“It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’ And I will make your rivers dry. It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’ Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed [messiah], whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God” (Isa 44:27–45:5a).
The other day I had a wonderful, yet unexpected conversation with someone about the identity of the servant of the LORD in Isaiah 53 (53:13; 52:11-12). In response to my claim that Isaiah 53 is about the Messiah, he quickly said, “Actually, according to Isaiah, Cyrus is the Messiah.” And indeed, he was correct. The only person in the book of Isaiah who is called “messiah” is Cyrus (Isa 45:1). Why does God call Cyrus “his messiah” and what is Cyrus’ function in the structure of the book? Although we typically use the term “Messiah” as a technical term for Israel’s great eschatological redeemer, the word “messiah” in the Hebrew Bible is most often used in a non-technical sense to refer to any king and/or a priest (good or bad) who was anointed with oil at the beginning of their service. For this reason, David calls Saul God’s “messiah” (1 Sam 24:7; see also Lev 4:3, 5, 16).
To appreciate why Cyrus is called the LORD’s “messiah,” it is necessary to see his literary function in Isaiah’s “new exodus.” Just before his appearance in the book, God speaks of drying up of the seas (Isa 44:27) to bring his people back to Jerusalem. This is an obvious allusion to the parting of the Reed Sea in the book of Exodus (Exodus 14). After calling Cyrus “his messiah,” God declares that his actions for the sake of Israel are so “you [Cyrus] will know that I am the LORD” (Isa 45:3). This exact phrase is only found one other place in the entire Hebrew Bible. It is used with reference to Pharaoh in the story of the first exodus (Exod 8:22 [18]; see also Exod 8:10 [6], 9:29). And there, it also refers to Pharaoh’s coming to know God through his salvation of Israel. God calls Cyrus his “messiah” in Isaiah 45 because God sovereignly appointed him (without his knowing) to be the new Pharaoh-like king who would, like the first Pharaoh, release Israel from their foreign captivity.
While it’s true, therefore, that Isaiah does not call the servant in Isaiah 53 “the Messiah,” the identification of Cyrus as a new Pharaoh in the new exodus makes the Messianic identification of the servant of the LORD in Isaiah 53 all the more clear. If a new Pharaoh is in Isaiah’s new exodus, there must also be a new Moses-like servant! And just as God exalted his servant Moses in the climax of the first exodus (Exod 14:31), God exalts the new Moses-like servant in the climax of Isaiah’s new exodus too (Isa 52:13; 53:11).
By God’s revealing himself to Pharaoh and Cyrus through the salvation of Israel, we see a fundamental biblical principle at work. Everything God does for the sake of Israel is also for the benefit of the nations.
“The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” (Isa 52:10). “He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psa 98:3).
