Isaiah 45:1-13 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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Jehovah's Chosen Instrument

Isaiah 45:1-13

Cyrus is one of the noblest figures in ancient history. His character became a model for the Greek youth in strength, simplicity, humanity, purity, and self-restraint. We have seen that Jehovah had assured His people that Jerusalem would be restored, Isaiah 44:26. They probably expected a repetition of the Red Sea and the Exodus. But God does not repeat Himself; and their deliverance from captivity was to be achieved through the victories that made Cyrus master of Babylon. See Ezra 1:1-4.

God's plans are achieved through individuals, whom He equips and raises up for their specific work. There is much in all our lives that we cannot account for, and which is due to the girding of the Almighty. We do not always recognize the real sources of our lives. They are hidden in God. He girds us though we do not know Him. Let us not gird ourselves in our own strength, but stretch forth our hands unto Him, sure that He will neither fail nor forsake. See John 21:18. They who thus utterly yield to God are bidden in the exercise of a daring faith to command, that is, to claim, His saving power.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 45:1

Isaiah 45:1-13

1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

6 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.

7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

8 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.

9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd 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?

10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will directa all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.