Does God Have the Power to Move Empires? (Yes!)

1 Peter 2:6

‘For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

God is speaking to Cyrus, the king of the Persians.  Cyrus is going to serve a special purpose in God’s plan.  The people of the Southern Kingdom, the people of Judah, had been conquered by the Babylonians.  The Babylonians were, in turn, conquered by the Persians. 

The Persians were then going to send the people of Judah back, to reconstruct Jerusalem.  The Books of Nehemiah and Ezra tell this tale.

God is putting himself in front of Cyrus, in front of Persia, claiming that God, the God of Israel, who is the only real God, is going to empower Persia, under Cyrus to do His bidding. 

Now, this is a bit of an aside, but there are two interpretations of this passage in Isaiah. 

The first is that this is truly prophetic, written before these events ever happened.  It was the power of God that revealed the name that Isaiah wrote down.

The second is the party-pooper version, that this was written after the events of Cyrus restoring the people of Israel to their homeland.  It was then branded as coming as prophecy, thus reading in the power of God to explain political events that had already come to pass.

I do not care for the party-pooper version.  How can one truly critique the power of the living God?  Peter is certainly not quoting a party pooper version of Isaiah.  He is pulling down on the power of the Living God, the one who manipulates Empires to free His people.

That is my favorite part of the Christmas story, God manipulating empires to make things happen.  He manipulates the Romans to move Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.  This is the precedent, God’s maneuvering of the Persian Empire.

“And whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”  Whoever believes in the God that made Cyrus restore His people to their homeland, after seventy years in the Babylonian Captivity, they will not be put to shame.  That is the power that Peter is referencing as he brings this quote into his letter.