2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”~

Ezra 1:2-4 (ESV)

Cyrus who? 

Did he really rule the world? “Though this is in the Oriental style of hyperbole (see also Da 4:1), it was literally true that the Persian empire was the greatest ruling power in the world at that time.” (JFB commentary)

Was he a believer? Though he acknowledged the God of the Jews, the God in heaven, does that mean he believed unto salvation? Or was the God of heaven just one more god to manage? Probably the latter.

Not the first. God worked through many different kings to accomplish His will – Pharaoh of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius (Daniel 6:25), and now Cyrus. In Ezra 6, another Darius takes over from Cyrus to continue the work then in Nehemiah 2:1 He worked through Artaxerxes.

What got into him?

Why and how did Cyrus get this command from God? “[On] a human level, you have a polytheistic king following his program of religious tolerance, superstitiously asking the subject people to pray to their gods for his well being.” (Bible.org) But v1 tells us, “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus”. A cylinder of the period [see picture] records his program.

Prayer

We know exactly what caused this. James 5:16 says, “A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much”. Daniel is that righteous man. We read in Daniel 9 that he was reading the scriptures and discovered Jeremiah’s prophecy about the duration of the captivity then prayed and fasted. Voila. Cyrus’ decree. 

And before that

And before Jeremiah and Daniel, God prophesied through Isaiah 44:28 some 150 years earlier: “who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” Can you believe it? 150 years before Cyrus came to power, God had predicted it!