“Thus says the LORD to his anointed… I will go before you…” (Isa 45:1-2) Examine the powerful promise given to Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1-3. What you may not know is that this prophetic word given through Isaiah announced the release of the children of Israel from Babylonian captivity by the intervention of Cyrus who not only had not yet been born, nor named, but the children of Israel had not yet been taken captive. In fact, this prophetic word was released around 712 B.C. and Cyrus didn’t begin his reign until 550 B.C. some 162 years later! (I wonder if Isaiah’s generation thought him to be a false prophet? But I digress.)

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