SHOWERS OF DELIVERANCE
Isaiah 45:1-8 NET.
1 This is what the LORD says to his chosen one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold in order to subdue nations before him, and disarm kings, to open doors before him, so gates remain unclosed: 2 “I will go before you and level mountains. Bronze doors I will shatter and iron bars I will hack through. 3 I will give you hidden treasures, riches stashed away in secret places, so you may recognize that I am the LORD, the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel. 4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize me. 5 I am the LORD, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me. 6 I do this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the LORD, I have no peer. 7 I am the one who forms light and creates darkness; the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. I am the LORD, who accomplishes all these things. 8 O sky, rain down from above! Let the clouds send down showers of deliverance! Let the earth absorb it so salvation may grow, and deliverance may sprout up along with it. I, the LORD, create it.
Imagine you decided to take a trip to Washington, DC. Suppose you went to visit the Library of Congress. Now, suppose you are walking through the stacks of this library, and you discover a book of letters written by George Washington, the first president of the United States. As you are leafing through that book, you come across a letter addressed to you, with your name and address on it. You begin to read. As you read, you discover that the person who wrote this letter knows everything about you. He knows where you are from. He knows what you have done. He even knows what you’re going to do. What would you do if you discovered a letter like that? What kind of choices would you make in your life after finding out that your legacy was already written beforehand?
Today’s passage is a letter like that. George Washington did not write it. It was written by the prophet Isaiah. That letter, written by Isaiah, was addressed to a king who lived 200 years later. It was addressed to King Cyrus of the Medo-Persian Empire. Isaiah never met King Cyrus. He lived 2 centuries before King Cyrus was born. Yet the prophet Isaiah predicted the existence of King Cyrus of Medo-Persia. He predicted what God was going to do for Cyrus and what Cyrus was going to do for the nation of Israel. Isaiah the prophet knew all these things because he was in contact with the living God. God knows everything about everyone everywhere and everywhen. Nothing is impossible with God. The text we read this morning is an example of God’s omnipotence and omniscience. God is all-powerful and all-knowing.
Today, I want us to take a look at this miraculous passage because it shows something God wants us all to know. As we analyze the words of today’s text, we are looking into a miracle of God that was given to us for a very specific purpose. That miracle was experienced by King Cyrus. It was predicted by the prophet Isaiah. And it is extremely relevant to you and me in this place and at this time.
What God did for Cyrus (1-3).
Isaiah sits down to write this letter from God to a future king. He writes that this is what the Lord says to his chosen one, Cyrus. We don’t know how Isaiah learned the name of this future king. We don’t know whether God audibly gave him the name in a dream. But somehow Isaiah learned that there would be a deliverer of Israel, and that this deliverer would not be an Israelite. Isaiah gave the actual name of this deliverer 200 years before the deliverer was born. He said his name would be Cyrus. I can imagine Cyrus leafing through the books of Israelite or Jewish scripture as he’s wandering around his massive library, and he comes across the prophecy of Isaiah. And he sees his name in one of the chapters of Isaiah. Cyrus was a great king. He had conquered many nations. He probably felt that he was more important than any other person he had ever known. But when Cyrus reads this letter to himself, he discovers that his importance is because of the importance of another person. The letter tells Cyrus that he gets to be important and powerful because the God of Israel has chosen him.
And this is not all that God did for Cyrus. The letter says that the God of Israel has taken him by the right hand to subdue nations before him. When Cyrus disarmed kings, it was because of the power and might of almighty God. Now we know from history that Cyrus was a very lucky man. When he sent his soldiers into Babylon to attack that great superpower, the Babylonians had made several mistakes. They had redirected one of their great rivers so that the water no longer covered the area surrounding the city of Babylon. That enabled Cyrus’s soldiers to go where they couldn’t have gone if the water had not been redirected. History also tells us that, for some reason, a major bronze wall of the city of Babylon had been left open during this time.
Now Cyrus is back in his library, and he reads this from Isaiah’s prophecy. “I will go before you and level mountains. I will shatter bronze doors and hack through iron bars. I will give you hidden treasures and riches stashed away in secret places so you may recognize that I am the Lord, the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.”
Now we understand why Cyrus decided to send his armies into Babylon. He had been given specific instructions from God Almighty through the prophet Isaiah. He followed those instructions and was able to conquer the city of Babylon and take over all its treasures.
The Book of Daniel also describes that very night when Cyrus’s armies took over Babylon. That was the night of the handwriting on the wall. That was the night when the king of Babylon was defeated and the city was conquered. That was the night when the superpower of Babylon was thoroughly conquered by the empire of the Medes and Persians. God not only accomplished this but also predicted it 200 years earlier.
Why God did this for Cyrus (4).
Isaiah explains why God did this for Cyrus and how he did it. It had nothing to do with God’s approval of Cyrus or his beliefs or his actions. Verse 4 tells us that God did this for the sake of his servant Jacob and for Israel, his chosen one. God called Cyrus by name and gave him a title of respect, even though Cyrus did not recognize him. What happened when Babylon was conquered was not the result of the power of the Medo-Persian Empire. It was the result of the power, love, and sovereignty of almighty God. And just so you and I can know that, and to know that God is sovereign, God predicted what he would do 2 centuries before it happened.
Why God did this for Israel (5-8).
Isaiah also describes the Lord’s motives for doing this and for doing it in the way he did. He brought about deliverance for Israel through a pagan king because of who God is, not who the pagan king is. Isaiah explains this in verses 4 to 8. Speaking as God’s prophet, Isaiah says, “I am the Lord. I have no peer. There’s no God but me. I arm you, Cyrus, for battle, even though you, Cyrus, do not recognize me.” God says that he did this so people would recognize from east to west that there is no God but him, that he is the Lord, that he has no peer. He goes on to say, “I am the one who forms light and creates darkness, the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. I am the Lord who accomplishes all these things.” The God who created the universe had a plan to rescue Israel from Babylonian captivity. He executed that plan through a non-Israelite king. He gave that king a personal letter through the prophet 200 years before he was born. And God wanted Cyrus to know that he was going to do this for Israel.
Now, verse 8 is very interesting. We are not told whether this is the word of God spoken by the prophet or the word of the prophet himself. It is a poetic way of asking God to do what he intends to do. Isaiah says, “Oh, sky, rain down from above. Let the clouds send down showers of deliverance. Let the earth absorb it so that salvation may grow and deliverance may sprout up along with it.”
The final words are clearly from God when Isaiah says, “I, the Lord, create it.” The God of Israel is the one who will send the showers of deliverance.
Now, sometimes showers of rain can be a nuisance. They can prevent us from doing the things we want to do. But if we have planted seeds in the soil and are looking forward to them germinating and growing into a crop, we welcome the showers. The nation of Israel was looking forward to its rescue from Babylonian captivity. They were looking for God to send showers of deliverance upon them. And Isaiah promised in his prophecy that God would do it. It would take a while before that prediction was fulfilled. The nation of Israel would have to wait and put their hope and trust in their living God to bring about their own deliverance. But the deliverance was certain because God had promised it, and his promises are certain and sure.
Now God has promised us deliverance as well. We weren’t part of the Babylonian captivity. But we have been held captive by sin all our lives because of our ancestors’ rebellion. Then Jesus came along. Like Cyrus, Jesus was an anointed deliverer. Unlike Cyrus, Jesus was God’s own son. He was sent not to rescue the nation of Israel from Babylonian captivity but to rescue the planet from captivity to sin. He is our deliverer.
Isaiah’s words are our comfort for the whole planet when he says, “Oh, sky, rain down from above. Let the cloud send down showers of deliverance. Let the earth absorb it so that salvation may grow and deliverance may sprout up along with it.” The showers of deliverance we experience and will experience are the result of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. They mean that when the gospel goes out, it will be triumphant. People from all nations, religions, and cultures will learn about the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and become part of the bride of Christ. The rains will keep pouring. There will be no end to the flood. God is going to cover this earth once again, as he did in the floods of judgment in Noah’s time. But in these latter days, he’s going to flood the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring about deliverance for all nations. Lord, let it be so. Amen.
jeffersonvann 