In Isaiah 10:5-6, we are told that God raised up the Assyrian Empire as the rod of his anger to chasten and correct Israel, God's chosen people. That was never Assyria's intention (Isaiah 10:7); indeed, the Assyrians are only acting within their own evil intentions, boasting in their ignorance against the God who uses them as his ax (Isaiah 10:15).
In a clear example of predictive prophecy, Isaiah looks roughly a century and a half into the future, past the falls of both the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, and names the Persian who will allow the Jewish people to return to their homeland, Cyrus the Great (Isaiah 45:1-4).
Steeped in the ancient thought of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, "Apprehended Ahura Mazda as God, the one eternal uncreated Being, wholly good, wise, and beneficient; but coexisting with him he saw another Being, the Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu (Pahlavi Ahriman), who was wholly evil, ignorant, and malign, likewise uncreated." (Mary Boyce. in David Noel Freedman, ed. (2008) _The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary_. (New Haven: Yale University Press), p. 1170)
Against Cyrus' dualism, the God of the Bible affirms that He and He alone, "Forms the light and creates darkness, brings prosperity and creates disaster" (Isaiah 45:7).
This absolutely sovereign God will raise up rulers to shape the world for the good of his own people, whether or not those rulers are good or evil, and without their knowledge that it is the God of the Bible directing their wills to His.
Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter.
Text-Featuring a sermon is a less expensive way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands on the right bar with optional newsletter inclusion. As low as $30/day.
After serving Grace Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bob was honorably retired on Sunday, September 27, 2015, and given the title "Pastor Emeritus." This was forty years to the day after he became their pastor.
He now works for the Presbytery of the Gulf South as...
sermonaudio.com | iphone | android | mobile | podcast | transcript | kindle | tablets | gospel of john © 2024 SermonAudio.com. All rights reserved. Site Design: Animotion Studios