We are reminded of Proverbs 21:1: The king’s heart is like “a stream of water” in YHWH’s hand, and he turns it this way and that. That’s why the early Christians, living under hostile Roman rule, were instructed to pray for those in authority. Now, the prophet is telling the exiles to trust that YHWH knows what he’s doing. We all need that message now and then, not in order to justify or excuse wickedness but in order to inculcate humility.
The conclusion acknowledges that all this is a shock: “Truly, you are a God who hides himself” (45:15, NRSV). God is operating behind the scenes in ways for which nothing in Israel’s earlier history has prepared them. The idea of the world’s greatest monarch using his military power to rescue the Judaeans from exile, and telling them to rebuild the temple, was way beyond any precedent.
In a different register, think how the story of Cyrus finds some shadowy first-century equivalents.
Emperor Augustus in Rome lifts his little finger and there’s a worldwide census … and a young couple make their way to the royal town of Bethlehem.
Thirty or so years later, Tiberius Caesar appoints Pontius Pilate as governor, and Jesus tells him, to our dark astonishment, that God has indeed given him the power of life and death.
I’d like to introduce you to my next book, Into the Heart of Isaiah. In this book I ask: What does Isaiah have to do with Jesus, Paul, the resurrection, and the first century Christians? Quite a lot, it turns out. I encourage you to pre-order here: https://t.co/5yz1s6D7xL https://t.co/jm4Dx5HcTN
— Tom Wright (@profntwright) October 8, 2026
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