How much credit do we give the Lᴏʀᴅ for doing the unexpected? Today’s passage is one of those unexpected moments when God works through the ungodly to accomplish God’s purposes.
Surprised? The Persians had defeated the Babylonians who had taken the Jews captive seventy years earlier. Only a few old-timers remained alive and had settled into life in this foreign country. A few like Daniel remembered life before the captivity; few knew and hoped in the prophecy of Isaiah reinforced by Jeremiah years earlier that restoration was coming. That prophecy called out Cyrus by name even before he reigned. 2
Not only does God ‘stir up the spirit of Cyrus’ but Cyrus recognizes who it was that stirred him up: “The Lᴏʀᴅ… He has charged me to build the Temple…” Would you expect a non-Jew to acknowledge God moving him to do God’s will for the remnant and to provide for the rebuilding of the Temple?
Not only does God do the stirring up of Cyrus, the Lᴏʀᴅ also moves among the Israelites to return,
Aren’t we thankful God is in the details! After 70 years of captivity, stirring up the believers to relocate back into His Promised Land. Another opportunity to serve the Lᴏʀᴅ, willingly focused upon Him anew.
Today’s challenge is to be stirred up in the Lᴏʀᴅ when He creates the opportunities for us to live out His life in us.