“From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My Name will be great among the Gentiles,” says Yahweh Sabaoth.
(Malachi 1: 11)
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She was a Stunning Beauty
This happened about 2 decades ago.
I was teaching my leadership class at the University of Virginia. One of my students was Iranian by birth. She immigrated to the U.S. along with her family and became a U.S. citizen when the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown and Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran to set up the Islamic Republic of Iran.
She was a little girl when she came to America, but her parents made sure that she understood her Persian heritage. I don’t remember exactly where we were in the semester when this happened, but it was not at the beginning because I already knew a lot about her.
During the course of discussions in class, students revealed a great deal about themselves: what they believed, what they liked and didn’t like, where they came from, where they thought they were heading. By the end of the semester, I knew my leadership students well, and they knew me. As I said, I already knew a lot about her when this happened.
This girl was a stunning beauty. She looked like the Persian princess in the picture above, only much prettier. She was at least as attractive as any woman I have ever seen in person, on television, or in the movies, and she was very smart and personable.
Two things irritated her when she talked with others about her Iranian heritage. I’m not guessing. She told me.
Number 1:
It annoyed her when people assumed she was of Arab descent simply because she came from the broader Middle East region. “Persians are not Arabs”, she told me emphatically. In her world, calling someone an Arab was an insult.
Arabs have earned a reputation in the Middle East and Asia Minor for being unruly and untrustworthy. Using common parlance, Persians see Arabs as lowlifes.
The Persian beauty wasn’t saying that all Arabs are lowlifes. She knew that wasn’t true, but she also knew how Arabs are viewed by non-Arabs in the Middle East region.
Most people from the West don’t know about Middle Eastern history, culture, and traditions. She didn’t like being thought of as a Arab by people who have lived in the West all of their lives, people who probably will never set foot in the Middle East. She tolerated ignorant people, but just barely. She didn’t like being thought of as an Arab for personal reasons. It was a pet peeve of hers.
Black Africans who immigrate to the United States have a similar opinion of blacks who were born and raised in the U.S. They don’t like being thought of as one of them. If you doubt that, ask a black person who immigrated to the U.S. from Africa. He or she won’t be shy about telling you.
Similarly, non-Palestinian Arabs in the Middle East see Palestinians as lowlifes. You won’t see that in the Western media, but in the Middle East, it’s common knowledge. The ignorance of Westerners about other parts of the world is breathtaking. That annoyed the Persian beauty more than anything else.
Number 2:
She didn’t like it when people pronounced her native country’s name as “Eye-ran”. The correct pronunciation is “ēr-ân”.
She told me that many of her UVA professors said “Eye-ran”, and it bothered her. In her world, their pronunciation demonstrated a lack of culture, or at the very least, it demonstrated a lack of understanding about culture. She told me that she was very happy the first time she heard me say “Iran”, because I pronounced it correctly.
That was a big deal to her. In her eyes, it gave me credibility, and she was open to things I said in class because she saw me in a positive light.
Enter Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great is the Persian king who conquered Babylon and let the Jewish people return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity. In my leadership class, we talked about great leaders to determine the things they did that made them great.
Cyrus was on my syllabus the semester that my Iranian student took the course. I didn’t include Cyrus on the syllabus because of her. It was prepared many weeks before she registered for the course. I could say that it was happenstance, but I’ve learned that nothing is happenstance. Everything happens for a reason.
My custom was to ask students to lead discussions of the leaders on the syllabus and to give them the authority to run the class anyway they wanted if they were the discussion leader. It wasn’t a random process. By the time we were ready to start talking about individual leaders, I already knew a lot about my students. I did my best to select someone who would enjoy doing the job and someone who would have things to share that other students in the class might not be able to find in the library or on the internet, personal things.
The Persian beauty fit the bill. I asked her to lead the discussion of Cyrus. There is a lot of information about him that anyone can find, but his influence on Persian culture is best presented by a Persian. She did a great job of bringing in everything she knew about Cyrus. It was a great discussion. Very informative.
As was my custom, at the end of the class, I took the floor and made points that were important to me. Professors have privileges.
Sometimes, I summarized things that were discussed in class and gave my take on them. Other times, I would introduce new information and explain why it was important.
That day, the fact that Cyrus is mentioned in the Bible was brought up during discussion, but it was just touched on. I wanted my students to know a lot more.
Enter Isaiah
I began by reading Isaiah 45: 1-7:
Thus says Yahweh to Cyrus His anointed, 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, Yahweh, the Elohim 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 Yahweh, and there is no other. Besides Me there is no Elohim. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am Yahweh who does all these.”
After I finished reading that excerpt from Isaiah to the class, I said, “Does anyone know when Isaiah wrote that?”
No one did.
I said, “Isaiah wrote it somewhere between 740 BC and 686 BC. Finding precise dates is difficult, but that range is close enough for my purpose.”
Then, I asked, “Does anyone know when King Cyrus ruled the Persian Empire?”
The Persian beauty knew. She said, “He lived from about 600 BC to 530 BC. He reigned as king from about 559 BC to about 530 BC.”
She was sitting on the front row. I was standing about 3 feet from her. I was looking directly into her eyes, and I asked her, “What is the significance of those dates?”
She didn’t respond right away. I could tell that she was thinking about something, and then she said, “Mr. Snyder, Isaiah wrote that more than 100 years before Cyrus was born. I thought they were contemporaries.”
“You are right,” I said. “They were not contemporaries. Isaiah died before Cyrus was born. Yahweh told Isaiah about Cyrus by name more than 100 years before he was born, and He included lots of details. Cyrus wasn’t an ordinary king. These are his titles: King of Anshan, King of Persia, King of Media, King of the World, Great King, Mighty King, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.”
Enter the Babylonian Captivity
I wasn’t finished. I said, “The Babylonian Captivity of Judah began in 597 BC. In 589 BC, Jews in Jerusalem rebelled against Babylon. On the 9th of Av in 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Yahweh’s Temple. In 539 BC, King Cyrus conquered Babylon and gave the order to allow Jewish people in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. Jews started returning to Jerusalem in 538 BC. Cyrus died in 530 BC.”
I stopped for a few seconds and looked her in the eye. Then I said, “Yahweh made Cyrus king for a reason, and He did it before Cyrus knew anything about Him. Eventually, Cyrus did exactly what Yahweh told Isaiah he would do.”
I looked into the Persian beauty’s eyes. She was tearing up. She wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed, and I had not hurt her feelings. I could tell by the look on her face that what I said struck a chord with her. She was understanding something for the first time, and it affected her deeply.
I have called her “the Persian beauty” because she was beautiful and because I can’t remember her name. For the purposes of this discussion, her name isn’t important. The things I told you about her are important.
I have often wondered how that bit of understanding might have affected her life. I may never know, but I can assure you that what happened affected the rest of the class, too. Again, I’m not guessing. She told me.
A few days after the class discussion, the Persian beauty dropped by my office. It was early on a Monday morning. She wanted to tell me about something that happened over the weekend at a fraternity party. She said, “Mr. Snyder, a group of us were talking, and your class came up in the discussion. That never happens at a fraternity party. All of a sudden, we were talking about Cyrus and Isaiah. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I smiled and said, “Yahweh works in mysterious ways.”
Are You Paying Attention?
#1: See “Palestinians accuse the United States of ‘Judaizing’ Jerusalem”.
Jerusalem was Israel’s capital about 1600 years before Islam was invented.
There have been Jews in Jerusalem since about 1000 BC.
Palestinians as a people group were invented in 1964 AD.
In about 538 BC, Jews in Babylon returned to Jerusalem when the Babylonian Captivity ended.
Yahweh Judaized Jerusalem. If you have a problem with it, tell Him. He won’t be amused.
Thus declares Yahweh who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around. When the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. In that day,” declares Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through Yahweh Sabaoth, their Elohim.’” (Zechariah 12: 1-5)
Don’t mess with Yahweh.
For thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, “After glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2: 8)
The Hebrew word translated as “apple” means “pupil”. Going against Jews in Jerusalem is literally poking Yahweh in the eye. That’s a terrible idea. Don’t do it. Don’t even try to do it.
#2: See “PALESTINIANS ON PILGRIMAGE ROAD INAUGURATION: ISRAEL FALSIFYING HISTORY”.
The City of David is a special place. In the Bible, it’s called Jerusalem.
You need to see it. Thanks to the City of David Foundation, you can.
Israel isn’t falsifying anything. So-called “Palestinians” are, and they’ve been doing it since 1964.
#3: See “Sanhedrin Mints King David Coin to Usher in Davidic Dynasty”.
A few days ago, the Sanhedrin likened President Trump to King Cyrus. They can see what’s happening, and they see it as a prelude to the Messiah’s coming. They are right, but it’s His second coming.
#4: See “Israel Names Golan Heights Settlement After President Trump”.
While “liberal progressive” Dumb Asses in the United States lie incessantly about President Trump, Jews in Israel are naming cities and town squares after him. They see him as a type of King Cyrus. They are getting it right.
Something Big is Happening
Something very big is happening right in front of our eyes. I hope you can see it.
Too often, people think they know more than they actually know, and they miss things that should be obvious.
Let Yahweh be Yahweh, and enjoy the show. Why not? We are part of it. We might as well enjoy it.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
