“Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret.”

Isaiah 48:12-16

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand up together.” Isaiah 48:12-13

In the verses of this post, the Spirit of the Lord was speaking through Isaiah of how He loves Cyrus. The Israelites were not able to comprehend how God could love a Gentile. Not only was Cyrus a Persian Gentile, but he lived by the sword, was a military conqueror, and somewhat of a warmonger. He did not know God, was completely ignorant of the Ten Commandments, didn’t have a notion of the atonement for sin, and had never even heard of the Holy Scriptures.

The Israelites were astonished that Isaiah was speaking for the Lord and saying that Cyrus would be their earthly savior and bring them freedom from Babylonian captivity.

The Lord replies to the captive Israelites by saying He is able to do whatever He wants with His creation. He is the Creator of all, and it was just a wiggle of His little finger to raise up Cyrus to do His will on this earth. God is from the very beginning before anything was created and He will be around at the end of all things. He laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens. When He calls to His creation, they stand up together ready to do as He intends.

“All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.” Isaiah 48:14-15

Who is the Lord speaking of when He says, “…the Lord loves him…”? He is speaking of Cyrus. He loved Cyrus because he would be the one to free the Israelites from their captivity to the Babylonians. “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” Hebrews 6:10

The Lord declared that He would raise up Cyrus and even called him by name before he was born, “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus…Who call you by your name…” Isaiah 45:1, 3 No one is able to declare such things, and especially none of the Babylonians who worshipped false gods. The Lord called all of the Israelites, who were captives of the Babylonians, to hear His word. The Lord anointed Cyrus to do His pleasure on Babylon, by destroying them, and to raise His arm against the Chaldeans [part of the Babylonian Empire]. “To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—To subdue nations before him…” Isaiah 45:1 The Lord caused Cyrus to prosper, not by the prosperity found in Heaven, but by prospering in the treasures of darkness. To Cyrus the Lord said, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45:3 Those treasures of darkness and hidden riches would have been the earthly plunder of the nations he conquered. The Lord had declared it and affirmed it, “Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.”

Click for post on Isaiah 45:1-7 about Cyrus.
and also
Click for post on Isaiah 41:25-29 for more about Cyrus.

The Lord wants all of us followers of Jesus Christ to assemble to hear what He is saying concerning Cyrus. He wants all the world to hear what He is saying about Cyrus. The Lord is able to raise up powerful leaders and a global culture for the purpose of doing His will, even though they do not know Him from within their heart, mind, and soul, as He said about Cyrus, “I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.” Isaiah 45:4

The Lord is making known to all of us on this planet that He has already declared the things that we are seeing happening in the world today. He has raised up the government of the beast because the population of the world does not retain God in their knowledge, are distant from Jesus Christ, and are not living in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The United Nations was formed in 1945, immediately after World War 2, and brought the government of the beast with it, as declared by the Lord in the post on Daniel 8:1-14 and also in Revelations 17.

The nations of the world have been subdued by the beast that has power over physiology to give them what to say, do, think, and feel. They have been given the treasures of the power of darkness and riches of secret places. Those things being global wealth and Satan’s deep secrets, as described in Revelations 2:18-29. “….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.'” Revelations 2:24-25.

God has raised up the global government of the beast and through them comes the destruction of this present world system. Through them, lawlessness comes upon the earth because the Holy Spirit is removed from them, as described in the post on 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8. They bring the Battle of Armageddon of Revelations 16:12-16 and then come the return of Christ Jesus. Jesus returns in combination with the Seventh Plague of Revelations 17-21 and also the Seventh Trumpet of Revelations 11:15-19. That is known as the Day of the Lord, as described in Zachariah 14 and also in the posts of Zephaniah chapters 1, 2, and 3.

We will be freed from this sin-plagued world and from the grave as we are resurrected to life to live eternally in the New Jerusalem, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice  and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. ” John 5:28-29

“Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.” Isaiah 48:16

The Israelites would have wondered whether the Lord was truly speaking through Isaiah. It was too much for them to envision that God would say he loves a Persian Gentile and a man who lived by the sword. And adding to that, to say that Cyrus would be their deliverer and earthly savior. Isaiah emphasized that he was indeed the voice through which the Spirit of God spoke, as he said, “And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.”

The Lord does not speak in secret but was very open and forthcoming about how he was going to bring about the freedom of the Israelites and to conquer the Babylonian Empire. Cyrus was the man He raised up to do so. The Lord was forthcoming about Cyrus from the beginning, calling him by name before he was even born. Envision how astonished the Israelites were when a man named Cyrus actually did conquer the Babylonian Empire and actually did free the Israelites from their captivity! The Lord called Cyrus by name so that the Israelites would see that He is a living God that controls events in the present time, as He did in the past, and as He will do in the future. God is not restrained by human expectations about how He should do things. The world and all that is in it is His to do as he wants.

In the same way, the Lord is very open and forthright about everything that is happening on this earth today. From the appearing of the global government of the beast, how the population of the world serves the beast that gives them what to say, do, think, and feel, how only the name of a faithful few followers of Christ are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and how the beast sets within the temple of God, our body, as if it is God. The beast does that by its power over physiology to give people what to say, do, think, and feel, and is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Click for a post on that.

Most importantly, the Lord does not speak in secret about our need to reconcile to Him by repentance of our unbelief through Jesus Christ who gave His life on the Cross to atone for sin. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3:16-21

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.
I am coming soon. 
Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.’”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1