Month: July 2023

And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. 

Micah 5:5

1. The Subtle Comer 

First, “into our land”; then, “in our palaces”: the Assyrian, the enemy.  He has his eyes ultimately on your palaces when he begins so ‘peacefully’ to enter your land.  The enemy you welcome into your space might sooner be your ruler.  Too late then to cast him out.  He shall have become too strong for you.

Into the land, he ‘comes’; in the palaces, he ‘treads.’  The coming might be peaceful and touristic, but the treading certainly thoughtless and audacious.  Plan. Strategy. Time.

Into your sanctuary he comes as donor, as deacon, or even as a most willing janitor; then he proceeds to tread your prided palaces, your altars, your souls.  Into your home he comes as hardworking helper and friend, then when he has stolen hearts enough, like tricky Absalom (2 Samuel 15:6), in the hallowed throne-room and bedroom he treads (Acts 16:16-19; Judges 16:15-17).

O God, open our eyes. And we hereafter shut the gates against him. Amen.

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9.      NO LYING POLITICAL PROMISES

King Cyrus did not make political promises that were never to be fulfilled. He followed up his Temple-Project promises with practical implementation, much unlike the popular politician today. For example, he restored to the cause of that Temple Project such precious resources as the treasures of gold and silver that his other-godly predecessors had confiscated from that holy place (Ezra 1:7-11). Not only did he fulfil his personal promises of support to the Temple Project at Jerusalem, he personally made a proclamation encouraging other citizens to support that same Project that himself had publicly identified with.  If that is Cyrus, may he rule a thousand tenures. 

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1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 

2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD 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.                                                     

Ezra 1:1-3; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.

1. WHO WAS CYRUS? 

Cyrus, that is one name commonly conjured by apologists as a metaphor for the sanctified outsider that should rule over the skeptical remnants in the land.  Who was Cyrus? You probably were better taught at Sunday school than some of us, so have never been shaken by such good names often shopped to cloth stark villains.  Follow me.

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Moses sought an encounter with God.  In response, God said to him, “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock …” (Exodus 33:21).  That specific place “upon the rock” was going to be the place of the requested encounter.  Why didn’t God do it where they were already having the conversation?   

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Moses asked to see the glory of God.  God told him that his request was beyond mortal capacity, “for there shall no man see me, and live.”  However, God was going to oblige him the rare experience, so He asked Moses to go stand at a particular spot, somewhere “upon a rock …  And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by” (Exodus 33:20-23).  In other words, God was saying to him, “I will take you up and put you in a cleft, a crack in the rock, then cover you with my hand while I pass by, until you can see only my back when I am far gone.”   

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