John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: April 24

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: April 24

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Jehovah Acknowledged by Cyrus

Isa_45:3

We may have some notion of a man’s character from the effect which certain intimations produce upon his mind. In what manner, then, did the intimations we have cited affect the mind of Cyrus, when he became acquainted with them? We know that he did become acquainted with them: for this appears on the face of his edict for the restoration of the Jews. Josephus relates, what is highly probable in itself, that when Cyrus became master of Babylon, the Jews there showed and explained to him these prophecies relating to himself. We know, indeed, that there was one man in Babylon who had direct access to him, and who stood high in his esteem; and that it is morally certain that this man would not fail to bring such important and convincing predictions under the notice of the king. This was Daniel, of whose connection with the Persians we shall hereafter have occasion to speak more fully. The effect was as here predicted; that Cyrus saw and acknowledged the Hand by which his path had been marked out, and his steps had been guided; and that he hastened to testify his convictions and his obedience by executing with earnestness the remaining task to which he had been called—that of restoring the Jews to their own land. These are the memorable words of the edict which was promulgated in writing through all his empire—“Jehovah, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” There is nothing indefinite or uncertain in this. If he had said simply “the God of heaven,” we might have been doubtful as to his meaning. It might have been understood of the god he had been used to worship. But here he gives him the name by which the Lord was peculiarly known among the Hebrews—the great name of Jehovah; and declares unreservedly his conviction that He was “the God of heaven.” Surely this is a great thing. It shows that Cyrus not only recognized the truth and inspiration of these prophecies, but that they wrought the conviction in his mind that the Jehovah, in whose name they were uttered, was, and could be, no other than the “God of heaven.” What is the precise amount of the conviction thus effected, which is of necessity involved in this acknowledgment, we shall endeavor to show. It might for a moment be conceived, that, after the fashion of the heathen, when their attention was at any time seriously drawn to the claims of Jehovah, Cyrus supposed that he recognized in Him, under another name, the same supreme God to whom he had been used to render worship. But we shall see that this belief is incompatible with his declaration, when interpreted by the circumstances which surround it.

That this “Jehovah, the God of heaven,” and not his own Ormuzd, “had given him all the kingdoms of the earth,” he could only have known from Isaiah’s prophecy, which declared the intention to give them to him, so long before he saw the light. Indeed, if he believed anything at all of the prophecy, he could not but believe this—that he owed all his glory and his greatness to his being the predestinated and prenominated agent of Jehovah; and that it was He, and no other, who had made the nations as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.”

It was also only through Isaiah’s prophecy that he could have realized the conviction that “Jehovah, God of Israel,” had, as he says, “charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” For nowhere else is this command given; and nothing but the convincing evidence of this command being contained in an old prophecy, which, in so many other circumstances, unmistakably indicates him and no other, could have invested this command, to his thoughtful and sagacious mind, with an authority and power not to be gainsaid. The intensity of his conviction is, however, manifested by the alacrity and fulness with which he discharged the high duty imposed upon him. This gives a marked intensity to the “me.” “He hath charged me.” “Me,” and no other; it was not a duty imperative on any king of Persia, but on him personally and individually.

If we want further proof of the degree of conviction respecting “Jehovah, God of heaven,” which the examination of these prophecies wrought upon the mind of Cyrus, we need not go further than the next verse of this famous decree, which renders still more precise his recognition of the God of whom he spoke—“Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, God of Israel (He is the God), which is in Jerusalem,” Ezr_1:3. Here the Jehovah, to whom universal and supreme dominion had been ascribed by the title of “God of heaven,” is more precisely defined as the One who was generally known as the “God of Israel,” whose peculiar people were the Jews, and whose “house” was at Jerusalem. Let this be well understood. Among the ancient nations, every one of which had its peculiar god, many knew that Jehovah was the God of Israel, and were not indisposed to regard Him as such. They would admit that He was as much the God of the Hebrews as the gods they severally worshipped were their own; and they knew and admitted, that He had often done marvellously for the deliverance of his people. There are many indications in the Scriptures of this persuasion regarding Jehovah among the nations who had opportunity of being acquainted with the Jews. What they disputed and resisted was, that He was any more than the God of the Hebrews. His claim to universal and supreme dominion—to be the Creator of heaven and earth—and not merely to be one among many gods, not only to be the chief and highest of the gods, but to be the only and sole God, besides whom there is none else; this they disputed. This they indeed scouted as a most arrogant and unreasonable pretension made by the Jews on the behalf of the God they served. This cannot be too distinctly borne in mind; for it is a fact which gives its coloring to the whole history of the Jews, and influenced all their relations with the ancient heathen.

But this which they so stoutly resisted, Cyrus frankly and fully admits. He multiplies phrases in which to express the intensity of his conviction. It might have been enough that he should so distinctly announce that the God of Israel, known by the ineffable name of Jehovah, was the “God of heaven.” There could be no misunderstanding this. But in the very next sentence, in which he finds it necessary to describe the Lord as “the God of Israel,” he, as if alive to the common notions in this matter, and as if carefully to exclude the remotest chance of being understood by that description to limit His almightiness, throws in the emphatic clause, “He is the God,” which can have no other meaning than “He is the true and only God.” Note: Qua est verus ille ac solus Deus. Vatabalus in Poli Synopsis.

What was the practical value of this conviction, what influence it had upon his heart and life, we have no means of knowing. The probability is, that, after the first burst of feeling, he was content to retain them as private convictions, without attempting to give them public effect, and without caring to take part in the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion. This he might think himself the more free to do, as the religion in which he had been brought up, presented none of the revolting aspects of the common idolatries, and there was no religion of the ancient world which, in its external, and in some of its internal aspects, approached so nearly to, or rather differed so little from, that of the Hebrews. That his belief was not altogether barren, the have seen by the act of obedience which the decree expressed. The full extent of his intentions and his liberality is hardly visible in the decree, as given in the first chapter of Ezra; but by the copy of it found in the record-chamber at Ecbatana, in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, we perceive that it was his wish that the temple to be built at Jerusalem by his permission and assistance, should be twice as large as that of Solomon, Ezr_6:3.

The comparative simplicity of the faith which Cyrus held, and its entire freedom from gross idolatries—which the Persians hated as much as the Jews, and held themselves as strongly bound to destroy and overturn, was possibly, we may reverently venture to conjecture, among the causes which decided his nomination to these high destinies, and may account for his being distinguished by epithets of honorable distinction, never in Scripture given to any idolater.

We may indeed discover, in the prophecies which refer to him, a tender anxiety for him, a desire to correct the errors of his faith, and to advance his spiritual welfare. The passage we are about to quote immediately follows, and is closely connected with, that which we last cited. And as he must have seen the prophecy as a whole, it is difficult not to suppose that his memorable declaration—“He is the God,” included an abandonment of the errors which the prophecy corrected, and an acknowledgment of the truths which they contained—

“I am the Lord, and there is none else;

There is no God beside me:

I girded thee, though thou hast not known me;

That they may know from the rising of the sun,

And from the west, that there is none beside me:

I am the Lord, and there is none else.

I form the light, and create darkness;

I make peace, and create evil.

I the Lord do all these things.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above,

And let the skies pour down righteousness;

Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation,

And let righteousness spring up together;

I the Lord have created it.

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!

Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth!

Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?

Or thy work, He hath no hands?

Woe to him that saith unto his father, what begettest thou?

Or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker,

Ask me of things to come concerning my sons;

And concerning the works of my hands command ye me.

I have made the earth, and created man upon it:

I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens,

And all their hosts have I commanded.

I have raised him up in righteousness,

And I will direct all his ways:

He shall build my city, and release my captives;

But not for price, nor reward,

Saith the Lord of hosts.”—Isa_45:5-13.

The principal tenets of that religion as being here ascribed to Cyrus, assumed that the more ancient religion before Zerdusht—known to the Greeks as Zoroaster—was the same in its principles with that which he established on a more regular basis. It has now been proved, however, by Heeren and others, from the internal evidence of the Zendavesta itself, that Zoroaster lived before the time of Cyrus—probably in the time of the Median empire, if not in that of the Assyrians; and there is strong reason to hope that the progress in deciphering the Assyrian and Persian inscriptions will, ere long, put this matter beyond all doubt.