So why did you become a first responder? Did someone in your family serve and you wanted to be just like them? Did you join because you figured you would have new challenges every day keeping your work interesting and engaging? Or did you join because you wanted to make a difference in a way that you can’t with many other professions? I am interested to find out why you became a first responder and I hope I get the chance to ask over lunch today. But allow me first tell you something about your career choice that you may not know. God made you what you are. Yes, God made you what you are so that you may acknowledge him, and so that you may serve him.
How do I know that God made you what you are? Because that’s what he tells us. Listen again to the first few verses of our sermon text. “This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2 I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness, 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 45:1-3).
The man who wrote these words was a prophet by the name of Isaiah. A prophet is a spokesman for God, like an ambassador. Isaiah lived about 2700 years ago in Jerusalem, Israel and announced that a king named Cyrus would be God’s tool. But Cyrus wasn’t even born yet when this announcement was made. In fact he wouldn’t come to power for another 140 years. What’s more, his country, Persia (present-day Iran), wasn’t even a superpower when Isaiah wrote these words. And yet Isaiah foretold that Cyrus and the Persians would defeat the Babylonians. Isaiah’s words were as astounding as if I were to predict that in 150 years’ time, a ruler from Thailand would invade and conqueror China.
But Isaiah didn’t just say that “some” ruler from Persia would conqueror. He named that ruler: Cyrus. And Isaiah would be right. In 559 BC Cyrus defeated King Belshazzar of Babylon even though the odds were stacked against him. Belshazzar was holed up in the fortress city of Babylon, which is about 100 km south-west of present-day Bagdad, Iraq. Babylon was renowned for its beauty and strength. The walls of this city were reportedly as tall as a 30-story building. And they were so wide that you could have built a seven-lane road on top of the walls. It was no wonder that Belshazzar thought nothing of partying it up even while the enemy Cyrus was camped right outside his gates. But fall Babylon did, just as God said it would.
God foretold all this because when it happened, he wanted Cyrus to know that he hadn’t accomplished this victory by his own smarts or strength. It was God who had made it happen, because he would, as Isaiah put it, “take Cyrus by the right hand” (Isaiah 45:1). It’s almost a cute picture isn’t it – God holding the mighty Cyrus’s hand. It’s what a father does when his toddler wants to climb over playground equipment. He will take the child by her hand, helping the toddler balance and overcome the obstacles. And what is often the reaction of the child when the mission has been accomplished? She’ll say, “Did you just see what I did, Daddy?” But the truth is without Dad’s help and hand, the toddler would not have been able to navigate the playground equipment.
You may not be able to feel God’s hand, but he is holding you. It is God who made you what you are. It is he who has placed you in your position of authority. A writer in the New Testament put it like this: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1).
Oh I don’t doubt that you worked hard to get where you are at. But you would not have been successful without God. None of us would be successful at what we do if God was not with us. And why does God take us by our hands and lead us through life in this way? God answers that question when he said to Cyrus: “I will give you the treasures of darkness, 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 45:3). God made you what you are so that you will acknowledge him – not just acknowledge that there is a god or some nameless divine force at work in this universe, but acknowledge that there is only one true God. This God went as far as to say to Cyrus, “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, 6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:5, 6).
Cyrus wasn’t an atheist. He worshipped many gods. But what God was telling him here, those were not real gods. They were fakes. There still is only one God, and he is the God of the Bible. He is the one who made the universe. He also made you and now he is reaching out to you so that you will acknowledge him as God and Lord. And why would you want to do that? Because he is a God who is keenly interested in you. Another prophet would write of him: “…you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13, 16). God has known you for a long time – even before you were born. But he doesn’t just know your past, he knows your future as well. In fact he’s done something very important to give you an eternal future of happiness.
You see, Cyrus wasn’t the only king God foretold would come and do his bidding. He also anointed another king to carry out a special divine mission. That mission wasn’t to defeat the Babylonians or any other earthly army. This king came to defeat Satan and death. Do you know who I am talking about? Yes, Jesus. Did you know that Jesus wasn’t just a meek and mild teacher? He was also a king on a divine mission to free us from the punishment we deserve for our sins. He would do that by giving his life as a sacrifice. Many in your line of work have sacrificed their lives for others. We thank them for their “ultimate” sacrifice, and we thank you for your willingness to do the same. But would you sacrifice yourself for us if you learned that we were in fact the enemy? That we were the ones moving drugs around the province and taking advantage of little children? Would you give your life to save someone like that? Jesus did. That’s what his death on the cross was all about. Jesus came to pay a debt that we all owe God because for every selfish thought we have, for every rude remark we make, and for every time we lose control and do what we know to be wrong, we show ourselves to be enemies of God because we’re not living as he designed us to live. Each one of these sins deserves more than a two-minute timeout in the penalty box. We deserve to be sent away from God’s love forever and have to endure his eternal punishment in a real place called hell.
But Jesus came to change all that and did with his death on the cross. Like a player on the ice who serves the penalty for the goalkeeper, Jesus took our punishment so that we’re still in the running for eternal life. That’s what God gives to all those whose trust is in Jesus. He promises the forgiveness of sins so that you don’t have to be afraid of standing before God on Judgment Day. He also promises that death cannot hold you, just as it could not hold Jesus when he rose on Easter Sunday. God has not only made you what you are professionally - an officer, a firefighter – he’s made you what you are spiritually – forgiven and loved by God.
God also made you what you are so that would serve him. Listen to our text again. “For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me” (Isaiah 45:4). God would take King Cyrus by the hand and make him successful because he would use Cyrus to move the Israelites back to their homeland. That was important to do because God had a promise to keep – the promise that in the Israelite town of Bethlehem the Savior, Jesus would be born.
Likewise God has placed you in a position of authority that you may serve him by serving the people around you. And perhaps here I need to speak more to those of us who are not first responders. On one hand we are very thankful for what these men and women do. They courageously face down people the rest of us would run from. They patrol the streets so that our children can play outside. But there are times when we think that what they do is a burden to us. We get angry when they pull us over for our poor driving. We wonder why they are so nitpicky when they make fire code inspections. But remember who it is who put them in their position of authority: God did. And he did so that our lives would be blessed. It’s good to formally thank these officers for all they do, but that thanks means little if we don’t also honor them with our actions and attitudes when we see them out on the streets. By honoring them in this way we also honor our God who gave them to us as a blessing.
Among the many reasons you may have had for becoming an officer, I’m sure there was this one: you wanted to make a difference. I pray that this desire still motivates you. I hope that you haven’t become jaded and burned out by everything that you have seen so that you’re just going through the motions. When you do feel that way, remember this: God made you what you are. He summoned you by name even before you were born and placed you in the work that you do. So he will strengthen and uphold you. Take all your worries to him. Confess to him your sinful failings and know that all of those sins have been wiped off your record through Jesus. And in Jesus’ name we thank you for your service. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Our sermon text introduces us to Isaiah and Cyrus. Write two things about each that are worth remembering.
Why is what Isaiah wrote about Cyrus startling?
God said he would take Cyrus by the right hand and make him successful in his work. How do we know that God continues to guide those in authority today?
God also prophesied that another king much greater than Cyrus would come. That king is Jesus. List four ways in which Jesus is greater than Cyrus.
God made Cyrus what he was so that Cyrus would serve him. Why is it important for us to remember that police officers and others in authority today are also God’s servants?
