Yet a premier Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, tells us that Cyrus is God’s “anointed one” and that “the Lord loves Cyrus.” Isaiah also quotes God as saying that Cyrus is “My shepherd.” Not only does God seem to embrace Cyrus, but the language used is shockingly messianic.
Around 500 B.C., Isaiah’s statements about Cyrus would have been shocking for the Hebrew readers.
From a Hebrew perspective, Cyrus would have been “unclean.” Cyrus came from a culture which had perspectives in direct contradiction to Hebrew society: Persia’s society at that time condoned slavery and failed to see value and dignity in every human life.
Yet God chose to use Cyrus to unfold a segment of his world-historical plan.
This paradigm is found elsewhere in the text. The reader finds that “the Lord had given victory to Aram” (II Kings 5), Aram being a pagan nation.
Likewise, God “led King Pul of Assyria” to take several tribes captive (I Chronicles 5). Subsequently, “the Lord used Nebuchadnezzar to take Judah and Jerusalem away into captivity” (I Chronicles 6).
God uses many different people to carry out His plan. God uses all sorts of people. He does not confine Himself to those who know and honor Him. The entire earth is, after all, God’s personal property. The paradigm is that God can, will, and does use anyone He chooses. God is not limited in His choices. Any type of person can be used by God.
Which might lead one to entertain the hypothesis that God uses not only anybody, but everybody. Such a hypothesis will require further investigation.
