Cyrus: King of Media and Persia.

by Alejandro Roque Glez

“That said of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Thus said Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will lose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut… I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me.”

(Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-4)

At this point should be no shadow of doubt that the Holy Spirit was manifested and spoke through the prophet Isaiah.

Here Isaiah, in 720 B.C and one hundred and eighty years (180) before the emergence of the Medo-Persian Empire with Cyrus––its king––as head, already calls him by his name in detail. Babylon (625 BC), which would precede the Medes and Persians, had not even arisen yet; and God through the prophet tells us not only the Empire to come one day in the distant future, but also the personal and private name of its king.

This happened years later when in 538 BC, Cyrus, king of Persia, granted a decree promulgating the permission and freedom to the Jews who had been banished seventy years earlier by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (2 Chron 36:6-23);and thus they could return to their homeland, to rebuild the city and the Temple of God in Jerusalem, around their national life.

It is said that the name of Cyrus means ‘sun,’ among the Elamites, whom he was king before becoming the founder of the Persian Empire. He died in battle around 530 BC, and it is believed that his grave is the same now venerated in Iran, in the area of Pasarga.

The prophet Isaiah boasted against the idolaters and fortune-tellers challenging them to predict the future like him; and not because he was arrogant, but had convincingly shown to all of them the fulfillment of each one of his prophecies––present and near, thereby confirming the future ones––which irrefutably spoke alone on how the Divinity or Deity had been revealed through his words. Isaiah was the prophet, perhaps throughout the whole biblical history, who best mastered the language and writing. In him poetry and prose became a powerful tool, and maybe that helped, sent by Yahweh, in order to reach the courts of kings.

When the prophet mentions the name of Cyrus probably nobody listened. Let us say you today proclaim that about one hundred eighty years from 2012 should be born in Florida a man named Disney World-II, which would be notorious among his fellow men; well, here the story is even completely different. We are talking about a key man in the Plan of God, because thanks to his decree the Jews resumed their construction of the devastated Temple of God in Jerusalem, which some day––centuries later––shall witness the coming of the Son of God Jesus Christ, Redeemer of mankind.

It is interesting to see how God chose this man (45:1) becoming the means of restoration and freedom to the Jewish people, but he himself: Cyrus, would never know this (45:4); simply believed that he did it all with his great power and intelligence, and perhaps this explains why he died seven years later, according to extra-biblical sources.

It has also occurred at different times in human history, when proud and fools who have accumulated power, influences, and wealth, think that by their eloquence and intelligence have climbed to the top of the world, and they have not really been any more than pawns and arrogant little soldiers of suit and/or tie, used by God to achieve his ultimate goal pointing directly toward the future––now very near––eternal redemption of mankind.

Today world leaders are equally dressed up with arrogance. They reject God,and even from written Constitutions as the European Union one is banned such a word. Around that Union––and others as well––are grouped different organizations which claim to be very liberals and humanistics, but only hastily dig (with some members not imagining it) the tomb of their own loafers and bums worldly dreams, while giving their backs to the Creator of the heavens and earth.

(Also read the author's book entitled "The Great Peacemaker from Hell ", which recreates in a narrative form the very close final events).

[This and other Old Testament prophecies are explicatively compiled in the author's book entitled: "Major Prophets of the Old Testament;" in print and digital edition] 

{ Click here if you wish or need to Contact Us }