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Bible verses we wish didn't exist
We begin an occasional series, tackling some of the Bible’s most difficult verses—the ones we often pretend don’t exist. In this issue, we asked six of The Salvation Army’s most intrepid thinkers and theologians to reflect on Isaiah 45:7: ‘I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.’
Harold Hill, Retired Officer
Does God create disasters? Or prosperity? The writers of the Bible had such an overwhelming sense of God’s sovereignty that they attributed everything that happened to God’s will. Perhaps for this reason ancient Semitic languages were reluctant to distinguish between ‘purpose’ and ‘result’ in the way we do today—anything that happened must have been intended. But Scripture contains other points of view: biblical writers also recognised people’s freedom to choose, and also that from time to time ‘stuff just happens’. There is a continuum of belief between these extremes of ‘God’s will’ and ‘any other reason’. Some people feel more comfortable at one end of the continuum and some at the other, with still others in the middle. In dealing with what is essentially unknowable, with positions ultimately held by faith (even if arrived at by rational thought), there are no right or wrong answers to this: we live with what makes sense for us. Over-emphasis on sovereignty makes God appear a disaster-causing monster; too much free will and we can become monsters! We cause enough disasters, but we can also work for prosperity. The paradox of God’s power and our freedom can be held together in creative tension.
Sue Hay, Missions Director, Addictions Services
I love the book of Isaiah. It is the place I turn to for comfort, encouragement and reassurance through promises such as:
‘I am with you … I will help you … do not be afraid’ (Isaiah
41:10–14). Such promises seem to be in stark opposition to
the proclamation that God is the source of disaster. To make sense of this I went back to the surrounding verses and looked into their context. I needed to ponder on the words and their original purpose to better understand them. In doing so, I reflected that although we long for a God who allows only good and positive things to happen to us; in reality, life is made up of many diverse healing and painful, enriching and challenging experiences. We cannot have light without darkness, or joy without also knowing deep sorrow and pain. These words are part of a declaration to the Emperor Cyrus, and now to us. The whole passage is an affirmation that God remains in control as he weaves together the perfect balance of light and dark, positive and negative life experiences. The words remind me to keep trusting God’s sovereignty even when I face seemingly disastrous life experiences.
Ian Gainsford, Principal, Booth College of Mission
Is God really saying here that he chooses to enrich some and send disaster to others? Is this the statement of a micro-managing God who blesses or inflicts according to whim? Of course not! This is the God who, in the face of those who wish to assert their own dominance over the world, who wish to build up their own importance—the false prophets, diviners, and even Cyrus in Isaiah 44 and 45—reminds us that we are not God. Of course, that’s not what is said at all. God never says, ‘you are not’. God says, ‘I am’, as a counter to our repeated attempts to make it ‘all about us’. This is the same reminder God brings to Job at the end of that great and perplexing book: ‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Have you ever given orders to the morning? Can you raise your voice to the clouds?’ (Job 38:4, 12, 34). This is God’s bold claim to be and to do what we are not, and cannot do: be truly free, truly great, truly boundless. The heightened use of metaphor and poetic language in and leading up to this verse are a summons to trust God, be humble before God, acknowledge God as God—not just to see his hand in our personal finances or in natural disaster.
Coralie Bridle, Tri-Territorial Theological Forum
In the technologically challenging world of text-messaging, the predictive feature can result in almost as much confusion as ‘predictive-prophecy’ causes for students of the Bible. Isaiah 45:7 is a case in point. If you are looking to this verse for a strictly logical response to the problem of evil in the presence of a supposedly benevolent God, you may well miss the point. Computer literate people understand the binary nature of computer code. In a similar manner, creation is composed of binary opposites—for example, light and darkness reflecting the physical world, or wellbeing and evil reflecting the ethical world. In the face of Isaiah’s predictive prophecy, that trouble was indeed coming for the Babylonian Empire, this verse affirms that behind such realities is a God whose creative and redemptive will cannot be thwarted, even by evil or calamity. Emmanuel Levinas speaks in this context of a ‘difficult freedom’ and a ‘difficult adoration’. These are not simplistic matters. However, adult faith and worship acknowledges such realities and recognises that evil, amongst other things, alerts us to the urgency of our ethical responsibilities. I recently purchased a Fitbit, primarily for its vibrating silent alarm—since my effective earplugs, designed to deal with the evil of snoring, have rendered my normal alarm clock redundant. When I think about Isaiah 45:7, I am reminded that a soul asleep is impervious to the sound of evil. Sometimes we need a different sort of alarm to gain our attention.
Ross Wardle, Director, Heritage Centre and Archives
Some verses in the Bible make me uncomfortable. But Isaiah 45:7 is not one of them. The ‘uncomfortable’ verses usually require something of me. I need to forgive when I don’t want to. I need to be patient when I so want to rip into someone! Isaiah 45:7 is actually quite comforting. It reassures me that someone infinitely more capable than me is running things. It reassures me that the founding Salvation Army leadership didn’t just find our doctrines at the bottom of a packet of ‘Ye Olde Weetbix.’ The second doctrine of The Salvation Army says, ‘We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.’ God takes ultimate responsibility for his creation. We know from the whole Bible that God is love and is a God of mercy, grace, justice and truth. He is not a small boy who pulls the wings off flies for his entertainment. The life he created involves prosperity and disaster, but whether disaster comes from human error or a broken world, God doesn’t cut and run. He takes responsibility for the problem and for its solution.
by Ingrid Barratt (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 25 June 2016, pp10-11
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.