Are we getting worse at dealing with instability in the world? Are we less able to deal with personal setback and struggle? Are you tempted to fear, have anxiety, and be paralysed by events in your life? What do you do when you face uncertainty? Do you trust in a God who is sovereign?
Christians should have the greatest resistance to global crises, generational changes and personal temptations. We are the people that claim to know a God who is both good and sovereign. We claim that we love Him and are confident in who we are, because of how He loves us. We should have a huge reserve of spiritual resources that we can tap on in times of crises.
(A) God ordains surprising events (Isa 45:1-3)
The Lord addresses Cyrus here (Isa 45:1a). God has chosen this person to do what God has designed him to do — “to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before that gates may not be closed”. Job 12:21 also helps us understand what it will look like to disrobe a king.
Cyrus is the shepherd of God (c.f. Isa 44:28) Cyrus returns the people to their homeland, and equips them to rebuild. (c.f. 2 Chron 36:22-23) This is a rarity, and is the reverse of Pharaoh of Egypt. In 2 Chronicles 36:11-21, we read of the events that unravelled and befall Jerusalem, and even the duration — “to fulfil seventy years”.
Isaiah 45 forces us to consider how, if God can use a pagan king to do His will, consider: what is outside of God’s reach? Is cancer outside of God’s reach? Is being laid off outside of God’s reach? Or massive personal failure? God can take these things and use it. God doesn’t play by our rules, and He certainly doesn’t conform to our expectations.
God promises to act. He will “level the exalted places” for Cyrus (Isa 45:2). The readers would naturally feel troubled, because it sounds like Cyrus is the Messiah? But we know this is not.
God does so so that they may know that it is “the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name” (Isa 45:3b). God is saying that He is doing so that Cyrus may know Him, the God of Israel, who is also their covenantal God.
Does this surprise you? What is outside of your realm of expectation of what God can do? In what way have you told God that you can do anything, but not this? We ought to tremble and fear when we come before this God of Cyrus. We ought to say that we don’t know His way and have no ability to repent. This is the most uncomfortable about a living walk with a real God. There is another person on the other line that we are unable to control and domesticate. No matter how good/bad we are, we cannot control Him.
So much of the Christian life is full of disappointment because we think we can strong-arm Him when we obey Him and do good. But God doesn’t play by those rules. That’s why we pray everyday that we will know Him on His terms, that He will reveal Himself to us and that we will know Him.
(B) God ordains for good not ill (Isa 45:4-6)
God is stressing that in His choice of Cyrus, He is thinking about His people (Isa 45:4-5). He is going to give Cyrus success over his enemies and the nations because Cyrus is the one who is going to set His people free.
Read Ezra 1:1-4 and hear the specificity of the language. Notice that Cyrus referred to God as “the LORD, the God of heaven” in Ezra 1:2. He has a self-awareness of who God is and what God has done for him. Because Cyrus realises who God is, he makes a decree accordingly.
God reveals a second consideration He has in what He does for Cyrus. In Isaiah 45:6, we are told that this is so that people everywhere will know that there is none like Him. This is a God that works through history and for our good. It also tells us what He is really, really like.
Isa 43:5-7 on first read, sounds like they’e talking about Israel. But Isaiah 43:7 shows us that God is gathering to Himself a truer Israel — one that’s greater than just ethnic Israel. Note that there are 3 Israels. The first refers to the old Testament covenant people of God, the offspring of Abraham. They began as a family, grew into 12 tribes, and as a nation, peaked under King David.
The second is Jesus Christ. He is the truer Son and becomes the truer Israel as He fulfils the covenant promises of God. He is a new Israel. We participate in the promises of Israel through Him. We who are Christians have, by faith, been joined through Christ. We find ourselves in HIm. Therefore, all that is ours is His, and all that is in Him, also belongs to us.
The third is the modern secular state of Israel, created in 1948, and is not the same as the above 2.
(C) God ordains all things according to providence (Isa 45l7)
Isaiah 45:7 contains a literary device, an inclusio, where the writer seeks to sandwich an important point by placing similar material at the start and end of the section. Thus, we see in this verse how the sovereignty of God is being highlighted. Now, these verses don’t say that God does good and God does evil. But what God is saying here that He is behind the good and the bad (not the moral bad, but the disorder and disaster). All these come from God.
God surprises us and does not play by our rules. He allows chaos, disaster and catastrophe. But He does not stand behind moral evil. This also shows us that God is not less in control in both the blessing and the chaos. These are challenging words to believe in and accept.
Later, in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was asked a difficult question in John 9:1-3. Yet He is clear that suffering in a person’s life is not the result of personal moral failure. It is for the glory of God. This is not the easiest thing to accept, especially when we see the scale of the suffering in our world today. But we must also realise that God is strong and good and morally good. He is not a God that is too weak to control events and neither is He a God who is too cruel and uncaring to allow us to suffer without reason.
To trust in the sovereignty of God is to also trust in His providence. We trust that He is not only sovereign and powerful, but is also good. We may not see it all play out or understand why things happen but we trust that God is working out good.
In the hymn, “Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right”, we read a series of statements about the things we need to know about God as well as our response to Him.
Whate’er my God ordains is right,
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God, though dark my road;
He holds me that I shall not fall;
And so to Him I leave it all,
And so to Him I leave it all.
Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He has sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away;
And patiently I wait His day,
And patiently I wait His day.
Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all, unshrinking.
My God is true, each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart;
And pain and sorrow shall depart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.
Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall;
And so to Him I leave it all,
And so to Him I leave it all.
As we read these verses, let us also consider what events may God be using today as part of His surprising purposes? What does it mean to actively apply the Christian idea of providence: God’s wisdom and goodness together with His sovereignty?