The Cyrus Myth

I have used this passage from Isaiah over the years in sermons and for my own meditation:  “I will give thee the treasures of darkness (Isaiah 45:3).”  I use the  verse out of context and give it new meaning, as many others have done with other passages of Holy Writ.  The phrase, I felt then and now, has meaning outside its historical context.  What was that historical context?  Two and a half millennia ago it was God’s promise to Cyrus, king of Persia.  If Cyrus freed Israel from their Babylonian captivity/exile and permitted them to return to their homeland, Cyrus would be rewarded with all the hidden wealth of Babylon:  “I will give thee the treasures of darkness.”  The prophet Isaiah expected and hoped Cyrus would effect the restoration of the Jews—that God would do a “new thing”—making a highway through the desert blossoming and flowing with water—imagery he borrowed from the stories of the Exodus from Egypt.  Cyrus, so Isaiah interpreted, would be God’s appointed savior and bring about a new exodus for Israel, restoring them to their homeland (Palestine and their holy city, Jerusalem).

Currently there are those who see Donald Trump as God’s appointed savior—a new Cyrus for our time.  Like the Cyrus of old, they anticipate and hope that he will bring back what they deem important to the restoration of a fraudulent brand of Christianity.  One evangelical leader said, “I believe we have a Cyrus to navigate through the storm.”  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a visit to Israel, was asked:  “Could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised up for such a time as this….to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?”  To which Pompeo responded, “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible.”  After all, some say, the coincidence of the 45th chapter of Isaiah and the 45th president must be more than a coincidence.

I don’t buy into this idiocy.  But, suddenly, I find that phrase from Isaiah 45:3, which has been so meaningful to me through the years, returning to its historical context and becoming quite literal in the wake of these last two and a half years of Trump being Cyrus: “I will give thee the treasures of darkness.”  Those treasures  of darkness have been hidden in the underbelly of America for a long time and are  now being called out, exposed and encouraged.  They are the (so-called) treasures of darkness:  racism, xenophobia, white nationalism, bigotry, misogyny, the gospel of prosperity, authoritarianism, and all the rest.   Know this, the Light shines on in the dark—even as we wallow at this moment in the treasures of darkness.