WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So we're looking again at Isaiah chapter 45. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:19.000 And you can go and put the first few verses on the screen if you can. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.280 So when I was in, well, a couple of years ago I was going through all my email inbox. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:27.640 I went all the way back to the beginning. 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:29.679 And I made it all the way to my freshman year of college. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:32.160 And I was deleting email after email. 00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:37.159 And I saved one email from my freshman year of college because it meant so much to me. 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:45.359 And it was an email where a member of the staff of the campus ministry that I was involved 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:49.359 in wrote me and he apologized to me. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:53.000 And he was so worried that some things that he had said to me were so off-putting that 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.159 I was never going to come back to the ministry again. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:01.359 And I love that email because I remember what the conversation actually was and the reason 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:06.000 that he had sent the email and what had happened and what had been happening over several meetings 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:13.079 with this guy is that I had been telling him who I thought God was and how I thought God 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:16.519 worked in this world. 00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:22.679 And he kept bringing the Bible to me and showing me that my idea of who God was and 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:28.000 who the Bible said God was weren't always the same thing. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 And that was an uncomfortable conversation to have because he was essentially saying, 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:35.840 my view of God was based on my own opinions. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:39.840 And he said, he kept trying to point me to the God of scriptures. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:43.440 And in the moment, that was kind of a tense conversation to tell someone your view of 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:45.240 God is wrong. 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:46.240 But I'm so thankful. 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:51.240 I look back on that and I'm so thankful for it because I needed someone to tell me that 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:54.039 God isn't who I say he is. 00:01:54.039 --> 00:01:56.560 God is who the scriptures say he is. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.439 And whenever I'm reading through the Bible, and this is as true now as it was when I became 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:07.639 a Christian, when my idea of God conflicts with the God I find in scripture, it's the 00:02:07.639 --> 00:02:10.439 God of scripture who is true, not my idea of God. 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:14.519 And that's, if you've been a Christian a long time, you know that experience of going back 00:02:14.519 --> 00:02:20.039 again and again to scripture and letting the scriptures tell you who God is. 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:23.239 Even when it seems difficult to accept it first. 00:02:23.239 --> 00:02:30.639 And I bring that story up because I think in the context of our passage this evening, 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:37.319 God's people in the context of Isaiah 45 are wrestling with this question of who is God 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:39.560 and how does he work in this world? 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:44.399 Because they have an idea of who God is and how he has acted in the past. 00:02:44.399 --> 00:02:50.000 And yet their present circumstances, in their present circumstances, they cannot understand 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.000 what God could possibly be doing because things are not going well. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.599 And this is not just an academic question for these people. 00:02:57.599 --> 00:02:59.759 God's people are looking for a reason to hope. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:04.199 They're looking for a reason to hope and they can't find it anywhere. 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:08.280 And this is really important for understanding why this passage is significant. 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:11.719 So I'm just going to give you just a few sentences of historical context. 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:16.479 In the context of this passage, Israel as a nation has been destroyed hundreds of years 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:23.359 before, Judah as a nation has been brought to its knees just a few years before, and 00:03:23.359 --> 00:03:29.039 Jerusalem, you know, the place where God dwells in his temple has been destroyed. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:30.879 The temple of God has been destroyed. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:33.560 The walls of the city has been destroyed. 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:37.319 And if none of that makes sense to you, I could summarize it like this. 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:42.959 The people of God are finding themselves in the worst situation they could find themselves. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:48.159 And to add insult to injury, anybody who is anybody in the people of God at this point 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:53.600 in time had been dispersed over all these foreign empires who were ruling over God's 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:57.680 people just like they were ruling over other nations. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:04.719 And the final really important piece to understanding this passage is the ruler of the empire that 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:10.159 controls Israel and controls all of God's people is a man named Cyrus. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.680 And Cyrus is the great leader of the Persian Empire. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:17.800 And you could say he is the bad guy, just like the Babylonians were the bad guys before 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:23.759 the Persians and the Assyrians were the bad guys before the Babylonians. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:28.159 Cyrus was holding God's people in captivity. 00:04:28.159 --> 00:04:30.040 So things are as bad as they could be. 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:34.759 And then there's this question in all this suffering and pain, where is God? 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:36.159 Where could God possibly be? 00:04:36.159 --> 00:04:38.199 And where can hope be found? 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:42.959 And what you find in Isaiah 45 in this obscure passage that you may have never thought about 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:49.959 before, what you find in Isaiah 45 is God's answer to that question, where can hope be 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:51.800 found? 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:55.800 And it was an answer that I think God's people probably could not have imagined. 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:59.639 And to be honest, it was probably an answer they may have found offensive when they first 00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:01.399 heard it. 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:06.120 They had an idea of who God was and of how God works in this world. 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:10.639 And this passage very well may have conflicted with that idea and given them an identity 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:15.639 crisis about who God was and how he works in this world. 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:17.560 But this is God's answer. 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:22.959 And over the next few minutes, what I hope to show you is how what looks like a confusing 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:28.480 response by God about what he could be doing in the midst of all this suffering is actually 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:30.680 a great message of hope. 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:33.319 And not just hope for the people of Cyrus, but hope for us. 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:38.879 Because what God is doing in this passage is he's telling us about his character. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:43.680 And he gives us tonight three things that we can anchor our hope into that are based 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:47.199 on this passage, but that are always true because our God is eternal. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.519 And those three things are this. 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:54.480 That God is always working, that he is never failing, and that he is ever faithful. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.240 And that's what I want to look at tonight. 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:02.279 So the first thing that God teaches us in this passage is that he is always working. 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:06.399 And that may have been the hardest thing to understand for these people who are living 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:10.039 in oppression, homeless, their temple has been destroyed. 00:06:10.039 --> 00:06:13.319 And they're wondering, in the midst of all this suffering and chaos, how could God be 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:14.679 possibly working? 00:06:14.679 --> 00:06:17.599 How can you say that he's doing something right now? 00:06:17.599 --> 00:06:23.039 And God's answer comes in verse one and he says, thus says the Lord to his anointed, 00:06:23.039 --> 00:06:26.279 to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped. 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:30.599 So God's answer to these people who wonder, is he really working? 00:06:30.599 --> 00:06:32.239 He's saying, yes, I am working. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:36.600 And I have grasped the hand of a man named Cyrus. 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:42.000 And remember when I said just a few moments ago, that this passage could possibly have 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.280 been offensive when the people of God heard it for the first time. 00:06:45.280 --> 00:06:51.360 This is why, because God looks at this pagan ruler and he says, this one is going to be 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:52.800 my anointed one. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.400 This is the one, Cyrus, that I'm going to lift up and use him for my purposes. 00:06:57.400 --> 00:07:01.360 And if that doesn't sound odd to you, it may sound a little more odd if you know what the 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.960 Hebrew word here is. 00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:06.879 And you might not know a lot of Hebrew, but you probably know this Hebrew word. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:15.439 The word for anointed in verse one is the word Messiah. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:22.879 So God is literally saying in verse one, thus says the Lord to his, thus says the Lord to 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:27.520 his Messiah, to Cyrus. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:32.359 Now of course in the Old Testament, the word Messiah didn't mean everything that it came 00:07:32.359 --> 00:07:35.159 to mean when you find Jesus Christ in the New Testament. 00:07:35.159 --> 00:07:39.680 So God isn't saying, you know, Cyrus turns out he was actually the son of God. 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:46.560 What Messiah means in the Old Testament is one who is set apart by God for a purpose. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:51.120 So priests in the Old Testament were sometimes called Messiahs and kings in the Old Testament 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:53.120 were sometimes called Messiahs. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:55.799 And if you remember, there's a funny story, well it's not a funny story, but there is 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:02.360 a story in the book of 1 Samuel, whenever Saul, King Saul is chasing David all around 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:04.360 through the kingdom trying to kill him. 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:09.560 And by some crazy turn of events, David has the chance to turn around and kill Saul. 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:12.560 And David refuses to kill Saul. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:15.439 And the reason that he gives for not killing Saul is this. 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:17.720 He says, I will not strike. 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:21.040 I dare not strike the Lord's anointed. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:24.400 I dare not strike the Lord's Messiah. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.519 So you find the word Messiah over and over again throughout the Old Testament. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.959 And it's men that have been set aside by God for a purpose. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:34.480 But even so, it happens 38 times throughout the Old Testament. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:38.559 Even so, this one instance is unique because this is the only time in all of Scripture's 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:44.159 and all of God's Word where God looks at someone who doesn't know him. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:50.039 Someone who is not a believer, who is not a true Jew, and says, this one will be my chosen 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:51.039 one. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.519 This one will be my Messiah. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.399 And I hope that helps you understand why this must have gone against everything the Jews 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:02.600 would have thought about, what God was willing and able to do for them during this time period. 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:07.279 If you had asked a God fearing Jew during this time period, what do you want God to 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:08.480 do for you right now? 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:12.840 Or what do you expect God to do for your people who are in so much suffering? 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:17.720 And they might say and legitimately say, what we want God to do for us is to do what he 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:18.720 used to do. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:20.480 We want him to raise up a judge. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:25.639 We need a Samsonan or we need a Gideon or even better, what we could really use as someone 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:31.360 like an Ehood who can sneak into Cyrus' chambers and assassinate Cyrus. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.240 And yet here comes God saying, I'm not going to kill Cyrus. 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:39.200 I'm actually going to lift him up and use him as my tool. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:46.759 I'm going to make him my chosen one, my Messiah for this season. 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:51.639 And as hard as that may have been to accept in the moment that God is, he's not raising 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:52.840 up one of his own people. 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:55.139 He's raising up someone that doesn't even know him. 00:09:55.139 --> 00:10:01.840 As confusing as that may have been, the purpose of it was to say, even when you can't understand 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:06.679 how and even when it doesn't look like it, God is working here. 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:11.679 And that's a message that we need just as much as they needed in 539 BC, that even when 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:17.319 our life is in chaos and we can't point to every aspect of our lives and say, well, here's 00:10:17.319 --> 00:10:20.319 what God's doing here and here's what God's doing here. 00:10:20.319 --> 00:10:25.839 We at least have this biblical hope that God says, even when you can't see it, I'm always 00:10:25.839 --> 00:10:32.799 working, that I work all things to the good of those who love me. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:38.799 I have a, Carly and I have some really close friends, a couple whose child was born several 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:45.240 years ago with a fairly serious spinal injury and they didn't know if the child would ever 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:47.799 be able to walk. 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:53.759 And it happened that they found a surgeon, a pediatric spinal surgeon all the way on 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:57.919 the other side of the country who thought that he could operate on the child and that 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:01.359 the child would be able to walk. 00:11:01.359 --> 00:11:05.639 And which was great news, but you can imagine in the weeks and months leading up to that, 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:09.519 that was a terrifying prospect to think that your child is going to be operated on and 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:13.519 there's, you know, the spine is always serious, right? 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:19.639 And so the parents were naturally afraid as any parent would be. 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:24.519 And someone came up to that couple and tried to encourage them. 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:30.879 And what they said was, they said, you know, God would not let you, God would not have 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:36.039 brought you this far for this surgery to be unsuccessful. 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:37.039 This is before the surgery. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:45.320 They said, God would not have brought you this far only to allow this surgery not to be successful. 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:51.279 Now those are kind words and those were words that were well-meaning and they were said 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:56.320 in love, but that's not our hope as Christians. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:01.400 Our hope is not that the surgery will always be successful. 00:12:01.400 --> 00:12:02.960 And that's not the hope of Isaiah 45. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:08.600 The hope of Isaiah 45 is even when the surgery is not successful and even when your life 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:13.800 is in chaos and even when Cyrus is on the throne and you can't see what God could possibly 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:20.040 be doing in all of this, we still have this still small voice of God telling us, I know 00:12:20.040 --> 00:12:24.760 it's hard, but I'm working in this. 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:29.120 Whether it's, think about all the things that these people in Israel had gone through. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.639 They had lost their home. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:32.559 They'd lost their financial stability. 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:33.799 They'd lost their reputation. 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:36.519 They were the laughing stock of the ancient Near East. 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.000 They can't worship God like they used to. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:43.720 Many of them have probably lost their loved ones in very painful ways. 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:48.240 And this message that God is always working isn't God saying, cheer up, it's not as bad 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.120 as you think it is. 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:55.000 It's God saying, take heart because I am still in this and I'm still working. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:58.960 And I think there's a warning and a hope for us in this. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:05.799 And the warning is we've got to be careful not to tell God how to do his job. 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:09.399 It's easy sometimes to think that we need to give God ultimatums and say, God, if you 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.720 really loved me, you would do this. 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:17.200 Or we say, God, if you really exist, I know that you'll do this for me. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:23.040 But if you love me, if you love me, you will put an end to this trial that I'm going through, 00:13:23.040 --> 00:13:24.840 this physical pain that I'm dealing with. 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:29.640 Or if you're real, will you fix this relationship? 00:13:29.640 --> 00:13:31.840 And those are all good things to pray for. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:35.960 The trouble is when we say, God, you must do this for me. 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:39.360 This proves to me that you're real. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:45.520 Because God could easily respond to us and say, if you knew me and if you trusted me, 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:49.679 you would know that no matter what happens to you, I am working. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:56.679 I think of Paul and how Paul opened up in one of his letters and he said, I prayed three 00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:01.679 times for God to remove this thorn in my flesh. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:03.079 And God never did. 00:14:03.079 --> 00:14:05.199 He never removed the thorn. 00:14:05.199 --> 00:14:11.759 But he gave me a message and the message was, my grace is sufficient for you. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:16.840 So God didn't heal Paul, even though Paul prayed for it. 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:23.519 But Paul walked away from that, knowing that even so, God was working in that. 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:27.840 So to trust in this claim that God is always working isn't to say we know how God is always 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:28.840 working. 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:33.159 And sometimes it's hard and trials happen in our lives and we say, I don't know how 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:35.960 good could possibly come from this. 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.879 And for me, this is especially during the pandemic where so many plans have been canceled 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:47.000 and people have struggled with illnesses and people are lonely and are living in isolation. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.559 And we can't sing like we want to for over a year. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:55.480 And part of me, my human earthly eyes, look at all these things that have happened in 00:14:55.480 --> 00:15:01.720 light of the pandemic and say, want to say, nothing good could come from this based on 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:03.919 everything that I have to go on. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:09.840 But what God tells me is that he may be working when I don't see it and he may be doing good. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.720 Many things that I can't see, even in the midst of pain and suffering. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:18.560 And just as a side note, this is probably obvious to a lot of you, but it's not always 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:19.960 obvious to me. 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:21.759 I make mistakes. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:25.759 But sometimes when someone is going through a dark trial, it can be tempting to pull a 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:30.040 truth like this out and just swing it around as if it will be the cure all to pain and 00:15:30.040 --> 00:15:31.040 suffering. 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:32.680 Don't worry, God's working through this. 00:15:32.680 --> 00:15:35.320 So it's just not that bad. 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:39.519 When the truth is that our neighbors often don't need this truth swung around and what 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:46.799 they need is a hug and a meal and a note and for us to just sit with them in silence. 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:50.840 And so when I think about this truth and I think about who needs to hear it the most, 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:54.759 the first person I think of is not my neighbor, it's myself. 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:59.799 And I have to keep asking myself, when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:02.840 do I really believe that God is working? 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:07.399 Before I give this truth to someone else, do I believe it for myself? 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:10.919 So that's the first thing that God teaches us is that God is always working. 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:15.759 And the next thing we see is that God is never failing. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:21.120 And what I mean by that is when God decides to use Cyrus, there is nothing that will get 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:25.120 in his way to accomplish what he wants to accomplish through Cyrus. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:29.240 And you can see God's confidence in the sheer number of times that he uses the word I in 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:30.240 this passage. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:34.919 Thus says the Lord who is anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:36.079 before him. 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:39.480 Verse two, I will go before you in level of the exalted places. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:42.240 I will break in pieces the doors of bronze. 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:46.800 Verse three, I will give you treasures in darkness and the hordes in secret places. 00:16:46.800 --> 00:16:49.440 It's I the Lord who name you. 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.960 Verse four, I call you by name, I name you. 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.200 I am the Lord God and there is no other. 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.960 Over and over again, it's I, I, I, I, I. 00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:03.320 And this is really significant when you think about it because here is Cyrus and this is 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:05.319 a historical fact. 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:10.639 Cyrus is the greatest leader up to that point that the world had ever known. 00:17:10.639 --> 00:17:16.879 If I'm not mistaken, at least in the recent, in the past century, Iran has still put Cyrus 00:17:16.879 --> 00:17:17.879 on their coins. 00:17:17.879 --> 00:17:22.720 He's, this may not mean as much to a British audience, but I've heard him called the George 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:25.119 Washington of Iran. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:30.759 He's kind of this founding father who united all these nations. 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.639 And Cyrus probably thought he was a big deal and he probably thought he was a big deal 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:37.680 for good reason because he had done what no man could do. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.480 But here in this passage, we find a whole other interpretation of history, which is 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:49.360 that behind all of these geopolitical events and behind Cyrus' own gifted abilities as 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:55.620 a warrior and as a leader, there's this fact that Cyrus is only there because God is using 00:17:55.620 --> 00:17:57.320 him as a tool. 00:17:57.320 --> 00:18:03.880 And Cyrus will only be there as long as God needs to use him. 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:10.480 In 1879, there were some archaeologists that were digging in modern day Iran and by chance 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:14.120 they found this object about this big, the size of a rugby ball. 00:18:14.120 --> 00:18:16.240 I think that's how big a rugby ball is. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.600 And it had text written all over it. 00:18:18.600 --> 00:18:22.800 And what it came to be known as is the Cyrus cylinder. 00:18:22.800 --> 00:18:27.760 And it was actually from the time period when Cyrus was reigning and it was a message from 00:18:27.760 --> 00:18:33.760 Cyrus to the rest of his empire telling the world about himself. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:40.359 And I want to read just a little clip of what Cyrus, who's in Isaiah 45, said about 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:42.839 himself on this Cyrus cylinder. 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:46.319 And this is actually at the British Museum if you ever want to go see it. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.480 These are the actual words of Cyrus. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:56.440 I am Cyrus, king of the universe, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king 00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:02.559 of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world, the son of Cambyses, the great 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:05.279 king. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:09.039 The archaeologist that I heard explain that went on to say, now that's some great PR. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:13.720 And it is a good PR, but the crazy thing is it's almost true. 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:18.720 I mean he almost did rule the whole world, the four corners of the world. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.720 But you can see that Cyrus knew his greatness. 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:25.200 He knew that there had been no man like him before. 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:28.599 And he probably had his own intentions, his own intentions and his own ambitions. 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:33.000 And his plans had nothing to do with the God of Israel. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:38.599 Israel and Judah to him were just a flea on the side of his great empire. 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:41.240 He hardly knew who they even were. 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:46.079 And yet here comes this message from God saying, even if you don't know me, you're just a tool 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:52.240 to me and I'm only using you for my purposes and purposes that you can't even imagine. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:53.599 It's in verse five that he says it. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:20:00.279 He says, I am the Lord, I equip you though you do not know me. 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:06.079 And as far as we know, there are passages in scripture where Cyrus seems to acknowledge 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:07.559 the God of Israel. 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:10.919 But as far as we know, he was never actually converted and he never actually thought much 00:20:10.919 --> 00:20:12.679 of the God of Israel. 00:20:12.679 --> 00:20:13.679 But it doesn't matter. 00:20:13.679 --> 00:20:15.799 God is using him for a purpose. 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:18.879 And it reminds me of the story of Joseph. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:23.600 You remember whenever Joseph, he goes on to be the ruler, one of the rulers in Egypt and 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:28.840 his brothers who have done so much evil come before him. 00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:34.120 And Joseph offers them an interpretation of history and interpretation of all the evils 00:20:34.120 --> 00:20:35.640 they've done before. 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:40.760 And Joseph says, you meant evil against me, brothers. 00:20:40.760 --> 00:20:45.440 But God meant it for good to bring it about that many people could be kept alive. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.720 And you know, the same thing could be said of Cyrus. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:52.519 Whatever Cyrus' intentions were, he may have meant evil. 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:54.680 And we know he was proud. 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:59.559 But God says, I will use your evil for good and I will lift you up for purposes that you 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:02.720 can't even imagine. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:06.079 And I don't want to push the meaning of this passage too far. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:11.839 But just one takeaway that I think of here when I think about Cyrus and how God never 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:15.720 failed in his purposes with Cyrus. 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:22.839 And one thought that I have is if God is so willing, if God is so able to do these things 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:28.480 with Cyrus and never fail, if he can take a man and set him on literally on top of the 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:34.360 world to rule a whole empire, all this for a man who doesn't even know him so that God 00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:42.519 can achieve other purposes, can we not at least say that in our battles, in our battles 00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:47.519 with sin and in the struggles that we have in our life, can we not say that God is more 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:51.319 with us than he was with Cyrus? 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:55.400 Which may on the face of it sound like an extraordinary claim because Cyrus one by one 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:59.119 ticked off and beat every empire in the world. 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.240 And it sounds like this extraordinary feat. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:06.680 But can we not say that in our battles with sin, which from our perspective sometimes 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:12.519 seem impossible, that we have a God who has made promises to us and if he made good on 00:22:12.519 --> 00:22:18.400 his promises with Cyrus, will he not make good on his promises with us? 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:23.200 Our story is not Cyrus' story and God does not promise to set us on top of the world 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.799 to be the king of the Persian empire. 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:30.799 Cyrus is different than us, but the God is the same and it's a God who when he sets out 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:32.680 to do something never fails. 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:38.480 So if God has promised us that he will forgive us of our sins and he will make us new, will 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:41.799 he not make good on that promise? 00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:46.720 All right, so God is always working. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:47.799 He's never failing. 00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:49.720 And the last one is this. 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:54.840 He is ever faithful. 00:22:54.840 --> 00:22:59.160 And this is important and this is adding something new because what is at stake here in this 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:05.080 passage is not just this question of is God still working and is God never failing. 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:10.640 The Jews are also asking this question, not just is God here, but is he for me? 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:14.720 Not just is God powerful and strong, but does he still care about me? 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.400 Will he still be faithful to the promises that he has made me? 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:24.120 And it's a question that's not just an intellectual question for these people because they've 00:23:24.120 --> 00:23:28.480 watched their whole nation torn apart and they think of all these promises that God 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.599 has made to them. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:34.079 The promises that he made to Abraham and to Jacob and to Isaac and it all now seems 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:35.079 in tatters. 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:39.680 You know, the very place where they went to worship God is a building that now sits in 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:46.559 ruins and you can understand at least why they would say, is God still faithful to us? 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:54.640 Does he still care about us or has he shifted his allegiance to Cyrus or someone like Cyrus? 00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:01.000 And the answer that God gives to that comes in verse four when suddenly God tells them 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.160 why he is doing all these things that he's done with Cyrus. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:09.280 In verse four he says, why does God lift Cyrus up? 00:24:09.280 --> 00:24:13.880 For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen. 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:16.480 That's why I call you by your name Cyrus. 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:22.040 God says everything that I am doing, all of these geopolitical events that are on such 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:27.839 a massive scale, it's all for this small group of people known as the Israelites, for God's 00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:29.039 chosen ones. 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:32.159 That's why God is doing it. 00:24:32.159 --> 00:24:38.079 And again, this looks like it's written to Cyrus, but we don't know if Cyrus ever actually 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:39.279 solved this prophecy. 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:46.039 This is a prophecy that's meant for God's people to know that even in the great halls 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:52.240 of power God is working on their behalf for them through men like Cyrus. 00:24:52.240 --> 00:25:00.680 And it's this promise that even when it looks like God might not be present and that he 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:06.799 might not be making good on the promises that he's made to us, he is, even if you can't 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.519 see it. 00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:13.559 You may think I'm the only person that's ever preached on Isaiah 45, but John Calvin 00:25:13.559 --> 00:25:14.799 did too. 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:20.480 And John Calvin has this message, he summarizes the message for Christians really well in 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:25.159 this passage, and I want to read just a few lines of it. 00:25:25.159 --> 00:25:26.559 So this is John Calvin speaking. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:32.200 He says, we, we Christians are indeed blind and stupid. 00:25:32.200 --> 00:25:34.440 Now, those are Calvin's words, not mine. 00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:36.440 I would never say something like that. 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:42.200 But Calvin says, we are indeed blind and stupid as to the works of God, yet we ought firmly 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:48.279 to believe that even when everything appears to be driven about at random and be tossed 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:55.160 up and down, God never forgets his church whose salvation, on the contrary, he promotes 00:25:55.160 --> 00:26:05.200 by hidden methods so that in the end we see that he really is her guardian and defender. 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:10.880 The truth is we don't always get what the Israelites got in this passage, and that is 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:16.800 the chance to pull back the curtain and see what exactly God is doing in this moment. 00:26:16.800 --> 00:26:22.080 This is a mercy that the Israelites received, that God for a moment pulled back the curtain 00:26:22.080 --> 00:26:25.440 of history and said, just, just so you know, this is what I'm doing. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:29.920 I'm lifting up men like Cyrus all to, all for you. 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:31.640 I'm doing all this for you. 00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:36.720 And we don't always get to see what God is doing behind the curtains of history in front 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:37.960 of us. 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:42.079 But God gives us these stories that happen over and over again through the Old Testament 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:46.840 and the New Testament that teach us over and over again, if God was faithful then, will 00:26:46.840 --> 00:26:48.759 he not be faithful now? 00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:54.240 These are the kinds of things that he does in history for his people. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:27:03.759 And this would have made more sense after the fact. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.960 It would have made perfect sense after the fact, because if you know anything about Cyrus, 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:14.920 you may know this one thing, that shortly after he came to power, he issued an edict 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:20.120 that all of the Jews in his empire could go home. 00:27:20.120 --> 00:27:24.519 Not only could they go home, he gave them permission and he encouraged them to go home 00:27:24.519 --> 00:27:28.319 and to build their temple and to worship their God. 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:32.759 And there's this beautiful irony because so many Jews must have been wondering, why don't 00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:33.759 we have a king? 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:36.759 Where is the king of Israel that we need right now? 00:27:36.759 --> 00:27:43.879 And yet God, if I can use the word manipulates, he uses Cyrus in such a way that Cyrus actually 00:27:43.879 --> 00:27:48.400 does a lot of the things that you would hope a true king of Israel would do, which is to 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:54.400 tell the people to go back to Jerusalem, to worship their God, to rebuild the temple. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:58.200 And when they look back, they can see, oh, that's what God was doing with Cyrus. 00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:01.879 But it's not always easy to see. 00:28:01.879 --> 00:28:02.879 Whenever... 00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:07.520 So we have a daughter named Charlie, she's five, whenever she was born, shortly after 00:28:07.520 --> 00:28:10.520 she was born, we put her in nursery. 00:28:10.520 --> 00:28:14.280 And because my wife went to work really early in the mornings, I would be the one that would 00:28:14.280 --> 00:28:16.360 drop her off. 00:28:16.360 --> 00:28:22.160 And you can imagine those first few days were pretty miserable because I go in and I set 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.840 her down and she is just screaming and she is wailing. 00:28:26.840 --> 00:28:28.600 And there's nothing that I can do to calm her down. 00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:33.399 And all I can do is just leave while she's still crying. 00:28:33.399 --> 00:28:39.279 And of course, what I wish I could do to her is to tell her, well, let me put it like this. 00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:40.599 She couldn't speak English. 00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:43.879 She didn't know any words because she's only six months. 00:28:43.879 --> 00:28:47.519 But if I had to imagine what she was thinking, it would be something like this. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:53.639 My father, who I love so much, you're leaving me with these people that I don't know. 00:28:53.639 --> 00:28:56.639 And I don't know if you're coming back. 00:28:56.640 --> 00:29:02.680 And there's no way that I can explain to her that just a few more hours and I'll come 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:04.240 back and I'll pick you up. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:09.080 And the way that I have to teach her is in the afternoon, I do come pick her up. 00:29:09.080 --> 00:29:10.360 The next morning I drop her off. 00:29:10.360 --> 00:29:12.240 She cries a little bit less. 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:16.080 And day after day, as we repeat that pattern, she begins to see. 00:29:16.080 --> 00:29:21.960 She begins to realize, if just instinctively, my dad comes back for me. 00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:29.279 And if you're a parent, you know, she has no idea the links to which her parents would go for her. 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:35.079 And I think that's something like God teaches us in passages like this, which is that even 00:29:35.079 --> 00:29:39.319 if we can't see God, He always comes for us. 00:29:39.319 --> 00:29:41.240 And He does more than that. 00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:47.240 Even if we can't see Him, He is always with us by our side so that we can honestly say, 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:52.319 my whole life I've never been alone. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:59.319 I want to close with this thought. 00:29:59.319 --> 00:30:04.079 It's great to look at a passage like Isaiah 45 and see the promises that God made to Cyrus 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:09.240 and say, we can put our hope in a God like that, in a God who raises up a Messiah like 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:10.240 that. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:14.960 And Cyrus was the last Messiah of the Old Testament. 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:18.279 But he wasn't the last Messiah, was he? 00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:22.600 In fact, as you look back on the Old Testament, you see that all of these, if I can call them 00:30:22.600 --> 00:30:29.079 Messiahs with a little M, we're all pointing forward to one who we could call a Messiah 00:30:29.079 --> 00:30:35.519 in every true sense of the word, one who God raises up for a perfect purpose and a Messiah 00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:38.319 who performs perfectly. 00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:44.039 And Cyrus, if you think about what Cyrus did, he merely permitted the people of God to return 00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:48.359 to Jerusalem and to worship whoever their God was. 00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:54.639 But in Jesus Christ, we have a Messiah who doesn't just say, you can go back home. 00:30:54.639 --> 00:30:59.480 We have a Messiah who promises to bring us to His heavenly home, and He's willing to 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:01.359 do it at the cost of His own life. 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:05.200 He does it at the cost of His own life. 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:09.399 And this last Messiah, if you think about it, it's Jesus Christ. 00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:14.240 He rescues us from a fate far worse than the ones that the people of God were dealing with 00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:15.240 back in this time period. 00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:20.960 And I can almost imagine Saul, who knew his Jewish history, wanting to say, if you think 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:25.440 the people during Cyrus' time period were in trouble, let me tell you about where you 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.120 are before you met Christ. 00:31:27.120 --> 00:31:31.000 Because Paul says, you were dead in your sins and your transgressions. 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:35.960 And any person who truly understood our situation would have looked at that and would have said, 00:31:35.960 --> 00:31:37.440 there is no way out of this. 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:40.000 Our situation is impossible. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:42.200 Cyrus can't fix this. 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:46.279 And what God does is, He doesn't just send a Messiah for us. 00:31:46.279 --> 00:31:49.400 He becomes our Messiah. 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:50.400 And He humbles Himself. 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:57.039 And He dives on a cross so that He can rescue us, and He can do what Cyrus could never do, 00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:03.559 which is to bring us to a home that is eternal, where we can see God face to face. 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:05.600 That's good news. 00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:11.000 So we look at this passage, and as foreign as it may be to us, God is teaching us about 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:16.619 His character, that He is always working, that He is never failing, and that He is ever 00:32:16.619 --> 00:32:17.619 faithful. 00:32:17.619 --> 00:32:19.240 And that's our hope tonight. 00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:20.240 Let's pray. 00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:26.000 God, we need You in our lives. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:31.319 And we know that these mortal eyes can't see everything that is true in this world. 00:32:31.319 --> 00:32:34.319 And we know that it is true that You are always with us. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:40.399 And we pray that Your Holy Spirit would teach us to lean on You, and that as we read more 00:32:40.399 --> 00:32:44.559 of Your Word and learn more about You, that we would constantly, that You would be conforming 00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:50.519 our hearts to love You as You really are, and to see how great You are. 00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:56.039 We thank You tonight for Your Word, for Isaiah 45, and for the God who has never left us. 00:32:56.039 --> 00:32:58.039 And we ask all this in Your Son's name. 00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:05.039 Amen.