Day 055 – Isaiah 40 – 07/25/2020 late post dated 08/21/2020
Sorry guys, I feel behind on the commentary what with a very hectic couple of weeks. But, I was thankfully able to keep up daily on schedule with the readings. As I write this, I still plan on completing the Isaiah commentary for chapters 62 – 66 tomorrow – part 2 of 2 from our reading last Saturday.
In my summary tomorrow, I wanted to include all the Isaiah prophecies about the messiah that came true from my “Haley’s Bible Handbook”. But first let me pass on the summary of Isaiah – “The Messianic Prophet” , then I will include some information about Cyrus’ life so you can put the old testament prophecies on Cyrus and his declaration to let the people from the nation of Israel return from exile 70 years after their exile.
First – Isaiah:
“Called the Messianic Prophet because he was so thoroughly imbued with the idea that his nation was to be a Messianic Nation to the world, that is, a nation through whom one day , a great and wonderful blessing would come from God to all nations; and he was continually dreaming of the day when that great and wonderful work would be done.
The New Testament says that Isaiah “saw the glory of Christ, and spoke of him” (John 12:41).
He was a prophet of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, at the time the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was destroed by the Assyrians. Isaiah lived in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His call was in the year of Uzziah’s death, but some of his visions may have been earlier (see on 6:1). He was slain, according to Jewish tradition , by Manasseh. Tentatively we may place his active ministry at about 745 – 695 b.c.
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From the website :
gotquestions.org/Cyrus-Bible html
Question: “Who was Cyrus in the Bible?”
Answer: Cyrus is a king mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible and is identified as Cyrus the Great (also Cyrus II or Cyrus the Elder) who reigned over Persia between 539—530 BC. This pagan king is important in Jewish history because it was under his rule that Jews were first allowed to return to Israel after 70 years of captivity.
In one of the most amazing prophecies of the Bible, Isaiah predicts Cyrus’ decree to free the Jews. One hundred fifty years before Cyrus lived, the prophet calls him by name and gives details of Cyrus’ benevolence to the Jews: “This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him . . . ‘I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me’” (Isaiah 45:1, 4; see also 41:2-25; 42:6). Evincing His sovereignty over all nations, God says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please” (Isaiah 44:28).
Cyrus’s decree releasing the Jewish people, in fulfillment of prophecy, is recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:22–23: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.”’” Other Old Testament books that mention Cyrus include Ezra and Daniel.
King Cyrus actively assisted the Jews in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. Cyrus restored the temple treasures to Jerusalem and allowed building expenses to be paid from the royal treasury (Ezra 1:4–11; 6:4–5). Cyrus’s beneficence helped to restart the temple worship practices that had languished during the 70 years of the Jews’ captivity. Some commentators point to Cyrus’s decree to rebuild Jerusalem as the official beginning of Judaism.
Among the Jews deported from Judah and later placed under the rule of Cyrus include the prophet Daniel. In fact, we are told Daniel served until at least the third year of King Cyrus, approximately 536 BC (Daniel 10:1). That being the case, Daniel likely had some personal involvement in the decree that was made in support of the Jews. The historian Josephus says that Cyrus was informed of the biblical prophecies written about him (Antiquities of the Jews, XI.1.2). The natural person to have shown Cyrus the scrolls was Daniel, a high-ranking official in Persia (Daniel 6:28).”
Besides his dealings with the Jews, Cyrus is known for his advancement of human rights, his brilliant military strategy, and his bridging of Eastern and Western cultures. He was a king of tremendous influence and a person God used to help fulfill an important Old Testament prophecy. God’s use of Cyrus as a “shepherd” for His people illustrates the truth of Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
I am skipping over the multitude of prophecies that do not involve Cyrus. And I will cover his prophecies about the Messiah in my part 2 of 2 of our final reading in my next post. (The most important)
But here are the prophecies about Cyrus just in Isaiah taken from my Haley’s Bible Handbook:
Babylon to be overthrown by Cyrus (46:11) / Cyrus called by name (44:28; 45: 1,4) / Cyrus conquest of the world (41: 2-3) / Cyrus to liberate the captives (45:13) / Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem (44:28; 45:13) . Again, we are talking fulfillment around 150 years after Isaiah’s death.