I have been studying the Book of Isaiah for the past few weeks and have been once again reminded of the far reaching arms of prophecy. But right in the midst of all of that I was once again hit with a verse that has always caused me to pause.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. KJV
It has always troubled me that God said that He creates evil. My mind has just never gotten around that; at least not until early Sunday morning. As I contemplated that thought once again the Spirit told me to look up the word evil; should I have been surprised at what I read? The Hebrew word for evil as used here is “ra” and it means “catastrophe.” So that tells me God is the One who creates or allows certain situations in my life that seem “catastrophic” to me; I’m sure I’m not alone here. And those are quite often the situations that I immediately blame Satan for. Well, maybe it was Satan but Job tells me that he can’t cause them unless God allows it. That poses an interesting thought, which the Holy Spirit challenged me with… who am I complaining against when “catastrophes” come my way? Verse 7 tells me that while God may create “catastrophes” in my life, He also is the one who creates peace. He creates the peace I need for those times in which it seems as if “evil” is surrounding me. Perhaps that’s what Jeremiah had in mind:
Jer 48:11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. KJV
When making wine, the winemaker poured the wine from vessel to vessel as the lees (dregs) settled to the bottom. This was the only way to remove them and ensure that the wine had a pleasant fragrance and taste. Do you feel like your life is one big “catastrophe” and you keep going in circles? Do you feel like you are being poured from vessel to vessel? Or maybe you feel like the clay on the potter’s wheel that is being squeezed, poked, and prodded. Perhaps if we would look at our circumstances with the understanding that just maybe it’s God that is responsible for the “evil” that surrounds us, then maybe we would consider the reason He has done so. Look at what the Lord told Isaiah next:
Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?KJV
That word “striveth” (riyb) means to become an adversary; one who complains, contends, debates or rebukes. Is that what we are doing when we fail to recognize the “evil” that has come upon us and fight against it? Do we immediately begin to complain and debate the situation or do we immediately seek the counsel of the only One who can give us the wisdom and peace that we need to get through the “catastrophe?” Far too often we fight against God because we think that He doesn’t have our best interests in mind when the roof caves in. Oh, how we fail to remember that He only wants to accomplish things in our life that are exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think (Eph 3:20)! It’s His plan to make the worthless clay into a beautiful vessel, to make sour wine into a refreshing drink… our lives into something beautiful that He can use to bless the world.
So, the question in front of us is… if we believe that, then why do we fight against Him when we find ourselves in the midst of “evil?” Perhaps we all need to keep that in mind the next time one of those “catastrophic” situations confronts us. Jesus is the only One who can tell us who is behind the evil and what we are to do about it… because He created it or allowed it for a reason!