Okay folks – grab yourself a cup of coffee, tea, an energy drink, or whatever will keep you alert and awake, because this is going to be a journey. How many of you have read this passage:

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” – Isaiah 45:7

So anyways… how about them Cowboys!? All kidding aside, there are very few people who want to confront difficult passages like this. Knowing how to reconcile the goodness of God with a passage like this will not only help you to witness, but to walk through trials when you don’t understand anything about what you’re going through and how a “good” God could allow it. This is not an easy passage to deal with at all. Remember in the “Defense of the Faith” article we talked about Old Testament passages that weren’t exactly easy reading – this is one of them. Remember, the purpose of these articles isn’t to tell you what to say because that wouldn’t be authentic. In order to address the things we talk about, it has to be personal to you. It’s a lot like someone sharing a testimony and something about what is said just clicks, God speaks to you, and it helps you to move forward in Him. That’s what this is all about. So, rather than looking at these articles as talking points, think about them as tools to help illuminate what may have previously been a dark area for you or something you really didn’t want to even look at.

Passages like Isaiah 45:7 force us to come to grips with the reality of God’s personhood.The key to the “Why does God allow ______” questions in all of their variations, is about perspective. The difference between God’s perspective of an event and man’s perspective of an event is day and night. This is why understanding the ways of God as revealed not only in his word but in our walks with him is so key to our witness to others.

In reference to the passage in Isaiah, it is a stark reminder of the sovereignty of God. He is Love, Truth and Justice personified. So why would he say he “creates” evil? We know He created Lucifer who is now Satan, the accuser of the brethren, and who, with Adam and Eve’s help, caused this entire world and the entirety of mankind to fall. Why would God permit this? Side Note: The Book of Job provides some valuable insights into this and If you haven’t ever read it, I would highly encourage you to do so. It provides some very powerful lessons in the limitations (and frankly, the futility) of man’s perspective on pretty much anything, and how far apart it is from the ways and perspective of God. Isaiah 55:8-9 says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

In addition to the aforementioned passage, we have to reconcile a couple of key things when it comes to God: One, He isn’t a man and he doesn’t think like a man. Two, His perspective isn’t limited to time and space. God sees things in their totality; from beginning to end, all at once. Passages like Psalm 139:16 allude to this:

“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Speaking of which, if you’ve ever worried about your shortcomings catching God off guard – don’t. He knew all of your days, all of your choices, and your entire life from beginning to end before you were even a twinkle in your parent’s eyes – and he still chose you knowing all of these things. He is God. A great example of man’s faulty and limited perspective of good and evil and God’s flawless perspective of good and evil colliding in real time is the interaction between Jesus and Peter in Matthew 16:21-23. Have you ever wondered why Jesus had such a harsh rebuke for Peter, right after he was the one to whom the Holy Spirit revealed who Jesus was? Jesus wasn’t rebuking Peter – he was rebuking the spirit behind his words. How did he know right away it was the enemy? Look at the perspective from which Peter spoke:

“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Here is Jesus, whom Peter knows is the Son of God by revelation of the Holy Spirit, telling the disciples he’s going to be killed. Before brushing past this passage, put yourself in Peter’s shoes, and you’ll realize it’s something that you and I have been guilty of time and again. We come across a bad situation, weigh the good and evil and draw conclusions based on our limited perspective. We do that because in our humanity, we don’t consider or trust that God has a different perspective entirely. This is where faith in God’s character comes in. Faith helps us to see in the darkness. To call things possible that to man, are impossible. Faith moves us from our abilities and strength, to God’s ability and strength. That trust moves us from striving to resting. If you truly trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God, wouldn’t you be at peace even in the midst of Chaos? Something to think about. Peter loved Jesus. They laughed together. They broke bread together. They shared life together during the time Jesus was on this earth. Jesus was his friend. He was the source of all his hopes and desires. The thought of losing him would have been crushing; Jesus was the best thing that had ever happened to him and losing him would have been the worst thing possible and to Peter. It flew in the face of everything that he knew to be good. Now let’s look at what God thought about all of this and it gives us perfect insight as to why Jesus’ response was as direct as it was:

“Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;  He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand "  Isaiah 53:4-10

Take this passage in. The thought of Jesus dying crushed Peter. It was the worst day of his life. But that same thing that would crush Peter, pleased God – not because God is a sadist, but because God knew the significance of what the death of Jesus upon the cross would mean for mankind. Please permit me to illuminate God’s heart behind this very significant event, the event upon which all of scripture points to. Look at these scriptures and you will see:

“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” Genesis 17:7–8

“I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Exodus 6:7

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.” Leviticus 26:12

“That He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you…” Deuteronomy 29:13

“…Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.” Jeremiah 7:23

“…Obey My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God.” Jeremiah 11:4

“Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” Jeremiah 24:7

“You shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Jeremiah 30:22

“I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33

“They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” Jeremiah 32:38

“…that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:20

“…that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me… They shall be My people, and I will be their God, says the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 14:11

“Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:28

“They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols… They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 37:23, 27

“I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.” Zechariah 8:8

“For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” 2 Corinthians 6:16

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Hebrews 8:10

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’” Revelation 21:3

Do you see now why man’s perspective will never be God’s perspective? God’s only desire throughout scripture since he walked with Adam in the garden has been to tabernacle with us. To dwell with us. Sin prevented that from happening. That is why the death of Jesus, although horrible, was pleasing to him. God saw past the temporary and forward to the eternal: The reconciliation of mankind to himself. This is why the disciples never understood Jesus’ mission until after he was crucified even though he told them time and again what would happen and why. In subsequent articles we will continue to address good and evil and how God doesn’t create it in the sense that he wills it to happen, but in the sense that he wields it for our good and for his purposes – whether we understand it or not.