Isaiah 45:7 - God made evil?

Dan Kitzler said:

I'll agree to that! Thank you!

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No need to thank me though. We need to defend our faith against those who oppose it.

Hm. I found that this verse is also a reference to Genesis 1 -and God separated the light from the darkness. at least from the first part.

But here's the whole verse in Hebrew, and I'll break it down for y'all:
יֹוצֵ֥ר אֹור֙ וּבֹורֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂ֥ה שָׁלֹ֖ום וּבֹ֣ורֵא רָ֑ע אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה עֹשֶׂ֥ה כָל־אֵֽלֶּה

יֹוצֵ֥ר אֹור֙ וּבֹורֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ means "forming the light of day and creating darkness
עֹשֶׂ֥ה שָׁלֹ֖ום וּבֹ֣ורֵא רָ֑ע means "making wholeness (shalom) and forming* evil"
אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה עֹשֶׂ֥ה כָל־אֵֽלֶּה means "I the Lord am doing all these"

putting it all together gets: "forming the light of day and creating darkness, making whole and forming evil, I the Lord am doing all these"

This verse is filled with participles "-ing words in English" and the same word for forming the light of day is the same for forming evil.

But Ra -> evil can mean a multitude of things including: wickedness, morally depraved, bad, evil, harmful, of no value, of bad quality, inferior (I'm using Holladay's "A concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, on page 341)

It's not about picking and choosing what you want the word to mean, but in context because it is pair with "shalom" (wholeness) instead of "tov" (good) it is probably better to go with a contrast to wholeness, perhaps harmful rather than a contrast to good which is usually evil (see Amos 5:15 where Ra and Tov are used as good and evil).

God is forming this "ra" just as He is doing to the light of the day, so keep that in mind.

Moreover, check out Isaiah 63:17a "O LORD why have You made us stray from Your ways, and hardened our heart from Your fear?"

Obviously whatever is denoted by "ra" is not that good, but God is still the one forming, or shaping it.

Also check out Genesis 50:20 -> But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive

The good and evil here are also tov and ra. It is just something to ponder, but the bottom line here is that "ra" in this context is the opposite to the wholeness (shalom) and not good (tov), so translating it as evil (ra) might not be the best translation available.

God sows light for righteously disposed ones, and through his Word the Bible enlightens their minds, but he brings mental darkness upon those who willfully continue in a wrong course. (Psalms 82:5-7; 97:11; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 13) Peace of mind, even now, is the lot of those devoted to God and his service, and in the new world under the reign of his Prince of Peace all then living will rejoice in that blessed state forever. (Psalms 72:1, 4, 7, 8; Isaiah 9:6, 7) As for the statement that God creates evil, it does not mean anything or any practice that is morally wrong. “Evil” as here used does not mean moral evil, of which God could never be guilty, but it refers to a calamity or disaster or destruction, such as he brings upon his unrepentant foes, and that particularly at the battle of Armageddon. From rebellious Adam’s time onward punishment has come from God upon the willfully wicked, and this has been wholly just on God’s part, but it has been as an evil to the ones meriting it. However, at times Jehovah, in his mercy, has refrained from bringing the intended calamity or evil in execution of his righteous judgment because of the repentance on the part of those concerned. (Jonah 3:10) Additionally, in having a warning given, Jehovah has undeservedly provided opportunities for the practicers of bad to change their course and thus to keep living.-Ezekiel 33:11.

sickntired771 said:

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." Isaiah 45:7, KJV

God through the prophet Isaiah says he made evil but how do we justify an all loving God with the evil or even if not (morally evil) but rather calamity and wrath that he brings.

Why would God bring devastation to people? In some ways God is like a loving father who adores his child and in other ways he is a very stern and scary disciplinarian.

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When a volcano erupts and kills 1,000 people or so and everyone is running about and there is much destruction we call it chaos and judge this event as something evil but it is not. It is simply something natural that God made into the world so that it would function in such a way to optimize the best for life for the maximum number of persons. So why do people always go and rebuild cities at the feet of volcanoes? I cannot figure that one out. Anyway, we may call this event evil, but God would call IT good, because if there were no volcanoes relieving the building pressures within the earth the whole planet would explode and then we all would be dead.

Now next we must look first at the context of Isaiah 45:7 and then clarify a couple of the words. The chapter is speaking about the saving and restoration of Israel. Jeremiah 25 tells us about the coming 70 year captivity under Babylon. One year for each of the 70 Sabbath years they ignored during the 490 years of idolatrous Kings. Isaiah here alludes to this captivity and then tells us that when the time was right, the Lord would raise up Cyrus the Persian (even naming him 200 years before he was born) to rescue them and send them back to the land. Verses 7-9 is actually describing the fact that the Lord is going to engineer all the circumstances from inviting Nebuchednezzar to his defeat under Cyrus and all for His purpose (Isaiah 45:13).

Now for the words. The word the KJV uses for "create" in Isaiah’s passage is not translated correctly. Create is " bara" (to call forth from nothingness) and this word is "yatzar" or "make" (to form or give form to) and so is saying that the Lord, from the circumstances and according to the personalities of these people and these two men, will bring His final intent to pass. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him, and He contimually had warned them that the wages due for sin is death. For example, if you jump off a skyscrapper withoput a net, will you not plumet into sidewalk splat? Sin, or transgression of the law, is like the consequence of transgressing gravity or any other immutable law. You know you should not do it and lovingly someone has taught you :Thou shalt not jump off the skyscrapper" but in our self will we will not have anyone telling us what to do and we jump anyhoo! So the children of Irsrael had transgressed the law (just as immutable as gravity) and their demise was inevitable. Nebi was going crazy to take over the world anyway. Only this time the Lord was not going to intervene in fact He encourages Nebi to conquer them using those circumstances and conditions which were already present..

Next, the word for evil here is actually not speaking of moral or spiritual evil (and most translations bear this out...especially the Masoretic), it is speaking of sorrow and disaster as opposed to shalom or peaceful wellbeing. These rebellious idolatrous Israelites would receive the consequence of their willful actions in violation of God's immutable laws. See the warning of love detailed in Deuteronomy 28. So God is not saying He is the originator of evil, He is allowing the disaster that is about to come upon them by simply not doing anything to stop it. He will not look upon them, after all this time (many centuries), with mercy and grace. In Jeremiah, He tells the prophet not to even pray for this people He will not listen. He has given them grace on top of grace over and over and they mock His effort to bless and take all the glory and live a life of debauchery....this is "the arm of the Lord" you do not want to experience. But in the end this will cause them to return unto Him and seek Him, and then, He will save them. So it is not that He created "evil" because evil is not a thing in and of itself it is simply the absence of all good (ultimately Him) just as cold does not really exist but as the absence of heat and darkness the absence of light. Do you understand? I hope so.

Now let me warn you as a brother to be careful reading the foolishness of the Skeptics, most of their hogwash are logic games (many fallacies like the appeal to authority, strawman arguments, and argumentum ad populum) immoral/moral judgments (based on modern political opinion), and taking scriptures from totally different books written 100's of years apart and inappropriately comparing them. Believe God to the saving of your household...nothing else matters in life. Christ died foir your sins....you have jumped off the skyscraper (sinned) and the Lord is offering the only net that can save...Christ Jesus. It is a free gift of love (John 3:16; Romans 6:23; Acts 2:38) Shalom!