Tag: Cyrus

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:  The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Ezra 1:1

In the British Museum, there’s a small stone artifact roughly the shape of a glass Coca-Cola bottle. It’s called The Cyrus Cylinder, and it is one of the few instances we have specific archeological evidence for something that happened in the Bible. The Cylinder is inscribed with an account from Cyrus, King of Persia, which is modern day Iran. It explains that the king spent time and money to restore many temples in the empire, especially ones that the Babylonians destroyed. This included building a new temple in Jerusalem.

The way the Book of Ezra tells the story, Cyrus makes the decision to organize the rebuilding of the temple after God stirs up his heart. It is God who works through this powerful foreign king to restore the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and Jews from all over will be called together to get the job done. God has a habit of stirring up hearts, and it’s our job to work together to get the job done.

One day, God stirred up the heart of UMC minister Rev. Brian Combs with the words from a poor man in his ministry. “The shelter lets out early in the morning and I’m on lockout until afternoon,” the man said. “In the park, there’s a chance of arrest; in the library a chance of getting kicked out, and middle of the day and middle of the week is when I struggle with addiction the most.  I’d rather hear the Good News than get high.”  Brian decided to do something about that, so he founded a church which meets at 12:30 PM on Wednesdays.

Rev. Brian and King Cyrus were both moved by the Holy Spirit to do the work of God. They had their hearts stirred, and they followed through with commitment and action. May God move our hearts to do God’s will and may our hands and our feet follow.