I that call thee by thy name. "I have titled thee" (Cheyne's translation). Some think the reference is to the name Cyrus, or Koresh, regarded as a new title for one who was originally known as Agradates." Others, with more probability, think the reference is to the honourable epithets, "my shepherd," "my anointed." Our knowledge of Cyrus has been modified, in some very important particulars, by recent discoveries of Babylonian inscriptions. Professor Sayce is of opinion that, "We must give up the belief that Cyrus was a monotheist, bent on destroying the idols of Babylon. On the contrary, from the time when we first hear of him, he is a worshipper of Bel-Merodach, the patron-god of Babylon; and the first care of himself and his son, after his conquest of Babylonia, is to restore the Babylonian gods to the shrines from which they had been impiously removed by Nabonidos." "The theory," he says, "which held that Cyrus had allowed the Jews to return to 'their own land because, like them, he believed in but one supreme god - the Ormazd, or good spirit,, of the Zoroastrian creed - must be abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be his instrument in restoring his chosen people to their land, not because the King of Elam was a monotheist, but because the period of Jewish trial and punishment had come to an end." It has been thought by some that this prophecy of Isaiah concerning Cyrus was brought to that king's notice, and so helped to secure its own fulfilment. It is agreed that this Cyrus was a singularly just and noble monarch. Dr. H. Bushnell says, "So beautiful is the character and history of Cyrus, the person here addressed, that many have doubted whether the sketch given by Xenophon was not intended as an idealizing or merely romantic picture... And what should he be but a model of all princely beauty, of bravery, of justice, of impartial honour to the lowly, of greatness and true magnanimity in every form, when God has girded him, unseen, to be the minister of his own great and sovereign purposes to the nations of his time?" Dean Stanley says, "Though we know but little of the individual character of Cyrus, he first of the ancient conquerors, appears in other than a merely despotic and destructive aspect. It can hardly be without foundation that both in Greek and Hebrew literature he is represented as the type of a just and gentle prince." Three subjects are suggested.
I. THE DISTINCT ENDOWMENTS OF MEN INDICATE DIVINE CALL TO DIVINE WORK, In the Divine sovereignty and wisdom there is a proportionate distribution of gifts among men. In the figure of our Lord's parable, we may say, the master of the house calls together his servants, and delivers to each one some portion of his goods in trust. Very marked are the varieties of endowment and ability in a single family. We are often made to feel that God has given special gifts to some of our children; but we should see that these cases are only prominent illustrations of the truth that he has given some gifts to all. We all have some special work to do for God in the world, and so we all have some special endowments for the doing of it. Every man is called of God, girded by God, surnamed by God, and the moment when he clearly sees what his lifework is, is the moment when he becomes conscious of his call. Bushnell says, "What do the Scriptures show us but that God has a particular care for every man, a personal interest in him, and a sympathy with him and his trials, watching for the uses of his one talent as attentively and kindly, and approving him as heartily in the right employment of it, as if he had given him ten? and what is the giving out of the talents itself but an exhibition of the fact that God has a definite purpose, charge, and work, be it this or that, for every man?" "Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God - a Divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live." The point on which we dwell is that the sense of power, the consciousness of power, is the witness to God's call; and the responsibility of using the power to do God's work comes with the consciousness. To say "I can" is to affirm that there is something God wants me to do.
II. THE PRECISE TIME IN WHICH A MAN HAS TO LIVE INDICATES DIVINE CALL AND WORK. Each one comes into being at the "fulness of time" for him. It is sometimes said that great preachers and thought-leaders of the past would do little if they lived now. The saying is a foolish one. They belonged to their age, and were endowed for their age. The Divine lead was as marked in the time of their appearing as in the gifts with which they were endowed. In each age God wants men
(1) who can represent the age, and find expression for the average thought of the age;
(2) men who are before the age, and can lead the age up towards the thoughts and things that are to be; and
(3) men who are behind the age, and zealously preserve the good things of the past that may seem to be imperilled. A man may say, "God has called me to live just now; then I may be quite sure that there is something which he wants me to do for him, and which he has fitted me to do, just now." Thus viewed, life grows solemn and holy for us all. We have our own work to do.
III. THE PROVIDENTIAL CULTURE OF MEN FITS THEM FOE DOING GOD'S PRECISE WORK FOR THEM. This is often imperfectly apprehended. We are precisely endowed, and set forth in the world at just the right time; but it is important that we further trace how God cultures the gifts by the influences with which he surrounds us, and the providences he arranges for us. Often when men have found out what their life-work is to be, they gain the key to the meaning of the scenes and circumstances through which they have been led. - R.T.
For Jacob My servant's sake.
It appears from this prediction, taken in connection with its wonderful accomplishment, that God justly claims a sovereign right to make great men the instruments of executing His wise and benevolent designs. God claims a supreme right to the services of great men, in almost every page of His Word. How often do we hear Him saying of this, of that, and of the other great character, He is My servant! How often do we meet with this sovereign language, My servant Moses; My servant Job; My servant Jacob; My servant Israel; My servant Isaiah; My servant Nebuchadnezzar! But He more fully displays this prerogative by publishing to the world what great men shall do, before they are brought into being. He claimed the services of Solomon, the wisest of men, and appointed the business of his life, before he was born (
1 Chronicles 22:9, 10). In the prediction concerning Nebuchadnezzar, God claimed a sovereign right to employ him as the minister of His vengeance, in punishing the people of His wrath. He asserted His absolute Divinity and sovereignty, in His prophetic address to Cyrus. And He displayed the same sovereign right to the powers and influence of great men, in His predictions of Alexander the Great, of Augustus Caesar, of John the Baptist, of Constantine the Great, of Mohammed, and of the Man of Sin.
1. He gives men their superior natural capacity for doing good.
2. He presides over their education, and gives them the means of improving their superior talents, and forming themselves for eminent usefulness.
3. God gives them the disposition, which they at any time have, to employ their superior abilities in promoting the happiness of mankind.
4. God gives great men the opportunity of employing all their power and influence in executing His wise and benevolent designs.
5. It is God who succeeds their exertions for the benefit of the world.
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People
Cyrus,
Isaiah,
JacobPlaces
Cush,
Egypt,
JerusalemTopics
Acknowledge, Bestow, Chosen, Elect, Giving, Hast, Honor, Honour, Jacob, Myself, Sake, Servant, Servant's, Summon, Surname, Surnamed, Though, TitleOutline
1. God calls Cyrus for his church's sake5. By his omnipotence he challenges obedience20. He convinces the idols of vanity by his saving powerDictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 45:4 6620 calling
6640 election, privileges
7125 elect, the
Isaiah 45:1-7
5857 fame
Isaiah 45:3-4
5027 knowledge, God's of humanity
Isaiah 45:3-6
8135 knowing God, nature of
Isaiah 45:4-6
5029 knowledge, of God
Library
Hidden and Revealed
'Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.... I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.'--ISAIAH xlv, 15,19. The former of these verses expresses the thoughts of the prophet in contemplating the close of a great work of God's power which issues in the heathen's coming to Israel and acknowledging God. He adores the depth of the divine …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureSovereignty and Salvation
"Ere since by faith I saw the stream His flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die." I shall never forget that day, while memory holds its place; nor can I help repeating this text whenever I remember that hour when first I knew the Lord. How strangely gracious! How wonderfully and marvelously kind, that he who heard these words so little time ago for his own soul's profit, should now address you this morning as his hearers from the same text, in the full and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
The Solar Eclipse
I shall note this morning, in addressing you, that since the Lord creates darkness as well as light; first of all, eclipses of every kind are part of God's way of governing the world; in the second place, we shall notice that since God creates the darkness as well as the light, we may conclude beyond a doubt that he has a design in the eclipse--in the darkness as well as the light; and then, thirdly, we shall notice that as all things that God has created, whether they be light or whether they be …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858
Ecce Homo
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."--Is. xlv. 22. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 Wilt thou, sinner, be converted? Christ the Lord of glory see By His own denied, deserted, Bleeding, bound, and scourged for thee. Look again, O soul, behold Him On the cross uplifted high; See the precious life-blood flowing, See the tears that dim His eye. Love has pierced the heart that brake, Loveless sinner, for thy sake. Hearken till thy heart is broken To His …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)
The Eve of the Restoration
'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, 2. Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of all His people? his God …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Jehovah-Shammah: a Glorious Name for the New Year
THESE words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation, and at the beginning of a year they may fulfill this useful double purpose. In any case they are full of marrow and fatness to those whose spiritual taste is purified. It is esteemed by the prophet to be the highest blessing that could come upon a city that its name should be, "JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, The Lord is there." Even Jerusalem, in its best estate, would have this for its crowning blessing: …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891
The Eternity and Unchangeableness of God.
Exod. iii. 14.--"I AM THAT I AM."--Psal. xc. 2.--"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."--Job xi. 7-9.--"Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." This is the chief point of saving knowledge, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Of Four Things which Bring Great Peace
"My Son, now will I teach thee the way of peace and of true liberty." 2. Do, O my Lord, as Thou sayest, for this is pleasing unto me to hear. 3. "Strive, My Son, to do another's will rather than thine own. Choose always to have less rather than more. Seek always after the lowest place, and to be subject to all. Wish always and pray that the will of God be fulfilled in thee. Behold, such a man as this entereth into the inheritance of peace and quietness." 4. O my Lord, this Thy short discourse …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ
Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting
A Plain Description of the Essence and Attributes of God, Out of the Holy Scripture, So Far as Every Christian must Competently Know, and Necessarily Believe, that Will be Saves.
Although no creature can define what God is, because he is incomprehensible (Psal. cxliii. 3) and dwelling in inaccessible light (1 Tim. vi. 16); yet it has pleased his majesty to reveal himself to us in his word, so far as our weak capacity can best conceive him. Thus: God is that one spiritual and infinitely perfect essence, whose being is of himself eternally (Deut. i. 4; iv. 35; xxxii. 39; vi. 4; Isa. xlv. 5-8; 1 Cor. viii. 4; Eph. iv. 5, 6; 1 Tim. ii. 5; John iv. 24; 2 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Kings …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity
Spiritual Hunger Shall be Satisfied
They shall be filled. Matthew 5:6 I proceed now to the second part of the text. A promise annexed. They shall be filled'. A Christian fighting with sin is not like one that beats the air' (1 Corinthians 9:26), and his hungering after righteousness is not like one that sucks in only air, Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled.' Those that hunger after righteousness shall be filled. God never bids us seek him in vain' (Isaiah 45:19). Here is an honeycomb dropping into the mouths of …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12
Thy Name: My Name
'I have called thee by thy name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 1. 'Every one that is called by My name.'--ISAIAH xliii. 7. Great stress is laid on names in Scripture. These two parallel and antithetic clauses bring out striking complementary relations between God and the collective Israel. But they are as applicable to each individual member of the true Israel of God. I. What does God's calling a man by his name imply? 1. Intimate knowledge. Adam naming the creatures. Christ naming His disciples. 2. Loving friendship. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Extent of Messiah's Spiritual Kingdom
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever! T he Kingdom of our Lord in the heart, and in the world, is frequently compared to a building or house, of which He Himself is both the Foundation and the Architect (Isaiah 28:16 and 54:11, 12) . A building advances by degrees (I Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:20-22) , and while it is in an unfinished state, a stranger cannot, by viewing its present appearance, form an accurate judgment …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2
Its Nature
Justification, strictly speaking, consists in God's imputing to His elect the righteousness of Christ, that alone being the meritorious cause or formal ground on which He pronounces them righteous: the righteousness of Christ is that to which God has respect when He pardons and accepts the sinner. By the nature of justification we have reference to the constituent elements of the same, which are enjoyed by the believer. These are, the non-imputation of guilt or the remission of sins, and second, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Doctrine of Justification
The Theology of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
This Chapter offers no more than a tentative and imperfect outline of the theology of St. Hilary; it is an essay, not a monograph. Little attempt will be made to estimate the value of his opinions from the point of view of modern thought; little will be said about his relation to earlier and contemporary thought, a subject on which he is habitually silent, and nothing about the after fate of his speculations. Yet the task, thus narrowed, is not without its difficulties. Much more attention, it is …
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers
Gifts and Talents.
"And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him."--Judges iii. 10. We now consider the Holy Spirit's work in bestowing gifts, talents, and abilities upon artisans and professional men. Scripture declares that the special animation and qualification of persons for work assigned to them by God proceed from the Holy Spirit. The construction of the tabernacle required capable workmen, skilful carpenters, goldsmiths, and silversmiths, and masters in the arts of weaving and embroidering. Who will furnish Moses …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
Putting God to Work
"For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee who worketh for him that waiteth for him."--Isaiah 64:4. The assertion voiced in the title given this chapter is but another way of declaring that God has of His own motion placed Himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated Himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby He will do things through men as they pray, which He would not otherwise do. Prayer …
Edward M. Bounds—The Weapon of Prayer
Extent of Atonement.
VI. For whose benefit the atonement was intended. 1. God does all things for himself; that is, he consults his own glory and happiness, as the supreme and most influential reason for all his conduct. This is wise and right in him, because his own glory and happiness are infinitely the greatest good in and to the universe. He made the atonement to satisfy himself. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology
Messiah's Innocence vindicated
He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken. L et not plain Christians be stumbled because there are difficulties in the prophetical parts of the Scriptures, and because translators and expositors sometimes explain them with some difference, as to the sense. Whatever directly relates to our faith, practice, and comfort, may be plainly collected from innumerable …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1
Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting
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