Please give an explanation of: "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7)
This text has caused much trouble to many people; and this emphasizes the necessity of knowing that God is good and unchangeable, and that He cannot deny himself.
In the first place, let us refresh our minds with some statements concerning God's character. "As for God, His way is perfect." (Psalm 18:30) "He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." (Deuteronomy 32:4) "The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." (Psalm 92:15) "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious; and His righteousness endures for ever. ... The works of His hands are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." (Psalm 111:2-3,7-8)
These texts are sufficient to show us that God never does anything wrong, and that He cannot be the originator of anything that is wrong. He has no pleasure in wickedness, (Psalm 5:5) and is "of purer eyes than to behold evil." (Habakkuk 1:13)
Therefore we know that the word "evil" in Isaiah 45:7, which God is said to create, does not mean sin; because what is said of God in one place in the Bible cannot be contradicted another place.
What then does it mean? Now that we know what it does not mean, we are driven to look a little more closely at the text itself, and also to examine the context.
In this case we find that the Lord is comforting His people with an account of the wonderful deliverance that He will work for them in the overthrow of Babylon. Cyrus was the visible agent in the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire, but he was merely God's instrument. The angels of God led him into the city of Babylon just as surely as they led Joshua and his army into Jericho. So the evil-the judgment-that came upon that city and kingdom, was of God's creation, and not of man's. The word "evil" in this case undoubtedly is used in the sense of judgment, or calamity, as in the following instances: "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people be not afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it?" (Amos 3:6)
The Revision has it, "Shall evil befall a city, and the Lord has not done it?" which removes all possibility of misunderstanding. "Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth." (Jeremiah 25:32-33)
The text in question teaches us to look for and discern the hand of the Lord in the great changes that take place on the earth, and in great judgments and calamities. In all events God is working out His own purpose for the redemption of the world; and every judgment that befalls any people only signifies the near approach of the great Day of Judgment upon all the earth.--Present Truth, October 31, 1901.