Isaiah 45:4
For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
The declaration is a message from God as Ruler of the universe, the eternal God, addressed to Cyrus by name more than a hundred years before his birth. In it God called him by his name and gave him a title, surnaming him in advance and thereby identifying beforehand the ruler through whom He would act.
He so called and surnamed Cyrus for the sake of Jacob His servant and Israel His chosen, His elect people. Cyrus was thus made His agent for Israel's benefit. God has covenanted to call people by name and use them in this way for the sake of Jacob His servant and Israel His elect.
At the time God thus called him, Cyrus did not know God. Rulers and their actions can in this manner serve His purpose without knowing it, as when Caesar Augustus's decree brought the mother of Jesus to Bethlehem. So His name may be glorified even through those who have not known Him.
The declaration belongs among the prophecies concerning Cyrus with which Daniel was familiar. God moved upon Cyrus as His agent to discern these prophecies. When Cyrus read this declaration his heart was profoundly moved to fulfill his divinely appointed mission to set the Judean captives free and to help them restore the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to the promises in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45 that reveal God's purpose for His people, for Jacob and Israel His servants. There He calls them to remember that they belong to Him. The passage is to be studied prayerfully as encouragement to appreciate what God has done and will do for those who follow on to know Him.
It does not direct His people to turn from Him and His wisdom to depend on finite human wisdom. The encouragement God has thus given His people should be appreciated. It should arouse more missionary work and more missionary spirit in the churches, reaching even into the highways and the hedges.