Did you know that God can accomplish His mission despite the ungodly leaders at the top? 2 Chronicles 32-36

2 Chronicles 36:22-23
"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah—the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’”"

This is the ending of the book of Chronicles, which is a book to remind the returning remnant of how they got into captivity and who lead them there, by their sins.   Without the these last verses the Chronicles is simply a history book of success and failure ... mostly failure ... of leaders who either followed God or disobeyed Him.    But, the purpose of the book is to give to the returning remnant purpose, meaning and mission.    God is going to restore the land and the people to it.  He had promised them the land and would keep His promises.   The writer of Chronicles wants us to know that God is still in control and He has the capability to stir the heart of an ungodly king to do His bidding.  In this case it is Cyrus, King of Persia.   The above text says that "... the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom ..." to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.    This was the same temple that David was stirred to build and Solomon endeavored to finish.  God makes the heart of all men do His will.   God is in control of all authority and can make them, entice them, use their evilness against them, to accomplish His will.  In this case He stirred up Cyrus to have a desire to build the temple in Jerusalem.   We aren't told why.  Just told that he had a desire.  It was probably for political reasons and his evil heart so some advantage.  It could have been for financial gain and God used his greed to accomplish His mission.   We are not told what the motive is, only that God used it to accomplish the task to bring the nation back to their land.    God knows when to stir up the non-believer, how to stir him/her and why to stir them up.   God's sovereign rule in the hearts of men is as true today as it was then.   God uses the men of this world to accomplish His greater good ... the message of the Gospel.