How God Acts in History

MEMORY SELECTION: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” —Isaiah 45:22

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 45:1-7, 11-13

WE LEARNED from previous studies that the children of Israel were taken captive by the Babylonian Empire when their last king Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the Lord and failed to keep his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews’ fate was to experience seventy years of desolation as a nation because of their unfaithfulness.

Babylon was the ruling world power at the time it had attained its position of greatness and influence under the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He was a powerful figure and an impressive monarch. His reign over Babylon lasted nearly half the entire period of its existence.

The capital city of the Babylonian Empire was Babylon. The name was given to the city at the time God confounded the language of man when a great tower was being constructed. The name “Babylon” has ever since been the symbol of confusion.

Belshazzar succeeded his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar as ruler of the Babylonian Empire. Babylon was full of idolatry. The people worshiped Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness had done their damage to the moral structure of the empire. The time was ripe for change, and the collapse of the great power of Babylon was imminent.

The people were unaware of the danger that confronted their nation. While they continued to indulge themselves in excesses of every kind, the Persian army under the leadership of Cyrus was making plans for the conquest of Babylon. Cyrus and his troops gained entrance to the city of Babylon by way of the channel of the river Euphrates, from which they had diverted the waters. In a surprise move they were thus able to overpower the Babylonian forces and capture the city.

The selected scriptural reading points to the prophecies that indicate Cyrus’s place in the overall plans of God for the liberation of the children of Israel. “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; 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: 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. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”—Isa. 45:1-4

In the prophecy Cyrus was called God’s “anointed,” thus showing the divine power that was vested in him for the task set before him. The fact that it was under God’s decree is further indicated by reference to God’s holding Cyrus’s right hand.

Speed and surprise were all-important elements in the attack, as evidenced by the fact that the Babylonians left open the several small gates that led from the city down to the river. Had the defending forces closed these small gates and mounted the walls extending alongside the river, they could easily have defeated the attacking Persian army.

By defeating the Babylonians and decreeing the end of the seventy years of Jewish exile, Cyrus fulfilled his commission as God’s anointed shepherd for Israel. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, 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, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.”—II Chron. 36:22,23

Thus did God grant the children of Israel freedom to return to the land of their fathers and rebuild the nation after seventy years of captivity in Babylon.

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