GOD's Message to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand To give the task of taming the nations, of terrifying their kings-- He gave him free rein, no restrictions:
I'll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables-- Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, GOD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It's because of my dear servant Jacob, Israel my chosen, That I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work. And you don't even know me!
"Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, GOD, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker-- you're a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: 'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!'
And now I've got Cyrus on the move. I've rolled out the red carpet before him. He will build my city. He will bring home my exiles. I didn't hire him to do this. I told him. I, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies."
GOD says: "The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia, and those statuesque Sabeans Will all come over to you--all yours. Docile in chains, they'll follow you, Hands folded in reverence, praying before you: 'Amazing! God is with you! There is no other God--none.'"
Humiliated, all those others will be ashamed to show their faces in public. Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols won't know what to do with themselves.
GOD, Creator of the heavens-- he is, remember, God. Maker of earth-- he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn't go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This GOD says: "I am GOD, the one and only.
I don't just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, 'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am GOD. I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right.
So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they-- those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick?
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? GOD? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is-- The only God who does things right and knows how to help.
I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me,