Now begins another discussion from God concerning His sovereignty. He again says that He is God alone, and there is no God besides Him. This is here presented as a most fundamental truth. Because when it is not firmly believed, it begets the practice of idolatry and many other isms in the world. These include atheism, pantheism, polytheism, materialism, dualism, humanism, and evolutionism. These philosophies are different ways to say there is no God, and are expressions of unbelief. The Lord uses a very commanding, sense of majesty and authority, encouraging defiance, to all pretenders, as He proclaim it to the world: I am the Lord, I the Lord, Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God besides me, no other self-existent, self-sufficient, being, none finite and eternal. And again (v. 6), There is none besides me; all that are set up in competition with me are counterfeits; they are all vanity and a lie, for I am the Lord, and there is none else. He is Lord of all, and there is nothing done without Him (v. 7): I form the light, which is grateful and pleasing, and I create darkness, which is grievous and unpleasing. I make peace (put here for all good) and I create evil, not the evil of sin (God is not the author of that), but the evil of punishment through disorder or chaos. I the Lord order, and direct, and do all these things. |
