SUBJECT:
Evil
QUESTION: Does Isaiah 45:7 state that God creates
evil?
ANSWER:
No, it does not.
First the verse:
Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and
create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Notice the commentary for "I make peace" and "I create
evil."
I make peace
- I hush the contending passions of mankind; I dispose to
peace, and prevent wars when I choose - a passage which
proves that the most violent passions are under his control.
No passions are more uncontrollable than those which lead to
wars; and nowhere is there a more striking display of the
Omnipotence of God than in his power to repress the pride,
ambition, and spirit of revenge of conquerors and kings:
Psalm 65:7
Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their
waves, and the tumult of the people.
And create evil
- The parallelism here shows that this is not to be
understood in the sense of all evil, but of that which is
the opposite of peace and prosperity. That is, God directs
judgments, disappointments, trials, and calamities; he has
power to suffer the mad passions of people to rage, and to
afflict nations with war; he presides over adverse as well
as prosperous events. The passage does not prove that God is
the author of moral evil, or sin, and such a sentiment is
abhorrent to the general strain of the Bible, and to all
just views of the character of a holy God.
~Barnes Notes
I make peace, and create evil
- Evil is here evidently put for war and its attendant
miseries. I will procure peace for the Israelites, and
destroy Babylon by war. I form light, and create darkness.
Now, as darkness is only the privation of light, so the evil
of war is the privation of peace.
~Adam Clarke
I make peace, and create evil
- peace between God and men is made by Christ, who is God
over all; spiritual peace of conscience comes from God,
through Christ, by the Spirit; eternal glory and happiness
is of God, which saints enter into at death; peace among the
saints themselves here, and with the men of the world; peace
in churches, and in the world, God is the author of, even of
all prosperity of every kind, which this word includes:
"evil" is also from him; not the evil of sin; this is not to
be found among the creatures God made; this is of men,
though suffered by the Lord, and overruled by him for good:
but the evil of punishment for sin, God's sore judgments,
famine, pestilence, evil beasts, and the sword, or war,
which latter may more especially be intended, as it is
opposed to peace; this usually is the effect of sin; may be
sometimes lawfully engaged in; whether on a good or bad
foundation is permitted by God; moreover, all afflictions,
adversities, and calamities, come under this name, and are
of God. ~John Gill
Notice some related scriptures:
Job 34:29
When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and
when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it
be done against a nation, or against a man only:
Psalm 75:7
But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up
another.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight,
which he hath made crooked?
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of
adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against
the other, to the end that man should find nothing after
him.
So we see clearly that God is not creating moral evil or
sin. |