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The Stirrings of God: Part One 1:1-11
Introduction
“the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia . . . everyone whose spirit God had stirred” (1:1, 5).
“I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness; . . , he shall . . . set my exiles free” (Isa. 45:13). These biblical texts tell us that God “stirred up” the most powerful leader in the ancient world at that time to do his will in the affairs of the Persian nation. We are often puzzled as to what motivates and moves the national leaders of our day to lead us as they do, for we are not normally as confident about our leaders as Isaiah and Ezra were about Cyrus II in their day. Let us go to the beginning of our story to the report of Cyrus and the Return (1:1-11). In this chapter two central focal points of interest are striking, both of which connect to our study of Isaiah, especially to chapters 40-55. The two are the historical figure of Cyrus the Great, the pagan King of Persia and his edict, and the second is the behavior of the Jewish exiles. In both situations our text claims that the LORD or God had “stirred” them up to action. What does it mean for God to at one and the same time move and guide a pagan ruler and motivate the captive people of God? Is such really only for biblical history, for the story of faith recounted with omniscient hindsight? We look first at “King Cyrus II of Persia” who ruled over a vast empire in the Near East from 550 to 530 B.C.” We read in Ezra 1:1 that
I. “The LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus” 1:1-4
In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written edict declared: “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them! —are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.” In the Old Testament Cyrus appears by name twenty-three times, fifteen of those are in the book of Ezra, three times in 2 Chronicles, three times in Daniel, and most significantly twice in Isaiah. We sketch the historical background of Cyrus. Cyrus was a Persian; Persians were Indo-European Iranians who were closely related to the Medes. Both peoples had migrated from the steppes of Russian into the western Iranian plateau. Cyrus was born around 590, the son of Cambyses I, a Persian, who had married Mandane, the daughter of the Median King, Astyges. An Oracle from Delphi called Cyrus a “mule” because of his mixed parentage: ”that mule was in truth Cyrus, who was the son of two persons not of the same nation, of whom the mother was the nobler and the father of lesser estate.” The authenticity of this oracle has been doubted along with many other Delphic responses found in the fifth century Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus is called “the father of history” and the most important narrative source for Cyrus and the Persians. Cyrus II began his reign over the Persians in 559, but it was not until 550 that he decisively defeated the Medes when he led a rebellion against his Median grandfather Astyges. Cyrus grandfather was captured, his life was spared, and he lived out his life in Cyrus’ house. Thus Cyrus became the greatest of the Archaemenid line of Persians kings and the founder of the Persian Empire. Important for our narrative is Cyrus’ conquest of Bablylon—modern Bagdad!. Morale in Babylon had been depressed by the studied neglect of the god Marduk by the king of Babylon, Nabonidus, who had moved to Arabia for ten years leaving Babylon in the hands of his son Belshazzar (Daniel 5). Nabonidus returned to Babylon in 543 in anticipation of the growing Persian threat, but it was too late to win back the favor of the people and the priests. The Nabonidus Chronicle confirms that Ccyrus’ general Ugbaru (Gubaru) and his troops entered Babylon “without a battle” on October 12, but Cyrus himself did not enter the city until October 29, 539. The inhabitants of Babylon greeted Cyrus not as a conqueror but as a liberator, and spread green branches before him. Cyrus’ twenty nine year rule came to an end when he was nearly 70 in a campaign in the northeastern part of his realm where Cyrus was killed in battle toward the end of July 530. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses, who was characterized as a willful tyrant in contrast to Cyrus who had the reputation of a father. Now for the biblical picture of Cyrus of whom the book of Ezra reports: “the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written edict” that declared in sum that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could return to their homeland and to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and their temple. Interestingly the great prophet of the exilic period in Isaiah 40-55, writing for the exiles, had prophesied concerning Cyrus:
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth; who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and fulfills the prediction of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be inhabited,” and of the cities of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt, and I will raise up their ruins”; who says to the deep, “Be dry— I will dry up your rivers”; who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out all my purpose”; and who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” (44:24-28). Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him— and the gates shall not be closed: I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. . . . Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth, and created humankind upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his paths straight; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the LORD of hosts (45:1-4, 11-13). Suggestive too in regard to Isaiah’s prophecies is that the Hebrew word for “stirred” as in Ezra 1:1, 2 Chronicles 36:25, and Isaiah 45:13, occurs also in Isaiah 41:2 (“stirred”) and 41:25 (“aroused”) where the exilic prophet may also have Cyrus in mind. No doubt the writer of Ezra had these passages in the forefront of his mind, as their language and content is so close to that which he is describing as the fulfillment or prophecy. Cyrus’ edict concerning the Jewish exiles also deserves our interest for several reasons. That it was a “written edict” (Ezra 1:1) is in line with the usual practice in the ancient world for oral messages to be backed up by written documents as the Old Testament makes clear. Now to the edict itself:
“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them! —are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:2-4).
That Cyrus used the title “LORD, the God of heaven” was consistent with Achaemenid policy, in contrast to that of the preceding empires, to use the title of the god or gods recognized by the local population. This however does not in any way imply that they themselves were “converted” to these religions from the worship of their own gods. In the Cyrus Cylinder, now in the British Museum, which celebrates Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon, Cyrus invokes the name of their god, Marduk and worshipped him. The title “The God of Heaven” appears here for the first time in the Old Testament as a description for the God of the Bible. The title was quite common among Israel’s neighbors in the pre-exilic period and now evidently became acceptable in Jewish circles as well. The Cyrus Cylinder gives us a clue to his policy in relation to conquered peoples. Not only did he seek to worship the Babylonian god daily—what is one more God to a polytheist?--, but as he says, My numerous troops moved about undisturbed in the midst of Babylon. I did not allow any to terrorize the land of [Sumer] and Akkad. I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well-being. For a nonproselyting power, that is one that does not demand that subject peoples worship the gods of their conquerors, indigenous religion is a vehicle of peace, order, and civil obedience. In his flexibility Cyrus boasts of having restored local gods to their sees. With an about face from the policies of his predecessors, Cyrus permitted his subject peoples to carry on their customs, to worship their gods, and to resettle their homelands. He has been rightly called one of the most enlightened rulers in human history. So where do we place the work of the spirit of the God of Israel in all of this—even as far as the fact that Cyrus sent the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem with the help of the royal Persian treasury? We sum up our treatment of Cyrus with the stated reason why “the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia.” It was “in order that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished.” The Jeremiah passage in mind was probably 51:1-58, a highly poetical prediction of the fall of Babylon which has a number of links with the Isaianic tradition. The writer of Ezra-Nehemiah, however, because of the catchword “stir up” in Isaiah and in Jeremiah 51:1 and 11 as well as Isaiah’s explicit reference to Cyrus, would have expected his readers to interpret the negative prophecy of Jeremiah 51 in the light of the positive statements of Isaiah 41, 44, and 45: The fulfillment then of “the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah” would be that God’s whole purpose in raising up Cyrus to destroy Babylon was to assure that the temple in Jerusalem might be rebuilt and the exiles returned to their homeland. In this way the writer of Ezra-Nehemiah, no less than the prophet of Isaiah 40-55, brings the whole of Cyrus’ rise to the leadership of a great empire into subservience to God’s will for his exiled people. So what are we to do with this biblical portrayal of divine providence and action in relation to the leaders of peoples and nations? Remember this is a stage in the history of the people of God to which the Jewish and Christian communities are much in debt. You and I today are directly affected by these events—going back almost 2,700 years. Can we in any way overlay this picture of Cyrus and the people of God in exile on the events of our times? Where is the God of the Bible today? How is he motivating our world leaders? Or do we live in a time when God has become Isaiah’s “hidden” God? Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior (45:15).
Perhaps it is more than an academic language game when the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale University in recent years was entitled When God is Silent?
We leave for another day . . .
II. God stirred up the spirits of “the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites” 1:5-11 From North, “The Chronicler,” 385-386. The Second Temple (Ezra 1:1—6:22 A. Cyrus and the Return (1:1-11) Zerubbabel and the List (2:1-70) C. Laying the Cornerstone (3:1-13) Interruption: The Samaritans (4:1-24) Prophetic Nudge to Completion (5:1—6:22) Ezra’s Return and the Torah (Ezra 7:1—10:44) Rearmament of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1--7:72) Ezra’s Torah Promulgated (Nehemiah 7:73—9:38) Nehemiah’s Reform (Nehemiah 10:1—13:30) Timeline for the events in Ezra-Nehemiah Reign of Cyrus II of Persia (550-530) Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus II (539) Edict of Cyrus and Return of the Exiles (538) Reign of Cambyses in Persia (530-522) Reign of Darius I in Persia (522-486) Temple Rebuilt (520-515) The same Hebrew verb as in Ezra 1:1, 5. Hebrew is simply “him.” NRSV translators, believing the reference is to Cyrus as he is mentioned in verse 1, inserts the name with a marginal note. See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 for an almost identical account. The book of Daniel tells the story of Daniel in exile in Babylon during the Persian period. Ezra 1:1-8 (5); 3:7; 4:3, 5; 5:13-17 (4); 6:3, 14; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 (3); Daniel 1:21; 6:28; 10:1; Isaiah 44:28; 44:1. Isaiah 41:2-3, 25-26; 45:13, 46:11 may also be references to Cyrus. They entered history as a group of nomadic tribes, an Aryan people from north and west of the Caspian Sea. Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), 79. Unless otherwise documented most of the material about Cyrus and the Persians comes from Yamauchi’s chapter on “Cyrus,” 65-92.
The conquest of Babylon is documented in the Cyrus Cylinder discovered in 1879 in the area of the Marduk Temple. It consists of an inscription on a clay barrel or cylinder, and is now one of the most prized objects in the British Museum (did I see it?). The document has been hailed as the first charter of \o "Human rights" human rights by \o "United Nations" United Nations, and in \o "1971" 1971 was translated into all the official U.N. languages. A replica of the cylinder is also kept at the \o "United Nations" United Nations Headquarters in \o "New York City" New York City. See Yamaumuchi, Persia, 77, 87, Anderson, Understanding, 420, 452f., and 461. \o "The Cyrus Cylinder" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Cyrus_The_Great_Seal.jpg" \* MERGEFORMATINET
Hebrew is simply “him.” NRSV translators, believing the reference is to Cyrus as he is mentioned in verse 1, inserts the name Cyrus with a marginal note. The missing verses are: ”I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the LORD do all these things. Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the LORD have created it. Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, ‘What are you making’? or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to anyone who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’” (45:5-10). Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, 10. 2 Kings 19:9-14; 2 Chronicles 17:9; 30:1. 2 Chronicles ends with a similar report of Cyrus’ edict: “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him! Let him go up” (36:22-23). A not quite so similar report of the edict is in Ezra 6:3-5. Marduk was the chief god of Babylon, their equivalent of Baal meaning lord. Williamson, Ezra-Nehemiah, 10. Yamauchi, Persia, 87. Anderson, Understanding, 453, 421. See also Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10. Williamson, Ezra-Nehemiah, 10. See Isaiah 64:7 Barbara Brown Taylor, When God is Silent (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998). Ms. Taylor lectured at PLNU and spoke in chapel in February 2006.
5.2.11 DATE \@ "M/d/yyyy" 12/3/2007 TIME \@ "h:mm:ss am/pm" 12:49:24 PM
PAGE 20 January 28, 2007 Frank G. Carver