Power

 

‭‭Ezra‬ ‭1:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬
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, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

https://bible.com/bible/59/ezr.1.1.ESV

Cyrus was the most powerful man in the world in his day. Yet even he was simply putty in the hands of God as it were. God had said about seventy years previously that the Babylonian exile of the Jews would be about that length of time, and so it was.

The repatriation of the Jewish people to their homeland in Cyrus's day was more remarkable than the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, because it was even more expressly the fulfilment of prophecy. I can't think of any incentive from a worldly perspective for pagan Cyrus to allow the Jews home, but He did. God turned his heart to do so.

This remarkable episode in world history is an encouragement to us even today. God is sovereign, however much the likes of Gog and Magog, Putin and Xi, may rage. Nothing can thwart God's purposes for His people.

Not even the genocidal barbarism of Hamas can harm God's people spiritually. For those who belong to the Jewish Messiah, nothing can separate us from God's love. Even those slaughtered in central Nigeria for their faith in Christ will enjoy a royal reward in glory.

'Almighty Lord, please help us trust Your sovereignty in the midst of the world's madness. We long for Christ's return; help us persevere in the meantime; in His name, amen'

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