Ezra 1:1-11 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled… Last week I was in the office of one of our great Glasgow merchants, and, while we were conversing together, he suddenly asked to be excused for a moment, as there was a summons to speak with another Glasgow firm. Without moving from his seat, without being put about in the slightest, or even turning his head, he lifted from before him the telephone connection. A few minutes passed: not a word did I hear of that conversation except "Goodbye." That was all I heard; but I knew that the man to whom I was talking had been put in possession of a fact which I knew nothing about, and yet all the while I had been in his presence. He had heard, through the special connection that he had, the business and the object of the firm with which he was in communication. Ah me! Sometimes at your side a man gets a communication from Almighty God that you know nothing about, and that is the reason of his activity, and that is the programme that he resolves to carry out at all hazards. He has heard from God; he has been in communication with the Almighty. (John Robertson.)Cyrus selected: — It seems strange at first that this man should have been chosen for such commission. God might have employed some one of His own people, Ezekiel, for instance, investing him with supernatural power, as Moses was invested when he delivered the nation from its first captivity in Egypt. But no; He selected rather a pagan king, whose appoint ment had been foretold by Isaiah more than a hundred years before. Often since then God has pursued a like course, employing for His purposes those who were not His professed servants — men of wealth, of learning, of position, of power. He does not count their service as excuse for withholding from Him the trust and obedience which are His due; He does not condone their idolatry; but He permits them to be His helpers, sometimes, it would seem, in order that, brought thus in line with His beneficent designs, they may be persuaded to come heartily into His kingdom. (T. J. Holmes.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, 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, |
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