,

²⁷ “It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’ And I will make your rivers dry.

It is well known in history how Cyrus diverted the River Euphrates upstream from Babylon, which lowered the water level as it flowed through Babylon. Cyrus’ troops walked into the city on the riverbed. Some of the priests, who were angry with King Belshazzar of Babylon, left the gates along the river unlocked, allowing the Persian troops to take the city easily.

Isaiah tells us that God Himself commanded the “sea” and the “rivers” to be dry, and Cyrus bore witness to this decree on earth. No doubt Cyrus thought it was his own idea, or perhaps it was the idea of one of his counselors, but God took credit for inspiring Cyrus with that plan. God has a way of directing events while remaining anonymous, and this gives men the appearance of having “free will.”

The wisdom of men is limited, if not outright “foolishness.” Men do not often peek behind the curtain of their own will so that they may see the sovereign God working behind the scenes. Hence, they think that their own thoughts and plans originate in their own minds. This gives them the illusion of “free will.” But everywhere in Isaiah and other prophets, God takes the credit for men’s “free will” decisions.

The Divine Shepherd

Isaiah 44:28 says,

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’.”

Here God identifies Cyrus by name for the first time. Though he is not specifically identified as a king, who other than a king would have the power to decree that Jerusalem would be rebuilt?

In the days of Isaiah’s prophecy, Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed. In fact, the city had just been delivered from the Assyrian siege. Yet Isaiah implies that the city and its temple would need to be rebuilt in the future.

This was to be the work of “My shepherd,” God says. This was, of course, a messianic prophecy about “the great Shepherd” (Heb. 13:20) who was to come more than five centuries after Cyrus. But this was also a description of Cyrus himself, who had been raised by shepherds..

Cyrus’ mother was Mandane, the daughter of Prince Astyages of Media and Aryenis, a princess of Lydia. When Mandane came of age, she married Cambyses, a Persian. (See Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, par. 108.)

The problem came when Astyages had a dream which the magi interpreted to mean that his daughter’s son [Cyrus] would usurp his throne in Persia. Herodotus tells us,

“To guard against this, Astyages, when Cyrus was born, sent for his kinsman Harpagus, the steward of his property, whom he trusted more than anyone, and said to him: “I have some instructions for you, Harpagus, and mind you pay attention to them, whatever they may be. My safety depends upon you. If you neglect it and prefer to serve others, the day will come when you will be caught in your own trap. Get hold of Mandane’s child—take it home and kill it. Then bury it how you please.” (The Histories, Book 1, par. 109).

Harpagus, however, spared the child and gave him to a shepherd named Mitradates, whose wife had just given birth to a stillborn child. Cyrus, then, was raised by a shepherd, making him a prophetic type of the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Just as the life of baby Cyrus had been threatened by King Astyages, so also was the life of baby Jesus threatened by King Herod.

Furthermore, Mitradates’ wife was named Cyno, “bitch.” Her name prophesied of Jesus’ mother, Mary, which the Jewish Talmud calls a “prostitute” who had been impregnated (they say) by a Roman soldier named Pandira. Hence, both Cyrus and Jesus were maligned and insulted, which only makes the prophetic type more incredible.

For a longer account of the story of Cyrus and his prophetic connection to Jesus Christ, see my book, Daniel, Prophet of the Ages, Book 1, chapter 9.

Building Two Jerusalems

God called Cyrus “My shepherd” more than a century before his birth, saying, “he will perform all My desire.” What Cyrus did blindly, Jesus did with full knowledge. Though Cyrus decreed that the earthly Jerusalem should be rebuilt, Jesus has been building the heavenly Jerusalem.

These are very different projects, as we know, because Paul distinguishes them clearly in Gal. 4:25, 26. We who are of the body of Christ are part of His building project, not only building the heavenly city but also the heavenly temple as well. This temple is described in Eph. 2:20-22.

While others believe that the earthly city is to be rebuilt into a glorious city with a third temple on the old site, we know that there are two Jerusalems and that we are to build the New Covenant city (“Sarah”) with its spiritual temple.