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Allusions Images Symbols: How to Study Prophecy — Images of the End — Cyrus, the Anointed

Join us as we study the Bible Study Guide for the second quarter of 2025 called Allusions Images Symbols: How to Study Prophecy. We are studying the lesson for week 13 called Images of the End.    

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Ah, to be the wounded one—the one who gets to be the powerful forgiver.  We covet this rare role because we’re usually more sinning than we’re sinned against.  And when it comes our turn to show the grace once given us, we linger with the choice, as if it were a heavy thing to pardon what’s been done.

We can’t, of course, refuse forgiveness outright:  Jesus tied our own forgiveness to the habit of forgiving.  But first, a little groveling, we say.  Some real contrition, perhaps a tear or ten.  Some promises to never—ever—injure us again.

And so we fall far short of grace.  We strike a lender’s bargain with the sinner:  pardon only if the penitent submits to our superiority.

But grace is always washinbg someone’s feet—abandoning all power in the goal to make the sinner whole.  We cannot—dare not—charge for what was freely offered us.  If it’s not free, then it’s not grace.

Remind yourself of how forgiveness made you valuable to you. 

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Ah, to be the wounded one—the one who gets to be the powerful forgiver.  We covet this rare role because we’re usually more sinning than we’re sinned against.  And when it comes our turn to show the grace once given us, we linger with the choice, as if it were a heavy thing to pardon what’s been done.

We can’t, of course, refuse forgiveness outright:  Jesus tied our own forgiveness to the habit of forgiving.  But first, a little groveling, we say.  Some real contrition, perhaps a tear or ten.  Some promises to never—ever—injure us again.

And so we fall far short of grace.  We strike a lender’s bargain with the sinner:  pardon only if the penitent submits to our superiority.

But grace is always washinbg someone’s feet—abandoning all power in the goal to make the sinner whole.  We cannot—dare not—charge for what was freely offered us.  If it’s not free, then it’s not grace.

Remind yourself of how forgiveness made you valuable to you. 

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

A deeper understanding of the minor prophets and why pastors should preach them to their congregations.

When Cyrus sacked the city of Babylon, the years of captivity for God’s people were over, and the Persians permitted the Jews to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple. Under Cyrus, the Persian Empire became the largest in history, with what historian Tom Holland calls “the largest agglomeration of territories that the world had ever seen.”—Dominion (New York: Basic Books, 2019), p. 25.

As was the custom among the Persians, Cyrus was even called “the Great King” or “King of kings.”

Cyrus foreshadows what will happen when Christ returns for His church: He is the King who comes from the east (compare with Matt. 24:27), waging war against Babylon, and liberating His people finally to escape from Babylon and return to the Land of Promise. (See Rev. 19:11–16.) This is why God refers to Cyrus as “His anointed” (Isa. 45:1, NKJV); not only did this famous Persian liberate God’s people, but his campaign against Babylon is also a type of Christ’s second coming.

Read 2 Chronicles 36:22, 23. In what ways does the story of Cyrus parallel that of Nebuchadnezzar? In what ways does it differ? What is the significance of the decree? After all, how did it impact the whole first coming of Jesus centuries later?

The original order of Old Testament books has been changed in our day to end with Malachi, but originally, this is where the Old Testament ended—with this declaration from Cyrus. The next episode in the canon of Scripture would be Matthew, which begins with the birth of Christ, the antitypical Cyrus. Cyrus would orchestrate the rebuilding of the earthly temple; Jesus would inaugurate His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, leading up to His return and our liberation.

Cyrus, of course, was not a perfect representation of Christ; no type lines up perfectly with antitype, and we must be careful not to read too much into every tiny detail. Nevertheless, he broadly functions as a type of “Savior.”

How fascinating that God would use a pagan king in such a marked manner to do His will. Despite how things appear to us on the outside, how can we learn the truth that, long term, the Lord is going to bring about end-time events as prophesied?