Not for Price or Reward

NOT FOR PRICE NOR REWARD

Isaiah 45:13

13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.

KJV

Commentary by Brian Johnson, Ph.D.

Replete in biblical history is the Lord’s raising up of men and women up in [His] righteousness to advance His purposes. And one of their most glaring characteristics is that they did so “not for price, nor reward.”

To be sure, the man or woman who advances God’s purposes will forever be blessed in return, for the Lord is never “unrighteous to forget works and labours of love.” Yet and still, the heart’s motive of such men and women is to seek God’s glory, not their own.

And Isaiah speaks here of Cyrus, a type of Christ, who was raised up to commission the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple and to deliver God’s people from the Babylonians. And we should all consider this. Cyrus though prophesied by God through Isaiah did not know God.

Further, we should note Andrew Johnson’s commentary, “The Medes and Persians came together as an alliance. Darius the Mede was put in place as King over Babylon. But the Persian King was Cyrus.” Although Cyrus was not a member of God’s own people, and his achievements often unheralded, were it not for Cyrus, the treasures of the temple would not have been restored, cedars from Lebanon would not have been provided and the work of Ezra and others would not have been initiated. And he did so, not for price, nor reward:

Psalm 115:1 “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for they mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”