“I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.”’
~ Isaiah 45:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Would you like to know what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in two years, in five years, in . . . if you knew what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in two years, in five years, in . . . do you think that you would you be doing anything differently than what you are doing now? Do you think that you would be able to change anything if you knew what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in two years, in five years, in . . . God called Isaiah to be His spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who lived in Judah’s land area. Isaiah would be for fifty-nine years God’s spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who lived in Judah’s land area. As a spokesman for God, Isaiah was called a prophet. God used prophets to tell His specially chosen guys and gals what was going to happen sometime in the future. God used Isaiah to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area what their families could expect in 150 or so years. God in Isaiah 45 has Isaiah writing about a guy who He would position as a Persian king. When Isaiah lived on planet Earth, the Assyrian Empire was the dominate power on planet Earth. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been living in Judah’s sister county – Israel, had been removed earlier from Israel’s land area by the Assyrian army. After the guys and gals who were living in Israel’s land area were captured and taken away by the Assyrian army, an upstart empire – called the Babylonian Empire, would overrun Judah’s land area – taking away a good number of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area. Another empire less than 100 years later took over ruling the countries that had been formed on planet Earth. This empire was the Persian Empire. Cyrus was the first leader of this new empire. When Cyrus captured Babylonia and the rest of the settled countries on planet Earth, Isaiah probably had been deceased for well over 100 years. There was absolutely no way for Isaiah to know 150 or so years after he would die what country and the name of the king who would be ruling over every other country on planet Earth. Isaiah wrote in verse 13 what God had him to write “I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.”’ God told Isaiah what was going to happen and who He was going to use to make it happen 150 years or so before it happened.
Do you believe that what God says is going to happen will happen? Before the Assyrian army took away as their detainees God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s land area and before the Babylonian army took away as their detainees some of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area, God had told His specially chosen guys and gals to stop sinning or else. When God’s specially chosen guys and gals did not stop sinning . . . because of what God had told them through Isaiah, God’s specially chosen guys and gals knew that after a certain period of time that He would have their extended families return to the land that He had given them to always to have as their very own land to live in if . . . this is where Cyrus comes unto the scene. Even though Cyrus would not know Israel’s God, God would have Cyrus sense that He wanted His specially chosen guys and gals back in their homeland. God wanted to leave His specially chosen guys and gals with the hope of knowing that their extended families would one day be able to return to their homes in Judah’s land area. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who lived in Judah’s land area must have felt very hopeless as they were being taken away by the Babylonian army that fateful day 586 years before Jesus Christ was born and 95 years after Isaiah died.
From Okinawa, Bolivia to the Rio Grande River is about a ten kilometer stretch of marshy lowland. Okinawa and the Rio Grande River are located about two hours from Santa Cruz on the road to Concepción. A dirt road cuts through this marshy lowland from Okinawa to the Rio Grande River. During Bolivia’s dry season, this dirt road will be in some places covered with a thick blanket of dust. During Bolivia’s rainy season, this same road can be in some places a sloppy, mucky mess. If a lot of rain falls in the Okinawa area during Bolivia’s rainy season, this stretch of road can be totally impossible to drive through. When it rained a lot in the Okinawa area, tractors would be used to pull vehicles through the muddiest, muckiest stretches of the road. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez at the resident leadership training center, your grandmaa and grandpaa would often have to travel through this ten kilometer or so stretch of road through this area known as Okinawa. Right before your grandmaa and grandpaa made one of their trips back to Concepción from Santa Cruz, a lot of rain fell for a number of days in the area around Okinawa. When your grandmaa and grandpaa got to Okinawa on this trip, they had to have a tractor try to pull them through a really viscous muddy stretch. The tractor as it was pulling your grandpaa’s C-10 Chevrolet pickup got bogged down in the heavy, deep muck with your grandmaa and grandpaa inside their pickup. Your grandmaa and grandpaa could only sit and wait in their C-10 Chevrolet pickup until a second tractor hooked up to the first tractor and . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa during this time felt totally helpless as they were trapped in their C-10 Chevrolet pickup by the thick gooey mud that was all around them. All that they could do was wait in their pickup for the second tractor to arrive. When God traps a guy, gal or kid in whatever life muck that He chooses, God is teaching the guy, gal or kid to not to contend with Him as He knows what lies ahead of him or her.
Isaiah 45 (243)