929
THE KING’S BUSINESS
with many so-called “advanced thinkers” and callow college professors to-day, but it is the true theory, as the facts of history abundantly demonstrate. “All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD, the God of Heaven, given me,” says Cyrus. Cyrus was a wise man to recognize the source of his power: not all kings to-day are equally wise: they may call themselves “kings by Divine right” to impress the people, but oftentimes they do not believe so, nor do they act as if they believed it. Whether or not Daniel had called the attention of Cyrus to the prophecies that so long before had mentioned him by name (Isaiah 44:26- 28; 45:1-6), we cannot tell with certainty; but it is clear that in some way Cyrus had been brought to recognize Jehovah (trans lated “the LORD” in the Authorized ver sion) as “the God of heaven”, and the One to Whom his own conquests were due. Cyrus had been brought to a recognition of the great truth, that all power emanates from God (cf. Jeremiah 27:6, 7; Daniel 2:37, 38; 1:4, 25, 32). It would be well if to-day men of wealth and influence and power recognized this same great truth (Daniel 5:19-21). Events are happening in quick succession in these days that may wake some of them up to the fact. Cyrus not only recognized the source of his power, but also his own corresponding obligation to obey and serve the One Who had placed him in his exalted position. Many there are who, theoretically at least, acknowledge God as the giver of all that they have: but they do not recognize their corresponding obli gation to obey him in practical and espe cially in political life. Jehovah’s charge to Cyrus, which Cyrus here mentions and car ries out, is found in the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 44:26-28; 45:12, 13). There are those to-day, who are quite sure that they monopolize all the scholarship of the day, who would have us believe that this prophecy of Isaiah is of later date; but Cyrus, who lived 2400 years nearer the time, did not think so, and for some 2000 years no one thought so. But the early date of Isaiah’s prophecy plays havoc with their
only serve to illustrate what fools wise men become when they undertake to fight against God and to discredit His word (Rom. 1:22). The only way in which a man can question the fact of fulfilled prophecy is by deliberately shutting his eyes to the facts in the case. This is exactly what the destructive critics, and other infi dels do. What a remarkable way God took to fulfill His own word: He first brings to the front a - man not yet born when the prediction was made, and then puts it into his heart to fulfill His word, “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus”. God has a strange but mightly way of moving on the minds and hearts of men. Even the king's heart is in His hands, and he can move him to do His will, and can prompt him to help His people (Prov. 21:1; Ezra 7:27; 6:22). At the present time, if the people of God would cry to God to do it, and would meet the conditions of prevailing prayer by confessing and putting away their own sins, God could and would move upon the hearts of Kaisers and counsellors and speedily bring this war to a righteous ter mination. God can and often does put it into the heart of a rich man to help a poor man at just the right moment. The writer has had many illustrations of that. God does it to-day as well as in the days of Ezra; and much more frequently in our days than in the days of Ezra. The man who is in league with the LORD can bring all the kings of the earth to his assistance. Let it never be forgotten, that the LORD stirs up the spirit of kings to-day. Though it was “the worcj of the LORD” that was fulfilled at this time, this word of the LORD had been spoken “by the mouth of Jeremiah”. Nevertheless it was not Jere miah’s word, it was the “word of the LORD”. What Jeremiah says in the Bible is not his own word but God’s : and what Isaiah says, and what Paul says, and what John says, in the Bible, is not in any, case their word, but “The word of the LORD by the mouth of” these various human instru ments. This is a very different theory of inspiration from that which is so popular
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker