Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him -- and I will loose the loins of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, and the gates shall not be shut
God names a foreign emperor here, generations before his birth, and gives him a title that belonged to Israel's own kings. How can a pagan conqueror be the Lord's anointed, and why does God take hold of his right hand?
The title given to Cyrus is the word used for Israel's kings and for the promised King. One writer shows how unusual this case is:
The term "Messiah" means the anointed one. Scripture uses it for those marked out in that way for the kingly or other office. Isaiah calls Cyrus, king of Persia, the anointed of the Lord (Isa. 45:1). But this case is exceptional. Cyrus was anointed for the special purpose of subduing Babylon, and he is named. Ordinarily the anointed ones were those called to rule in Israel. Above all, promise and prophecy apply the term to Him who would be anointed by the Spirit of God to be the Prince of Peace.
The conqueror marches, but another hand guides him. What this verse describes came true in detail:
Verses 1-3 came true in striking detail, as the book of Daniel records, though Darius the Mede is the conqueror named there. He commanded the Medo-Persian army, but the rising power of Cyrus the Persian lay behind him. As we read these verses, we see Belshazzar, and "his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Dan. 5:6). We see the great gates of Babylon open and broken. Then, because the great city has fallen, "the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places" are in the hands of Cyrus.
The city that had swallowed God's people was itself the target. The blow fell on its religion as much as on its walls:
If the Babylonian captivity of Judah was God's chastening of their idolatry by means of the chief patron of idols on earth, the fall of Babylon was a tremendous blow to its own idolatry, predicted as it was by the Jewish prophet long before either event.
Isaiah wrote this generations before Cyrus lived. Commentators point to an earlier case of the same kind, and to how Cyrus reacted when he read his own name:
Cyrus' name is mentioned long before his time. This is one of hundreds of examples in the Word of God which prove that God declares the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10)… The man of God out of Judah named King Josiah in front of King Jeroboam, around 300 years before Josiah ever lived (1 Kings 13:2)… The Jewish author Flavius Josephus writes that the Persian king Cyrus read Isaiah's words about him with astonishment. He then gave the command for the return of the Jews (Ezra 1:1-4).
Some critics date the chapter later, saying the writer watched these events unfold. One writer answers them directly:
Proof there is none. The reasoning simply assumes that Isaiah could not be the prophet. It rests on the references to Cyrus' Medo-Persian career, the overthrow of Chaldean idolatry, the fall of Babylon, and the return. These, it argues, show a writer who knew of these momentous events as though they were about to happen, the earlier of them already a fact. That is, to any upright mind the critical hypothesis insinuates fraud.
The reason for the call has nothing to do with Persia's greatness:
Long before Cyrus was born, God gave him his title, though Cyrus did not know the Lord. In His providence God used him as His shepherd and His anointed. He was called to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel My elect" (Isa. 45:1-4). Through him God taught Israel how powerless idols are.
The title does not make Cyrus a believer. The distinction matters:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Nebuchadnezzar was the executor of God's work, and in the same way Cyrus is the minister of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land… God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Be that as it may, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him His shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; 45:4), and this only in view of the work God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
Cyrus also pictures a greater deliverer, though only faintly:
It is evident that the measure in which Cyrus prefigures this mighty deliverer is small. Still, I have no doubt that God had all this in view. In His own wonderful way He was pleased to send out such a call by Cyrus king of Persia… We know how truly this will be the case with Christ. He is really the righteous man whom Cyrus set forth in a very small measure.
- Named — God names a man long before his birth, just as He named Josiah 300 years before that king lived.
- Held — God grasps the conqueror's right hand. Kings lose their strength and Babylon's gates stand open, exactly as the verse said.
- Anointed — a foreign king carries the title Israel's kings held. God gave it for one task, not for the man's faith.
- For Israel — God raised Cyrus up for Jacob's sake, to break the idolatry that had trapped His people.
- A shadow — on a small scale, Cyrus points to Christ, the greater Anointed One and mighty deliverer.
I will go before thee, and make the elevated places plain; I will break in pieces the brazen doors, and cut asunder the bars of iron;
God speaks here to Cyrus, a Persian king. Cyrus would not be born for another century and a half. Yet God promises to clear his road to Babylon before he ever sets out. Two questions follow. What happened when those bronze doors fell? And why would the God of Israel pledge Himself to a man who did not know Him?
The promise belongs to a military campaign. One commentator explains what the levelled ground and shattered gates meant:
The LORD foretells the victorious career of Cyrus, the Persian king. God was going to use him to subdue the nations that had persecuted His people. This judgment would especially fall upon Babylon, the first great world empire during the times of the Gentiles, that had held the people of God in captivity. Under the siege of Babylon the bronze gates of the city would be broken in pieces, and the bars of iron cut apart. Kings would go weak with terror, and their hidden riches would be uncovered.
The name itself is part of the point. One writer sees it as proof that God announces the end from the beginning:
Cyrus is named long before his time. This is one of hundreds of examples in the Word of God which prove that God declares the end from the beginning (Is. 46:10)… A man of God from Judah named king Josiah in front of king Jeroboam, about 300 years before Josiah lived (1 Kings 13:2)… The Jewish writer Flavius Josephus says that Cyrus read what Isaiah had said about him with astonishment. He then gave the command for the Jews to return (Ezra 1:1-4).
Some critics say Isaiah could not have written these words. One writer answers that the objection is not scholarship but unbelief:
The critics make silly and arbitrary restrictions. They say Isaiah could not have written certain passages, because the subject was beyond his horizon. They say he could not have named Cyrus, the Persian king, over 150 years before he was born. Such claims spring from the subtle unbelief at the bottom of destructive criticism, which denies the supernatural altogether.
The gates were real, and so was the way they fell. One writer describes how Babylon's defences gave way:
In the case of Babylon, a gate of the city was opened. We know the splendid description of it in Isaiah, with its doors of bronze and bars of iron, which must yield to righteousness from the east. God called Cyrus to His foot, and gave kings as the dust of his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. When the moment came, the difficulty vanished. The Persians entered the imperial city through the dried bed of the Euphrates, which had been turned into another channel. So the doors were opened for the rest, when the drunken guards were killed.
Every verb in the verse is God's: He goes, He levels, He breaks, He cuts. Cyrus is the instrument, and his personal standing before God is not what the passage is settling:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Just as Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, so Cyrus is the servant of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land… God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Even so, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him God's shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4), and this only because of the work God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
The road was cleared for someone else's benefit. One writer names who that was:
Long before he was born, God surnamed Cyrus, though he did not know Jehovah… God called him to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect" (Isa. 45:1-4). By him God taught Israel that idols are powerless.
Some have used the shattered bronze as a picture of the place of the dead. One writer answers that this misses the setting:
It is a mistake to cite the poetic parts of Scripture which treat of the deliverance of God's people on earth. The "doors of bronze" and "the bars of iron" (Isaiah 45:2) certainly refer to Babylon. They do not refer to the presence of the Lord, where the spirits of departed saints are.
Yet the rescue points past itself:
This unmatched return of the Jew from Babylon is clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation. That salvation is not yet Israel's. Then idols and their worshippers will be in the dust, and in Jehovah all Israel will be justified and will glory.
- Named — God calls Cyrus by name a century and a half before his birth. He named Josiah to Jeroboam three centuries early.
- Used — the man God uses does not yet know Him. His standing is not the issue; his commission is.
- Cleared — God goes first, and Babylon's bronze gates give way when the moment comes.
- For Jacob's sake — the whole campaign is run for the sake of God's people and to expose idols as powerless.
- A shadow — the return from Babylon is real history, and still only a picture of the everlasting salvation yet to come.
and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places; that thou mayest know that I, Jehovah, who call thee by name, [am] the God of Israel.
God names a foreign conqueror here and promises him the buried wealth of a city he has not yet attacked. Two questions follow: how could God name a man before he was born, and why hand hidden treasure to someone who had never worshipped Him?
God speaks to a king who would not be born for generations. One commentator notes a hint that the prophecy later reached him:
Here then is a remarkable prophecy. It came true, word for word, within two hundred years of when it was spoken. God called him by his name, and gave him a title, though Cyrus had not known Him. Yet Cyrus made a decree, recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:23 and again in Ezra 1:2. Its words make it likely that Isaiah's prophecy somehow reached him.
Another writer sees nothing strange in this, and points to a second case:
What could be more fitting than to proclaim the name of Cyrus at this point? In the same way, the man of God out of Judah named Josiah at Jeroboam's altar in Bethel (1 Kings 13:2), more than three centuries before the event.
The treasures of darkness were Babylon's wealth, stored out of sight. One writer ties the promise to the night Babylon fell, and to what happened to the temple vessels:
As we read these verses, we see Belshazzar, and "his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Dan. 5:6). We see the great gates of Babylon open and broken. Then Babylon falls, and "the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places" are in the hands of Cyrus. We see here a reference to the vessels of the house of the LORD. Nebuchadnezzar had carried them to Babylon, and Ezra 1:7-11 records their return.
The plunder was also a judgment. Another writer names its target:
The LORD foretells the victorious career of Cyrus, the Persian king. God was going to use him to subdue the nations that had persecuted His people. This judgment would fall above all on Babylon, which had held the people of God in captivity. Babylon was the first great world empire of the times of the Gentiles.
Cyrus is named and handed treasure, none of it for his own faith. One writer sets out what he was and was not:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, and in the same way Cyrus is the servant of His mercy to bring the Jews back to the land. In himself he is ahead of Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezra 1:2 and the verses after it, he says that the LORD God had given him the kingdoms of the earth, and a charge to build the house at Jerusalem. Was this confession of God's sovereignty the fruit of faith leading to salvation? That is another matter. God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Either way, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him God's shepherd and His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4). This was only in view of what God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was in himself, but his work.
The treasure is not a reward. It is a lesson with a stated aim. Commentators differ on whether Cyrus ever learned it. One writer thinks the promise itself hints at the answer:
In Isaiah 45 God says to Cyrus, "I name you, though you do not know Me." Daniel's vision shows him at one point in his career; later than that, he may have come into the light of the knowledge of the Lord. This thought gets some support from what God says to him about his attack on Babylon and its capture.
Cyrus's own decree shows what he did acknowledge:
Cyrus, like the kings of Persia who followed him, hated idols. He acknowledged the God of Israel as "the God of the heavens". In his decree he insists above all that "He is God" (Ezra 1:3).
The release from Babylon was real, but it was not the last word:
Yet this unmatched return of the Jews from Babylon is just as clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation, one that is not yet Israel's. It will come when idols and their worshippers are in the dust, and when in the LORD all Israel will be justified and will glory. Then every knee will bow to Him and every tongue will swear (Isa. 45:23).
- Named — God named Cyrus generations before his birth. The prophecy came true within two hundred years, and the decree in Ezra 1:2 suggests it later reached him.
- Used — The point was never what Cyrus was in himself. It was the work God called him to. God can use a man who does not yet know Him.
- Given — The treasures of darkness were Babylon's hidden wealth. What changed hands included the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had carried off.
- Knowing — The gift had a stated aim: that Cyrus would know the LORD, the God of Israel. He confessed Him as the God of heaven; whether he came to true faith is another matter.
- Beyond — The return from Babylon was only a shadow. An everlasting salvation is still to come, when every knee will bow to Him.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have called thee by thy name; I surnamed thee, though thou didst not know me;
Here God speaks to Cyrus, a Persian king who would not appear for another two hundred years, and tells him why he will rise — for the sake of a people he has never met. So why does God name a man before he exists, and why give an empire to someone who does not know Him?
God does not describe Cyrus after the fact. He speaks to him in advance, by his own name.
It is, however, for the sake of Israel, God's elect, that God calls Cyrus and allows him to subdue the nations. Two hundred years before he comes upon the scene God can say, "I have called you by your name, I have surnamed you," and "I have girded you though you have not known Me."
Where older translations say "I have surnamed you," the ESV reads "I name you." That written prophecy later reached Cyrus himself:
Isaiah 44:28 mentions Cyrus by name. At that time this great Persian king was still far in the future, not yet born. Jehovah knew him and named him through Isaiah. He calls him "my shepherd" and predicts his work. Josephus says that Cyrus found his name in the book of Isaiah, written 220 years before. A strong desire then took hold of him to carry out what was written.
The name is not a compliment to Cyrus. God states the cause: Jacob His servant, Israel His chosen. The conqueror is the means; the nation is the reason.
Long before he was born, God gave Cyrus his added name, though he did not know Jehovah, and in His providence He used him as His shepherd and His anointed. He was called to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen" (Isa. 45:1-4). Through him God taught Israel that idols have no power.
The names God gives him are titles of work, not marks of character.
Cyrus is called by name, he is called God's shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4), and this solely with a view to what God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
God can title a man His servant without that man having any spiritual standing at all.
God may see fit to call a man His servant who may have no spiritual qualification for the place. Take Cyrus, or Balaam, or, in later days, someone like Judas Iscariot. A servant's place is not the best. "Make me as one of your hired servants" was the carefully worded request of a man who did not know the Father's grace. God may show His sovereignty by acting this way.
Cyrus was one of three men God used to keep a single promise:
So to fulfil this promise God used Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, and Cyrus — a man who did not know the Lord — in providence.
God's choice of Israel is the reason the verse gives. So what does that choice guarantee?
Dealing with Israel on national grounds, individuals among them might be lost, but the nation never can. The nation was, and is, an elect nation (Isaiah 45:4). But that did not secure the everlasting safety of every person born into it.
Cyrus made it possible for a small remnant of Israel to return home. That rescue points past itself.
Cyrus is called in this chapter God's anointed. Jehovah called him by name, but it was for the sake of Israel. But it is well to keep in mind that Cyrus, God's instrument, called and prepared to make the restoration of a remnant possible, is also a picture of Christ. Only through Him can God keep His promises to the nation.
- Named — God spoke Cyrus's own name two hundred years before his birth. He says what He will do before He does it.
- Chosen — God gave Cyrus an empire for Jacob's sake. A small, captive people was the reason behind a change of world powers.
- Unknowing — Cyrus served God without knowing Him. A man can carry the title "servant" with no spiritual fitness for it.
- Threefold — God kept one promise through three men: Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, Cyrus in providence. He uses believers and unbelievers alike.
- Beyond — the king who freed a remnant is only a shadow. Christ alone makes God's promises to the nation good.