Sect-5 Appendix F – Isaiah 45

(From Chapter 15 – A Larger Context for Romans 5:12)

The context of Isaiah 45 is one of revelation. God is revealing himself not only to Cyrus the king of Persia or to Israel, another to whom he’s called, but to the entire world that they would know:

I am the Lord, and there is no other, and besides me, there is no God (vs 5-7).

This is the same revelation brought by the Son of God; to make the invisible God known to the world:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
(Fourth Gospel 17:20-26 emphasis mine)

 

Throughout Isaiah 45-46, Yeshua, the God of the Old Testament period further declares about himself:

• I created the heavens and formed the earth that it should be inhabited (with life).
• I the Lord speak the truth and declare what is right.
• I am God, and there is no other. Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
• To me, every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear allegiance.
• In me, all the children of Israel will be justified and glorified.
• My council will stand, and I will accomplish all I intend.
• What I have spoken I will bring to pass.
• What I have purposed that will I do.
• I will put salvation in Zion for the glory of Israel.
• I bring my righteousness near. My salvation will come.

 

Note the connection between righteousness and salvation (46:13). God’s righteousness precedes his salvation; bringing the one near to achieve the other. It’s clear also the scope of all these things the Lord is doing (45:7c), though it’s partly shrouded in symbolism:

“Shower, O heavens, from above,

and let the clouds rain down righteousness;

let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;

let the earth cause them both to sprout;

I the Lord have created it. (Isaiah 45:8)

 

This connects with what the apostle Paul was inspired to write with regard to the seed that God has planted in the earth.[1]

You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:36-38)

 

Here, Paul is describing the fruit of life that comes through the resurrection in Christ when the earth opens and the dead in Christ are raised. This is the fruit of righteousness in Christ poured out on his firstfruits through his Spirit of power which leads to the Lord’s salvation and eternal life. The Lord even reveals one of the largest possible contexts for the work he is doing and his revelation of it (45:7):

I form light and create darkness;

I make peace and create evil;[2]

I am the Lord who does all these things.

 

Here, as in other places in Scripture,[3] God is claiming more than just the awareness of good and evil expressed in Genesis 3:22. First, we have to acknowledge that God has the knowledge and awareness of both. We’re certainly quick to accept the one from him, but why not the other also? Even Job, in the midst of his unjust suffering, acknowledged: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.[4] The apostle Paul too was willing to acknowledge and surrender to God’s sovereignty:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:19-24)

 

If God possesses the same free will instilled in his children, in what context would he exercise that will and his Godly character except in the context of good and evil? What can exist in our realm or in the heavenly realm that does not come from him? Is there one creator of only good things and another creator of only evil? Yet the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob claims authority and authorship over both. Does this diminish God in any way in our eyes?

Which is greater, a God that does good because that is all he knows, or the God who knows good and evil yet has the character to always choose the lasting good?

 

As we’ve seen previously, Scripture’s definition of evil generally revolves around failing to acknowledge God as one worthy to be praised and as singularly above all other gods. By creating beings, seen and unseen, that have free will and self-determination, he also creates the environment where disobedience and rebellion can dwell as a result of ignorance or choice. This is consistent with Leibnitz’s observations about multiple “states of being” as discussed previously.[5] To achieve the obedient state for those with free will, God works through the futility of the natural realm to humble and refine his children into the image and likeness of Christ. This is evidenced by all that God works in Christ for our benefit;

• Through the forgiveness and removal of sin. Yeshua the Christ becomes the very sin that condemns us (2 Corinthians 5:21) so that we can be justified and glorified (Romans 8:28-30).
• By overcoming the corruption in the world through the liberty and righteousness in Christ (1 John 5:4-5).
• By revealing the character and power of God on behalf of those oppressed by the ignorance of men and the deceit of angels.
• By providing a source of truth, wisdom, and the knowledge of God for those with hearts willing to hear and eyes willing to see.
• By providing the source of life through the death and resurrection of his own beloved Son, that he might lead many sons and daughters from the mortal and perishable to the new creation in Christ and eternal life. In this they are made free from condemnation, and the second death is powerless before them (Romans 8:1-4; Revelation 20:6).
• In this new creation, they are no longer subject to the futility in the world to which God willingly subjected them, having grown into the stature and likeness of Christ through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.

 

In all these things, God is proactive, establishing the reconciliation and rewards in Christ before the foundation of the world for those willing to surrender to the obedience of faith.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (Fourth Gospel 1:1-4,9-13)