God’s Messiah in Isaiah
August 29, 2021
As strange as it may be, the only messiah (“anointed one”) in Isaiah is Cyrus. Throughout Isaiah 40-55, there is talk about this “servant” of God, perhaps it’s the prophet, perhaps it’s Judah, perhaps it’s someone else or a combination of people, but the servant is never the messiah, and the messiah is always Cyrus.
True, in Isaiah 40-55 “the messiah” does not have the connotation or expectation associated with it that it will in the first century, but it’s still telling that God’s chosen one who will fulfill his will is this pagan king. On the surface it looks like political pragmatism. God is determined to return his people to the land so he picks the most natural candidate, this ruler of the Persian empire. Sure, he’s not very moral or godly, but he has the power and ability to do what God wants done, so God will deign to work with him. In recent years many Christians have appealed to that logic in American politics, based on Isa. 45.
This charge of political expediency against God doesn’t quite fit. In the first place, Isaiah makes it clear that God doesn’t choose Cyrus because of the power Cyrus already has—God made Cyrus who he is; God called, formed, and armed Cyrus, so that Cyrus would do what God wanted him to, even though Cyrus doesn’t know God (Isa. 41.2-4, 25-27; 43.14-15; 44.28; 45.1-7, 13). God doesn’t hitch himself onto Cyrus’s wagon—God builds Cyrus’s wagon, powers it, and guides it so that all may know it’s not about Cyrus and what Cyrus can do, but it’s about God and what God is doing. God didn’t pick Cyrus because he needed Cyrus. God made Cyrus into what God wanted.
In the second place, by the time we get to Isaiah 49, what used to sound like Cyrus begins to sound like someone else. The prophet calls to the “far off lands” (the very ones who were trembling at the approach of Cyrus earlier) and says “The LORD called me before I was born,” which could very easily be a testament to God’s plans for Cyrus. But then God calls him his servant, Israel, and he says that God intended him to bring Jacob back to him, but that the work is too small, so he will also give him as a light to the nations (49.3-6). And the rest of this section talks about the servant as one derided and downtrodden, one abhorred by the people and scorned (who can forget Isa. 52.13-53.12?).
Surely God anointed Cyrus to return the people of Judah to the land God gave them, rebuilding Jerusalem in the process. But Isaiah leaves us with the distinct impression that God’s work goes above and beyond that return from exile. God has bigger plans, plans which cannot and are not accomplished by someone like Cyrus. Cyrus, after all, ends up sounding more like a mindless instrument (as Assyria was in 10.5-19), one who unknowingly and somewhat accidentally does the will of God (45.4-5). God doesn’t expect his people to give their allegiance to Cyrus because of what Cyrus can do for them. He expects them to see Cyrus as a temporary instrument of God, and to ultimately recognize that there is one God, and besides him there is no other (45.6).
—John Coffey
