“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” -Isaiah 45:7.
As believers we accept that God is good (Mark 10:18), holy (I Peter 1:16), light (I John 1:5), and love (I John 4:16). But then we come to scriptures such as the above, and it's hard to understand how such a good God could be related with evil, but the Word of God affirms it more than once. Is it actually the Lord himself directly inflicting hardships? Let me give you my take on this subject, relying on the Bible for insight.
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” -Genesis 1:31. Bold type added to emphasize.
Right from the beginning, we find that everything God made was good, and we know that God is good. The simplicity of it is that mankind was given a choice, and by choosing to disobey God's instructions, sin & evil entered the world. Of course, the devil was the deceiver who caused us to stumble, so what about him? If the devil was part of the creation in Genesis 1, how could God call him good? Remember what the Bible says about such a consideration;
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” -Isaiah 5:20.
When we read the story of creation, this is an account of the world & universe we see and live in today. Genesis 1 tells of the creation of 2 heavens; the heaven of the earth, and the heaven of the sky (Genesis 1:8,17), which would include outer space. What we are NOT told about here is the 3rd heaven (2 Corinthians 12:3); also called the “heaven of heavens” where God dwells (I Kings 8:27). Our God is eternal, and we are not told of any beginnings for His dwelling place. It would therefore also make sense that the angelic host existed in the 3rd heaven with God prior to the creation of man and our universe. We find one such clue to this state of being in Job 38:4-7, where it appears that the angelic host was a witness to our creation.
But this would also mean that there was NO devil, and NO hell at the time we were created. Satan's pre-fallen name was Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12), and Ezekiel 28:12-15 calls him, “the anointed cherub that covereth.” V. 13 declares that he was in the Garden of Genesis 2 BEFORE he rebelled against God. Hell was created after the devil rebelled (Matthew 25:41), and we are simply not told at what point this happened. Indeed, at the time of our creation, ALL was very good!
Without our God, nothing would exist. Therefore evil exists only because of the initial creation, but it was not evil as it was created, but became evil due to the choices that were made. God himself is not evil, but He is still the supreme ruler of the universe. God limits how far the devil can go, and even limits his knowledge, as we see in I Corinthians 2:7&8;
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
And so God still takes the credit for all that happens, because He still has power over every-thing, and we can see this in the book of Job 2:3 in the account of God's interaction with Satan;
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause."
To read the full account you would know that it was Satan's hand that afflicted Job, but the Lord had to grant him permission. You can find another account of God's interactions with the subordinate spirits in I Kings 22, given through the prophet Micaiah. The Bible also declares that God uses the wicked as His sword (Psalm 17:13), rather than actually doing evil Himself.
In short, our world today is filled with evil, and has fallen far from its original sinless state. God is the sovereign ruler still, but for this time He allows evil to exist as a result of the choices we are free to make. Through all of this God reveals who He is, even using the devil's evil for His glory, as we saw earlier in I Corinthians. If there were no trials, why would we call on God at all?
And so we conclude that first, all things were created by God; second, everything was very good when God created it. Third, God is not evil, and there was no evil in the beginning of His creation, not even the devil or hell. Fourth, God gave mankind & the angelic host freedom to choose, and as a result of them making disobedient choices, evil came into the world. Fifth, God is still ultimately in control of everything, but evil is allowed in a limited way to fulfill God's purpose.
So that is what is meant when the Bible tells us that God creates evil. The Lord has created all things, and He reveals Himself to us by creation, and through the truth of His Word. It will always be somewhat of a mystery to us, but we can TRUST the God who sacrificed His Son for our reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." -Romans 9:17,18.
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