“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing…” Ezra 1:1
“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing…” Ezra 1:1
We have just come through a federal election this week – for me personally another very disappointing result. In some ways things have changed – some players have been added and some deleted from the field, but in other ways not very much has changed at all.
It's certainly nothing new for the Christian community. Inexorably Christian faith has been removed from the table of public participation. Some have made every effort to demonize Christians and Christianity while others have chosen the derision and ignoring route. At the heart it is the exaltation of Man and despite the fact that most of the world population adheres to a religion, our new religion in the West is science and technology.
It leaves the populace to try and figure out the questions that science and technology cannot answer. ‘Who am I and why am I here?” “Am I valuable only for what I do or for who I am?” “Where am I going?” “Why be good?” The rot in our society shouts to us the need for ultimate answers.
Cyrus the Great lived around 530 BC. He was head of the Persian empire which, under his leadership became the largest empire in the world of his day. One of the aspects of his autocratic rule was tolerance of religions. After he demolished the Babylonian empire, he was left with huge numbers of Jewish exiles. The Lord spoke to his heart, and he freed the Jews from their captivity and sent them home to Israel to rebuild the temple of Yahweh! Just like that! He had the power to do it. He was no Yahweh fearer, but something happened in his heart – and it came from God.
Sometimes we despair of Western leaders who thumb their noses at all things eternal, but let’s never forget Who rules all things and by whose permission human leaders have their moment in the sun! Paul encourages us to be good citizens – let’s live exemplary lives as Canadians. Let’s also pray that God will speak to hearts that we have no access to. Who knows what He will do!
Pastor Leon Throness
