Episode 185: I create evil

Isaiah 40-48

People are grass

40 ^1-4 God said,

Someone is crying in the wilderness, saying,

Prepare the way of the Lord.

Make a straight highway in the desert for God.

⁵ God's glory will be revealed, and everyone on earth will see it at the same time.

⁶ All flesh is grass, including humans.

⁷ God's spirit kills grass and flowers. People are grass, too.

²² God sits on the circle of the earth. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, or a tent to dwell in.

²⁸ He created the stars and knows them each by name.

41 ¹ Be quiet, you islands.

42 ¹³ The Lord will go forth as a mighty man, a man of war. He will cry, roar, and defeat his enemies.

¹⁴ I've been quiet for a long time. But now I will cry like a woman in labor. I will destroy and devour. ¹⁵ I'll destroy mountains and their herbs. I'll dry up the rivers and lakes.

You are my witnesses

43 ² When you walk through the fire, you won't be burned.

³ Since I loved you (Israel), I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba as a ransom for you.

¹⁰ You are my witnesses. I am God. There was no god before me, and there won't be any after me. ¹¹ I am the Lord, besides me there is no savior. ²⁰ The beasts, dragons, and owls will honor me, because I give them water to drink.

Cyrus is God's shepherd

44 ⁶ I am the only God, the first and the last.

⁸ Is there a god beside me? No there isn't. I don't know of a single one.

²⁵ I make diviners mad and knowledge foolish.

²⁷ I dry up oceans and rivers.

²⁸ Cyrus is my shepherd.

Cyrus, the anointed

45 ¹ God said to Cyrus, his anointed,

I've held your right hand, and I'll loosen the loins of kings for you.

² I'll go before you, making the crooked places straight.

⁴ I've even called you by name, though you don't know me.

I create evil

⁷ I form light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the LORD do all these things.

²² I’m the savior. There is no other but me.

²³ I swear by myself.

There's no one else here with me

46 ⁹ I am God, there's no one else.

There's no one like me.

The nakedness of Babylon

47 ¹ Sit on the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon. No one will call you tender and delicate anymore. ² Show your bare leg. Uncover your thigh. ³ Your nakedness will be uncovered.

¹¹ Evil will come upon you.

¹³ Let your astrologers, stargazers, and fortune tellers save you. ¹⁴ They'll all be burned to death.

The first and the last

48 ¹² I’m the first and the last.

No peace for the wicked

¹³ I laid the foundation of the earth with one hand and spanned the heavens with the other. The stars stand up together when I call them.

¹⁴ I'll have my way with Babylon and smash the Chaldeans with my arm.

¹⁹ Your seed is like sand, and your offspring like gravel.

²¹ When the Israelites thirsted, God made water come out of a rock.

²² There's no peace for the wicked.