By Seth Erlandsson, in Biblicum 3/2019. Translated by Julius Buelow.

Does God create both good and evil?

Question: I’m confused when I read Isaiah 45:7. Does God, who is perfectly good, also create evil? The verse says: “I am the one who forms light and creates darkness, the one who makes peace and creates disaster. I am the Lord, the one who does all these things.”

Answer: When we come upon verses that are hard to understand it is important to take note of the context. Isaiah 45:7 is preceded by God talking about how he used the Assyrian tyrant Sennacherib as his weapon of wrath against his rebellious people (see Isaiah 10:5-6 and chapters 36-39), resulting in great devastation. God has all power in heaven and on earth. Different tyrants and even Satan himself are unable to do anything unless God allows it. Compare Jesus’ words about Pilate’s power when he said, “So Pilate asked him, ‘Are you not talking to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above.’” (John 19:10ff)

In Isaiah 44:24-45:25 God emphasizes not only that he has the power to punish through the Assyrian invasion, but also that he has the power to save. He will even be able to use the heathen leader Cyrus as his tool of salvation (Isaiah 44:28-45:7): “Except for me, there is no god. I will equip you even though you do not know me, so that people will know from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets that there is no one except me. I am the Lord, and there is no other” (45:5-6). In the East people believed in the Zoroastrian dualistic teachings: one good God and one evil God who fought for control. The truth is: There is only one God. He is goo d(“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures forever” (Psalm 118:1). “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). He does not want any sinner to perish: “Do I really find any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Don’t I want him to turn from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23). “God our Savior” wants “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

But God is also holy. No sinner can come to the Father if he rejects salvation (the forgiveness of sins, Christ’s vicarious work of atonement and his righteousness): “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), that is, without being clothed in Jesus’ righteousness (cf Galatians 3:27). Therefore, he offers his Son’s righteousness to sinners as a free gift.

God uses even Satan and the ungodly in his service. Compare Joseph’s words to his brothers: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). The Father let evil people and the devil work together in order to bring about Jesus’ crucifixion, a work he himself decided and planned from eternity. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 it says that it was Satan who instigated David to count the fighting men of Israel. In 2 Samuel 24:1 it says that it was the Lord. Both statements are correct, for it was the Lord who let Satan do it. In the book of Job it is Satan (the Accuser) who robs Job of everything he has. Yet Job accurately says: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised!” (Job 1:21). For the Lord had told the accuser: “Very well, then. Everything that he has is in your hand” (Job 1:12). When Satan struck Job with painful boils (Job 2:7), the suffering Job said: “The arrows of the Almighty stick in me” (Job 6:4).

For the believer, sickness and suffering are not punishments for their sins (Jesus has already suffered that punishment in their place) but discipline, tests from God that are meant to strengthen their faith in God’s promises. Job’s friends did not understand that.

In conclusion: Isaiah 45:7 is talking about how both judgment and salvation come from God, both the invasion of the wicked power of Assyria-Babylon, and the liberation through Cyrus. The judgment is entirely the fault of sinners who dismissed God’s goodness and mercy. The salvation is entirely dependent on the mercy of God and is entirely undeserved. Both the judgment through Sennacherib and the salvation through Cyrus are testimonies that God alone is God (45:5). “I am the Lord, the one who does all these things” (45:7).