Wikipedia says this about Cyrus the Great:
Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 – December 530 BC), also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was the first Zoroastrian Persian Shāhanshāh (Emperor). He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, which was an empire without precedent — a world-empire of major historical importance.
It was under his own rule that the empire embraced all previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly, and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, from Egypt and the Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, to create the largest empire the world had yet seen.
Yet what the Bible says about this great man is focused not on his vast empire but on his obscure role in restoring the Jews to the land and encouraging them to rebuild the temple. For example, Yahweh through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah said:
"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, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: 'I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. 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.' ... 'I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,' says the LORD of hosts" (Isa 45:1-4, 13 ESV).
John L. McKenzie comments:
That an Israelite prophet should view the conquests of Cyrus purely as directed to the restoration of Israel may seem an intolerably narrow view of history. But it is a fact that the restoration of a Jewish community in Palestine has had a more lasting effect than anything else accomplished by Cyrus, who has been given in history the title of the Great. In the light of subsequent developments, the prophet does not show narrow vision; he shows an astonishing insight into the meaning of history.
[Second Isaiah (The Anchor Bible 20; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 79.]
How often we view world affairs from a fleshly point of view, rather than seeing things as God sees them. The great movers and shakers of the City of Man are nothing in God's eyes. They are but tools in his hand for the accomplishment of his eternal purpose in Christ.
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