Cyrus Opens the Door: Jeremiah’s Word Moves into History

Ezra begins where 2 Chronicles ends: the Babylonian exile has not cancelled God’s promises. In the first year of Cyrus’s rule over Babylon, the LORD “stirred up the spirit” of the Persian king so that he authorized the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple and permitted the exiles to go home. Ezra itself says this happened so that the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Jeremiah had announced that Babylon’s domination would not last forever and that God would visit his people and bring them back.

Where we have seen this before: Isaiah had gone even further by naming Cyrus as the ruler God would use to open the way for Jerusalem and the temple. Ezra does not present Cyrus as a convert to Israel’s faith; it presents the God of Israel as sovereign enough to use an imperial ruler for covenant restoration.