1. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
Those are the words in the first verse of Ezra. Now if those words don't kinda boggle your mind something's wrong. The LORD, to fulfill Jeremiah's prophecy, which the LORD had told him to say, stirred Cyrus to let the people go. And Cyrus let them, and gave them silver, and gold!
WHOA! God, in order to keep his word made Cyrus do that. Now, there are two major things I got from this.
1. God kept his word. And he did it by making Cyrus suddenly decide to let the Jews go.
2. God had the power to change Cyrus's heart just like that.
These two things are powerful reminders of God's strength and truthfulness. Who would have remembered what Jeremiah said? Maybe some of the old men. But God still remembered and kept his word.
I hope these two things encourage you that God will never lie, or double-cross you, and he can help you overcome any obstacle in your life.
