It was the 6th century B.C., and God's people, the Israelites, had been in exile for almost 70 years. They had broken covenant with their God, but God had promised to show them mercy and restore them. Their Babylonian conquerors had themselves been conquered by Persia, under King Cyrus. Cyrus became God's means of release for the Jewish people.

Some people today are wondering whether Donald Trump might be a modern-day Cyrus.

Cyrus was not a believer in Israel's God. He was acting according to his own political expediency, yet it fit nicely into what God was doing at that time. The prophet Isaiah verbalized God's view of Cyrus (Isaiah 45), even referring to him as God's "anointed." He was an unwitting leader, chosen by God to accomplish the purpose God had in mind for His people.

Surely God does that kind of thing in history. The illustrations are numerous. But we must be cautious about drawing parallels between Cyrus and Trump.

First, the Israelites were God's people by virtue of his covenant with them. That is not the case with America as a nation. The closest parallel today is not between Israel and America, but Israel and God's people, the Church.

Even here there is another very important distinction: Cyrus as a deliverer pointed as God's illustration toward God's ultimate rescue by His ultimate "anointed one," the Messiah. Israel's return to the homeland was only a shadow of the full blessing God had in mind. Jesus Christ, the ultimate deliverer came and fulfilled the covenant, even paying the penalty for breaking the covenant, defeating death and giving true believers the Spirit to live as his people on the earth. That was true deliverance indeed.

So we see that the rescuer the Scriptures have in mind is Jesus, and the people are the people of God by faith in His Son. Any other connections to historical or prophetic persons are incidental and secondary.

To see Cyrus as biblical grounds for hope that Mr. Trump will be the rescuer of this nation is wishful thinking. Sure, we would all like to see a sensible way out of disturbingly confused political trends, but the supposed Trump/Cyrus connection is not it.

God has sent his anointed one to liberate his people, not from political oppression, but from sin's oppression. Cultures change as people experience God's freedom and infect society with the virtue they have found in Christ. Governmental structures then begin to magnify justice, mercy and humility.

So if we want to stop the slide toward societal rot, we must place our hope in the one true deliverer. Where we have been complacent, passive, judgmental and irresponsible, we must repent. We must take our place as God's liberated army fighting against the spiritual forces of deception and destruction.

We have the authority of Jesus' name as well as the power of His Spirit within us as individuals and corporately as his body on earth. We can do something that matters while we place our trust in the sovereign God who has the kings of the earth in His hands.

We do have hope. We trust in the sovereign God of the universe who can use anything or anyone in carrying out his plan. But we don't look for saviors when we already have one. We don't have the luxury of wasting time in expecting Mr. Trump to deliver God's people. Our Savior is currently knocking at the door of the Church, desiring to come in and empower us to express the transcendent power of his kingdom (Revelation 3:20). Let's welcome him in and the nation will reap the benefits of a healthy Church led by the ultimate deliverer.