Long before he was ever born, God called the great conqueror Cyrus by name (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). Though Israel will be exiled to Babylon, God will ordain that this pagan king return them to their homeland. God disciplines His people, yet He loves them, so much so that He smooths the way for Cyrus (verse 2) and gives him military success to plunder the nations (verse 3). God does all this “for the sake of my servant Jacob” (verse 4).
On the one hand, God condemns all idolatry (see the first and second commandments). But now this same God calls an idolater by name do His bidding among the nations. His purpose is not even that His people would be returned, but that all the world would know that there is only one God, and He is . . . God (verses 5-6).1 Just how sovereign, how “God” is this God? Light and darkness, peace and calamity, He creates them both (verse 7). The Bible does not try to protect God from this. 9-11? The Holocaust? Yes, calamity means calamity. God is God, over all things.
This does not answer all our questions. We still wonder at how God can “cause calamity” and yet not be the author of evil. Nevertheless we must act on what the Bible says, which means praying that He would send righteousness, not evil (verse 8). This echoes the last request of the Lord’s Prayer: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Why else pray this way, if both good and evil were not up to Him? At the same time we are not to complain to Him - He is the Creator, not us (verses 9-10). The Potter does what He wants with His clay (Romans 9:20-23). And what He wants is always just.
There is no other God - this is repeated over and over. Thus He calls to all the nations: “Turn to me, and be saved” (22). Because one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess this God to be God. It’s not a matter of whether this will happen, but whether we will kneel in joy or in sorrow, with mouths of praise or gnashing of teeth. So while there’s time, kiss the Son of this God (Psalm 2; Philippians 2:10-11). Only in submission to this King do the nations find the righteousness, strength and glory they seek (verses 24-25).
This is a verse I often bring up with Jehovah’s Witnesses, “with all gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15-16). After all, the JW’s “Bible” says in John 1:1 that “In the beginning, the Word was . . . a god.” This denies the Trinity, leaving Yahweh as God and Jesus as a sort of demi-god. But in their same Bible, Isaiah 45:5-6 says that there is only one God. So which is it, JW’s? It is important, as Peter tells us, to point this out with gentleness and respect. For there are the deceived and the deceivers. Most of the time the people that show up at your door are the deceived. I once welcomed in and pointed all this out to two young men. At one point I said, “So if what I’m saying is true, then one of us is in trouble. Do you agree?” And he humbly nodded his head. On the way out he thanked me, telling me that most people did not treat them so kindly. The point being, truth can be spoken, even in our age, with love. And love must be paired with truth.