I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 41-45 is where God very fully reveals His purpose for His people, and those chapters are to be prayerfully studied. The verse belongs to the prophecy naming Cyrus, affirming that the Lord directs the course of events and uses Cyrus to accomplish His purposes for Israel. It is part of continuing promises running through Isaiah 44, 45 and onward, showing what God has done for His people and what He will do for them if they follow on to know Him whose going forth is prepared as the morning. That continuing word is encouragement He has covenanted to give, and it calls for much greater appreciation.
The verse declares that the Lord alone is God and sovereign over all events, forming light, creating darkness, making peace and creating evil or calamity, and doing all these things Himself. As Creator He Himself forms light and darkness and makes all things. Earth, heavens and their hosts came into existence by His word and stood before Him at His command, not from pre-existing matter, and were created for His purpose. He is thus exalted as Creator of all, giving the cities of Judah reason to behold God.
He creates the heavens and stretches them out, spreads forth the earth and what comes from it, makes the earth and creates man upon it, stretches out the heavens and commands all their host. By greatness of might and strength of power He brings out the starry host by number and calls them all by names so that not one fails, with none to liken or equal Him as the Holy One. The verse is presented as a sign of His infinite wisdom and power shown in the progress of His kingdom. It belongs to His instruction not to turn away from His wisdom to look to finite man for wisdom, but to have the wisdom of the Infinite at command.
The surrounding words connect His creative power with righteousness and salvation, which He brings forth and causes to spring up by His creation. The verse reveals the greatness of the love and compassion of God and requires stretched faculties of mind to comprehend, concerning the Lord whom Israel claimed to serve while misunderstanding His character. He is Creator of all things and great Healer of spiritual disease, who made the earth and mankind, stretched out the heavens and commands all their host. He heals those covered from sole of foot to crown of head with sickness of head, faintness of heart, wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, leading them and restoring comfort and peace to the far off and the near.
The verse belongs in schools as valuable study with the loftiest themes of thought, pure excellent language, and elevating ennobling principles, better than romance or fables. It tells of the city to be sought whose Builder and Maker is God, teaches that heaven is home and citizenship is above, that lives must not be devoted to a world soon to be destroyed, and that the Word of God must be revealed in living characters.
Isaiah 41-45 is where God very fully reveals His purpose for His people, and those chapters are to be prayerfully studied. The verse belongs to the prophecy naming Cyrus, affirming that the Lord directs the course of events and uses Cyrus to accomplish His purposes for Israel. It is part of continuing promises running through Isaiah 44, 45 and onward, showing what God has done for His people and what He will do for them if they follow on to know Him whose going forth is prepared as the morning. That continuing word is encouragement He has covenanted to give, and it calls for much greater appreciation.
The verse declares that the Lord alone is God and sovereign over all events, forming light, creating darkness, making peace and creating evil or calamity, and doing all these things Himself. As Creator He Himself forms light and darkness and makes all things. Earth, heavens and their hosts came into existence by His word and stood before Him at His command, not from pre-existing matter, and were created for His purpose. He is thus exalted as Creator of all, giving the cities of Judah reason to behold God.
He creates the heavens and stretches them out, spreads forth the earth and what comes from it, makes the earth and creates man upon it, stretches out the heavens and commands all their host. By greatness of might and strength of power He brings out the starry host by number and calls them all by names so that not one fails, with none to liken or equal Him as the Holy One. The verse is presented as a sign of His infinite wisdom and power shown in the progress of His kingdom. It belongs to His instruction not to turn away from His wisdom to look to finite man for wisdom, but to have the wisdom of the Infinite at command.
The surrounding words connect His creative power with righteousness and salvation, which He brings forth and causes to spring up by His creation. The verse reveals the greatness of the love and compassion of God and requires stretched faculties of mind to comprehend, concerning the Lord whom Israel claimed to serve while misunderstanding His character. He is Creator of all things and great Healer of spiritual disease, who made the earth and mankind, stretched out the heavens and commands all their host. He heals those covered from sole of foot to crown of head with sickness of head, faintness of heart, wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, leading them and restoring comfort and peace to the far off and the near.
The verse belongs in schools as valuable study with the loftiest themes of thought, pure excellent language, and elevating ennobling principles, better than romance or fables. It tells of the city to be sought whose Builder and Maker is God, teaches that heaven is home and citizenship is above, that lives must not be devoted to a world soon to be destroyed, and that the Word of God must be revealed in living characters.