7 July | EVERYONE
“I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” Isaiah 45:2,3
The promise found in this text was made by God to Cyrus, entrusting him with the mission of defeating the Babylonian power and freeing His captive people. This promise is valid today for you who need to face the challenges that life presents you. The Lord will go before you. He will straighten the crooked places… and everything else. Cyrus conquered Babylon in a miraculous way, which is described in Daniel 5. The historian Herodotus tells us that, while the Babylonian king Belshazzar and his court enjoyed a scandalous bacchanal, Cyrus invaded the city by diverting the flow of the Euphrates River into a nearby swamp.
The water levels of the river decreased, and Cyrus's troops entered, taking advantage of the low water level. Even so, the Persians would not have been able to enter if it were not for the fact that the bronze walls of the inner city had, inexplicably, been left open. No doubt God opened the gates of Babylon for Cyrus, as He had promised in the days of Isaiah two hundred years before it happened.
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The mission you have before you today has already been basically accomplished. Take hold of God’s promise and you will confirm it. But faith is not waiting for God to do everything. Miracles do not fall from the sky to mystics who spend the day at home on their knees and fasting. Victory belongs to those who, like Cyrus, go out to battle, but they do so in God’s name.