Isaiah 54:16
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Isaiah 54:16 belongs to God's promise of future glory to afflicted, tempest-tossed Zion, Jerusalem the holy city. It stands with Isaiah 52, 53, and 54 as prophecies regarding Christ's work, to be studied for help and blessing to His people. It declares that God created both the smith who blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his work and the waster to destroy, so that even the makers of weapons and the destroyers and the forces that threaten God's people remain under His creative power and control.
In its setting, the verse undergirds the assurance that those who gather against God's people will fall and no weapon formed against them will prosper. The wider promise around it is that His people established in righteousness will be far from oppression and terror, taught of the Lord with great peace for their children, built with precious foundations and borders, with every condemning tongue condemned, as the heritage of the servants of the Lord whose righteousness is of the Lord. Applied to the end time, it assures the church, clad in Christ's righteousness, as she enters her final conflict conquering and to conquer.
When the liberty of the church of Christ is endangered and oppression by transgressors of the Sabbath gives apparent victory to evildoers, the chapter gives assurance that God has victory for His people. At such a time it calls for true missionary work in public ministry and house-to-house labor, wholehearted earnest work, watchfulness, separation from selfishness, and unity under the power of Christ's grace.