What is going on in Isaiah 45? The covenant God of Israel
wants his people to be settled again in their homeland. This is a political
event requiring political power, as George Adam Smith points out. Cyrus is the
greatest political power of the day and so becomes God’s means to accomplish
the divine purpose. G. A. Smith contrasts the biblical picture with Greek writers
who extol the virtues of Cyrus. In the Bible, “Cyrus is neither chosen for his
character nor said to be endowed with one.” He is a tool endowed with strength
and swiftness. “He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out all my purpose.”
(Isaiah 44:28).
“God chose Cyrus, the king of Persia, to overwhelm kings, subdue nations, and free Israel from their Babylonian oppressors. (On October 29, 539 bce, the priests of Marduk opened the gates of Babylon to the conqueror, and the city capitulated without raising a weapon.) Moreover, God’s objectives for selecting Cyrus are threefold: personal—that he will come to know the God of Israel; national—for the sake of Israel; and universal—to be the means whereby the entire world will acknowledge God’s uniqueness (emphasized by the fourfold repetition of the formula: “I am the Lord”—vv. 3, 5, 6, 7, and repeated again in the next pericope, vv. 8, 18, 19, 21, 22).”[1]
And so, strikingly, even a pagan king can be (temporarily) God’s
anointed (“Christ”), designated to do God’s will. “For God is able to weave
that tyrant’s wickedness and follies into the grand unfolding purpose which he
has continually in mind.”[2]
“God may disapprove of idolatry but use an idolater for some good purpose. The
fact that he uses someone in a specific way does not mean that he approves of
that person’s total lifestyle.”[3]
Like any servant of God, Cyrus is taken by his right hand
(cf. 41:13) and called by name (cf. 43:1). Having been grasped by God to subdue
nations, Cyrus will find kings helpless before him, their weapons’ belt
loosened with robes hanging freely where they can entangle legs, and doors wide
open.
“It is tempting to find in these lines very specific references to Cyrus’s conquests as reported by Herodotus and Xenophon. Babylon was supposedly guarded by hundreds of bronze gates that were thrown open to the conqueror as he came. Both authors make much of the endless fortunes that Cyrus captured from Croesus in Lydia and again in Babylon. But while this kind of specificity may be intended, one must also recognize that this is poetic language that could be generally appropriate to almost any conquest of a city in the ancient world (cf. Ps. 107:15-16). The point is, as above, that it is not the conqueror’s might or virtue that gives him the benefits of conquest but the grace of God that is extended to fulfill his saving purposes.”[4]
Cyrus was given the honorific titles “shepherd” and “God’s
anointed” when he knew nothing about the God of Israel and even when he
fulfilled his commission there is no reason to think that Cyrus converted to
exclusive worship of Yahweh. “It is not necessary for the Creator to have the
permission of someone’s faith before that person can be given a front-rank
position in God’s plans.”[5]
“That an Israelite prophet should view the conquests of
Cyrus purely as directed to the restoration of Israel may seem an intolerably
narrow view of history. But it is a fact that the restoration of a Jewish
community in Palestine has had a more lasting effect than anything else
accomplished by Cyrus.”[6]
Is God’s desire that Cyrus (verse 3), Israel (verse 4) and
the whole world (verse 6) might know him mere self-interest? No. “What is
condemning the world to its depressing round of human arrogance, oppression,
and cruelty? It is a failure to submit to, to acknowledge, the truth. So long
as we continue to make God in our own image, so long as we continue to believe that
we can insure our own security and comfort by manipulating the
psycho-socio-physical world without the surrender of our own autonomy, just so
long will we continue in darkness, destruction, and despair.”[7]
יוֹצֵר אוֹר וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶׁךְ
עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא רָע
אֲנִי יְהוָה עֹשֶׂה כָל־אֵלֶּה׃
Shaping the
light and creating the dark,
making
well-being and creating calamity,
I am Yahweh, making all these things.
“What Isaiah asserts is that God, as creator, is ultimately
responsible for everything in nature, from light to dark, and for everything in
history, from good fortune to misfortune. No other beings or forces are
responsible for anything.”[8]
“None of these count: Babylonian gods have no voice in the future of Babylon. Cyrus has no clout in the rise of his empire. Israel has no vote on its destiny. Everything is settled on Yahweh’s terms, for Yahweh is without rival, adviser, competitor, or aide. What is now to happen through Cyrus is sure, because it is the resolve of Yahweh.”[9]
“Without question
such a sweeping assertion raises some serious problems, especially as we try to
puzzle out issues of justice and fairness. At the same time, we must take into
account the point being made and the alternative. The point is that everything
which exists, whether positive or negative from our perspective, does so
because of the creative will of God. The alternative to this view is that
things happen in the world of nature or history that have their origin in some
being or force other than God, things that he is powerless to prevent. If that
alternative is correct, then God is but one of the gods and is as powerless to
save us from ourselves as they are. Furthermore, he is no more the expression
of ultimate reality than they are. Since he is limited, we must look beyond him
for whatever is final in this world. Given that alternative, it is easy to see
why Isaiah makes his point in such an unqualified way. To be sure, one can and
should make qualifications, given the rest of Scripture. But that is the
correct direction to move: from principle to qualification. If we start with
qualification, we will never reach the overarching principle.”[10]
The principle is this: On the most basic level, reality is
unified, not divided.[11]
“It is a harsh aspect of faith to accept that the God of love and justice not
only allows woe but creates it! How much simpler to claim that the source of
darkness is some other sinister, evil power. But those who share the tenacious
faith of the prophet can hold to this severe confession because of their
unswerving conviction that God’s final plan is light and weal. This empowers
them to seek out the human evils that afflict their communities. And it allows
them, in the places where others only see the gloom of war, to recognize rays
of light.”[12]
“But what is the purpose of this absolute assertion of God’s
transcendence and uniqueness? Is it to prove some dry and rationalistic point
about ontology? Far from it, as [verse 8] shows. Once again the author joins
nature and history, but now in a lyrical call to nature to bring forth the
historical deliverance that the Creator has planned…If Israel is in the darkness
and trouble [רָע] of exile, it is solely because of the
Lord. Therefore it is to the Lord alone that Israel should look in order for
the darkness to be turned to light and the trouble to well-being [שָׁלוֹם].”[13]
[1]
Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 251.
[2]
George A. F. Knight, Servant Theology: A Commentary on the Book of Isaiah
40-55 (Edinburgh: Handsel Press and Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 88.
[3]
Barry Webb, The Message of Isaiah (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,
1996), 182.
[4]
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-66 (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998), 201. Cf. John Goldingay, The Message of Isaiah 40-55
(London: T & T Clark International, 2005), 264-65.
[5]
Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 202.
[6]
The words are McKenzie’s, as cited by Goldingay (Message, 266), but the point
was already made by G. A. Smith.
[7]
Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 203, pointing to his earlier comments on Isaiah 8:11-22;
14:4-21; 28:1-6.
[8]
Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 204.
[9]
Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 40-66 (Louisville: WJKP, 1998), 77.
[10]
Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 204.
[11]
Cf. also Paul D. Hanson, Isaiah 40-66 (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995),
103. See Goldingay, Message, 270-72, for a brief summary of the
reception history of this verse. Shalom Paul notes (Isaiah 40-55, 258) that the Rabbis were hesitant to
attribute evil to God and emended this formula in the liturgy to: “He who forms
light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates everything” (b. Ber. 11a).
[12]
Hanson, Isaiah 40-66, 104. Hanson points to Václav Havel and Nelson
Mandela as servants called to specific tasks, having been enabled to see rays
of light in the darkness of oppression.
[13]
Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 205.
