Can you hear the echo of a crying of a newborn baby? Listen carefully. It is a cry of a little prince who’s coming was predicted almost 200 years before his birth.
King Cambyses here from Anshan, and his wife had to wait for his birth before they could give him his name. And of course, they also had a name waiting and ready to bestow on a daughter when she would come.
The soil of ancient Anshan echoes some more family names. King Cambyses had a father who was called Cyrus. He must have been a very special kind king, and they decided to call their little baby boy also Cyrus.
The soil of Anshan can tell you how father Cambyses and his little boy Cyrus walked hand and hand while the little boy was listening to the stories of Grandpa Cyrus.
Little Cyrus was from the start a very special young son boy and his parents were looking forward to the day when little prince Cyrus would be enthroned.
But let me first tell you about his mother. Her name was Mandane and she was a Median princess. Her father’s name was Astyages, the son of the famous Cyaxares. He and Nabopolasser conquered the mighty Assyrian Empire. After some negotiations between Astyages the Mede and Cambyses the Persian, they decided that the Median princess Mandane should marry him.
So little Cyrus had a Persian father and a Median mother. The two kings were tied by strong marital bonds.
We will learn more about the future of this young prince when we visit his eventual capital called Pasargadae.
FACTS ABOUT THE BIRTHPLACE OF CYRUS
It was one of the earliest urban states to exist, and one of the earliest capitals of Elam from the late 4th millennium BC. Eventually it fell under the rule of the Persians in the 7th century BC and then became one of the early capitals of Persia.
So Anshan switched from being Elamite to become Persian. But the prophet Daniel prophesied that this little insignificant vassal state would one day exceed their Median landlord in power and glory. Prophet Daniel also predicted they, in conjunction with the Medes would overthrow the mighty Babylonian Empire.
Mandane my wife is our little boy Cyrus OK?
Were the parents alive when Cyrus eventually fulfilled the prophecies of the prophet Daniel?
The soil of Anshan says that most of what is known about Anshan today has been discovered through ancient artifacts in archaeological digs at Tall-e Malyan (earlier name of Anshan)
EARLIEST HISTORY
The Elamite city makes an appearance in the early Sumerian epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta as being en route between Uruk and the legendary Aratta, supposedly around the time writing was developed.
Here you see an exhibition of Gudea of Lagash who claimed to have subjugated Anshan in 2200 BC
The Ziggurat of Ur will tell you that the Neo-Sumerian rulers Shulgi and Shu-Sin of Ur are said to have maintained their own governors over Anshan.
But listen to this information:
Ibbi-Sin, of Ur seems to have spent his reign engaged in a losing struggle to maintain control over Anshan, ultimately resulting in the Elamite sack of Ur in 2004 BC, at which time the statue of Nanna, and Ibbi-Sin himself, were captured and removed to Anshan.
Fortunately, Abram and his family left Ur just before the destruction of this magnificent city.
Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
Gen 12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
When you study the Bible in the light of archaeology in really gives new dimensions.
To think that the desolate Anshan was once upon a time the conqueror of Ur.
Cyrus is referred to as the “king of the city of Anshan” and his ancestors as “the great king, king of the city of Anshan” [9]
In 1973, it was confirmed that this site was the lost city of Anshan.
The tiny little baby that filled the air of Anshan with its prophetic cry, became a type of another cry that was heard 500 years down the line. In Bethlehem a cry of the baby Jesus became the greatest anthem of all time. His coming to our planet to save us from the chains of our fallen human nature. To the first Cyrus only Isaiah predicted his birth.
When Jesus uttered His first cry a prophecy was fulfilled that proclaimed by all the prophets of who ever lived.
When sinners accept the forgiving love of Jesus, they become part of a great symphony of prophets that hailed His coming