Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Question:

In reply to “J. M’M., Airdrie,” with reference to Isaiah 45:7 ― “How does God create evil?”

Answer:

From chapters 40 to 48 of the prophet Isaiah, it will be clearly seen that there is a great question between Jehovah and the idols of Babylon. The Lord declares that He had raised up Cyrus, King of Persia, the “righteous man from the east,” to deliver His people Israel, in the face of and in the midst of this idolatry (consult 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; and Ezra 1:1-4; and many other passages), and the idols of Babylon.

But there was then a danger also to be met, lest this Persian king or his people, might attribute to their own idol gods of Persia this deliverance and victory over Babylon and her gods and idols (see an example of this in 2 Chronicles 25:14-16; 18:23).

We are told that the Persians were famous for a two-fold system of idolatry ― Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. And so Jehovah declares His pre-eminence over all these principles which the Persian mind had deified, and with which it was familiar. It does not convey the thought that Jehovah directly creates evil; but it establishes His divine pre-eminence as God, above principles which are mere creatures or abstract qualities, and which the Persians held as gods; and to which he might attribute his victories.

Apart, too, from all this, God is Creator; and if He permits in His wise purpose, a creature to work its own will, still He is Creator, and He made the creature, and permits it. No one in any sense is above Him, nothing can be carried on against Him. He allows evil to exhaust itself, and then His goodness ― nay, Himself, is manifested in overruling and counteracting it.