Emphasis Preaching Journal

Emperor Cyrus II, sometimes called "Cyrus the Great," became an emperor to be feared after rising from relative obscurity. Both humane and tolerant, he struggled with an arrogant son, Cambyses. In the ancient pattern, he once reprimanded his offspring with familiar words: "I would never have spoken to my own father in the way you speak to me." Replied the ungrateful son, "But you were the son of a nobody. By contrast, I am the son of Cyrus the Great." Cambyses was right about one thing: when you're descended from royalty, the stakes are higher.