Isaiah 45:1-4 *
Dear Friends in Christ,
It has become one of those clichés used by Christians and non-Christians alike. An unlikely collage of events takes place with a surprisingly positive result or something seemingly tailor-made for disaster turns out for the good, and you quite likely will hear it. Usually accompanied by a shake of the head, someone will invariably make the remark that “God works in mysterious ways.”
And He often does. I would imagine that many of us can think of examples from our personal lives that fit into this category. Maybe it’s the way marriage partners found each other or the way in which we ended up in a certain line of work or the way in which an unexpected event altered or redirected our life in some manner or another. And in contemplating these things, even if we haven’t verbally expressed the phrase itself, we’ve all thought it: “God works in mysterious ways.”
Against the backdrop of Old Testament history, our text for today gives us both a striking example and a wonderful opportunity to consider this comforting, Biblical truth:
GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS
WAYS
1. But He is always in control
2. And He always has our best
interests in mind
In order to understand the portion of God’s Word we have before us, we need to be aware of the Bible history that surrounds it. We’ll take just a minute or two to do this…
Like last week, our text is taken from the prophet Isaiah. Historically we place him at about the 700-750 year mark before Christ. This is especially significant because in today’s text Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks about a person and an event that he had no personal knowledge of and that he himself would never see.
Although he writes as if it had already taken place, the history Isaiah speaks about here was really roughly two centuries into the future. So the first thing we should note about our text is that it is “prophecy” in the way most people understand the term – predicting the future. With these words God used Isaiah to reveal to His people what was to come… and it was good news.
The people needed to hear this, because there was a lot of
bad news which would precede it. Before
these events would take place, the Old Testament nation of
Finally, God’s patience with them ran out and he allowed the
nation of
However, this Babylonian captivity would not be
permanent. Through the prophet Jeremiah
(who lived after Isaiah), God assured His people that they would return to
their homeland after a period of 70 years.
And the way in which this would come about had to do with – if we can
use modern day terminology – “regime change.”
Our text makes it clear that this change in world history was not an accident. It was not the result of the natural ebb and flow of the rise and fall of nations…
No, this was a part of God’s ultimate plan for His
people. And central to that plan was the
first and most powerful king of
“This is what the
Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I take hold of to subdue
nations before him and to strip kings of their armor; to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut: I will
go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron. I will give
you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may
know that I am the Lord, the God of
Historians tell us that Cyrus was one of those rare figures who comes along only every once in a while. Although reliable information on him is limited, he apparently had a natural gift for leadership, was one of those individuals with the ability to turn enemies into friends, and, depending upon what the situation called for, was capable of either wise administration or dramatic conquest. In the ancient world hall of fame he is often regarded second only to the world-conqueror, Alexander the Great. Historians attribute his success to a convergence of events, the most pronounced being his charismatic personality and living in the right place at the right time.
That’s what historians say. But our text suggests a different explanation. It is this: the God of history raised Cyrus up at a particular place and a particular time in order to serve God’s purpose. Cyrus’ ascent to greatness was not by chance. It was by design.
How do we know this? The Lord calls Cyrus “his anointed” – meaning He had set him apart for a special duty. (By the way, the Hebrew word for this is our English word “messiah,” which makes this Persian king, with all his faults and imperfections, a type of the ultimate Messiah who was set aside for the special duty of saving us from our sins.)
Paraphrasing our text, he Lord says to Cyrus: “I am
the One who takes you by the hand and grants you success. I am the One who allows you to subdue the
nations. I am the One who provides the muscle
for everything you do. And as you
reflect on your greatness, in your heart of hearts you know that I, the God of
And what might those reasons be? Why did God orchestrate history and raise up
Cyrus in the first place? “For the sake of Jacob my servant, of
And yet, God used him. Using the exact same words, the final verses of the Book of Second Chronicles and the opening verses of the Book of Ezra tell us how: “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and put in writing…” And what that proclamation said is that the Jewish people could freely return to their homeland where they were encouraged to rebuild the temple the Babylonians had destroyed.
And some, not all, did.
Under the leadership of men of God such as Ezra and Nehemiah, a remnant
of God’s people rebuilt
But the real reason the people came “home” was not because
of a Persian king’s decree. It was because
God is true to His Word. Many centuries
earlier God had declared to Abraham that through him (meaning the Jewish nation)
all peoples on earth would be blessed.
And 500 some years after Cyrus sent them home, a baby was born in the
small, obscure
But not just any baby. A baby who was both true God and true man. A baby unlike any before or since. He was given the name Jesus, which means “Savior.” He grew up to live the sinless life God asks us to live, but which we sinners can’t. And then He died the death we deserve, so that we sinners won’t. And everything Jesus did as our substitute – His perfection, His holiness – is transferred to the account of those who trust in Him as Savior. The result: We are redeemed, restored, forgiven and heirs of eternal life.
And in the big picture of things this all came about because five centuries before His birth the Lord of History used for His divine purposes and the ultimate well being of His people a heathen king from a distant land. At a pivotal time in salvation history, Cyrus the Persian arrives on the scene…
God does work through mysterious ways, doesn’t He?
And He continues to work in mysterious ways among us. Take the means of grace, for example. Through the water and the Word of baptism God washes away our sins and claims us as His own. That’s a mystery.
Through the bread and wine of Holy Communion Jesus comes to us and gives us His very body and blood for the personal assurance of our forgiveness. That’s a mystery.
Through the proclamation of the Gospel message – the “foolishness” of preaching as Paul refers to it in First Corinthians – souls are saved for eternity. That’s a mystery.
But while these are mysteries, they are also blessed realities. The forgiveness of sins that God grants through the means of grace is real. The love which God showers upon us through the Gospel message is real. The heaven God promises us via the life, death, and resurrection of His Son is real…
And as we contemplate the way in which God has called us to
be His own and how He preserves us as His own, all we can say is that God does work in mysterious ways.
This principle applies to every area of our lives. It is important for us to remember this, because sometimes things don’t always seem to make sense. Sometimes we don’t always understand why the Lord allows or doesn’t allow certain things to come into our lives. The Apostle Paul tells us to walk by faith, not by sight; but at times we reverse the order and find ourselves becoming impatient with God. Sometimes we’d like God to provide us with immediate answers, rather than ponder the mystery of His apparent silence…
At such times it may be good for us to remember the lesson
God teaches us through His use of an unlikely ally, heathen king Cyrus. Later in the Book of Isaiah God summarizes
everything we’ve learned this morning: “‘For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the
Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.’”
And with that understanding we boldly go forward into life, trusting God; trusting that at times He may work in mysterious ways. But knowing that however He works, He’s always in control and He always has our best interests in mind.
And that’s the comforting message of our text for today. As we sang before the sermon:
God moves in a mysterious
way His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the
sea And rides upon the storm.
Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, But trust Him for His grace
Behind the frowning
providence He has a smiling face
Blind unbelief is sure to
err And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.
You fearful saints, fresh courage
take; The
clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and will break In blessing on your head. Amen.