A “through the Bible” devotion from Isaiah 45.
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and to loose the belts of kings (Isaiah 45:1)
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me. (Isaiah 45:4)
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me…
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:5,7)
In these verses, Isaiah writes about a king, Cyrus, who has not even been born yet. Two hundred years from then, the armies of the Medes and Persians, under Cyrus, would defeat Babylon and restore God’s exiled people to their homes. Cyrus doesn’t know God. He knows little if anything about the one true God of Israel. Yet God uses him. God is behind it all. There’s no one else making these things happen.
Could it be that God is behind current events, working out his plans for his people? Absolutely. What if today’s headlines really about what God is doing in the world? Faith opens our eyes to that reality.
God is not limited or deterred by unbelief, rebellion, selfishness, and greed. It’s a good thing that God isn’t dependent on our faithfulness and obedience. He wouldn’t get much done, would he?
I believe we tend to forget about God when we read or hear news. We tend to leave him out of the equation. What if we began with the assumption that God has a hand in whatever was happening? What if we believed he is involved in history, science, economics, government, entertainment, artificial intelligence, and space exploration? What if God’s connected in some way to crime, violence, scams, human trafficking, natural disasters, and pandemics?
Interesting questions, huh? Challenging questions for sure.
Remember, he’s not a God apart from our world. He’s incarnate. He’s a part of our world, fully immersed in every human endeavor.
And there is no other.
Waite for it... 