God is the Creator of everything that exists. This is declared in the opening verse of the Bible and is repeated throughout the Scriptures. This fact is a major theme in Isaiah. In addition to the many times he talks about the things God has created, the prophet refers eight times to God as “Maker” and nine times as “Creator.” He reminds his readers that the God they are rejecting is:

1. The Maker-Creator of all existence, and
2. The Maker-Creator of Israel as His special people.

 

The Maker-Creator Of All Existence.
In drawing his vivid picture of the sharp contrast between lifeless idols and Israel’s living God, Isaiah eloquently portrays God in His role as Creator:

Do you not know? Have you not heard?…
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth….
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy….
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?…. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth (40:21-22,26,28).

Isaiah makes these statements to magnify the greatness of God. Reflecting on the greatness of the One who spoke the worlds into existence has always produced a sense of reverence and awe in believers. I recall the time when my father and I looked at the sky on a bright cloudless night. Like most children, I instinctively thought of God on such an occasion. That night my spine tingled as I heard my father quote the well-known words from Psalm 8:3-5.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

I’m convinced that all of us instinctively see the evidence of our Creator. Until we learn to consciously suppress the knowledge of God, we cannot help but think of Someone far greater than human beings when we gaze upward at a cloudless night sky, look across the Grand Canyon, view the surging expanse of the ocean sparkling under the sun, or listen to the birds singing in the springtime. We lose this inborn understanding through our contact with other unbelieving adults and a deliberate suppression of our innate God given awareness. That’s probably why many non-Christian scientists and intellectuals, though wielding so much influence on our higher institutions of learning, the news media, and the entertainment industry, have been able to convince only about 10 percent of the public that everything exists by chance plus time plus space.

Interestingly, the more the institution of science learns about the complexity of life, even at its simplest level, the more all of it looks designed. A single cell is known to contain more information than all the combined volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Evolutionist Richard Dawkins, in his influential book The Blind Watchmaker, makes the observation that “biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose” (cited by Phillip Johnson in Objections Sustained, p.48). Prominent British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle admits that when he faced one of the many unexplainable coincidences in nature, his faith in atheism “was greatly shaken.” He makes this startling statement: “A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that super-intellect has monkeyed with physics” (cited by Fred Heeren in Show Me God, p.227).

These complexities led Carl Sagan and many other zealous unbelievers to speak in reverential language about our “awesome cosmos.” But in speaking this way they reveal that they are only a step away from the ancient pagans who believed in an eternal, magical universe that gave birth to the gods. Many scientific scholars are now saying that life’s genetic material may have been planted on earth by superintelligent beings from a distant world. What a striking similarity there is between these unseen aliens and the gods of the ancients!

How much more reasonable it is to believe in the self-existent, personal God—the purposeful Creator of Isaiah 45:18.

This is what the Lord says—He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—He says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

 

The Maker-Creator Of Israel.
As the Maker-Creator of all things, God created the Gentile nations, but Israel is His uniquely created people with whom He has a special relationship: “I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King” (43:15). “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me” (1:2). “Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many” (51:2).

This call to look back to Abraham and Sarah is significant. The Israelites knew that Isaac’s birth was a miracle, the truth so clearly stated many years later in Hebrews 11:11-12.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father…. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

They also knew that when God called out Abraham, He promised that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:2-3).

Exodus describes how this miraculously-born nation was miraculously delivered from Egypt and miraculously preserved in the wilderness. In addition to all this, the land God gave them was perfectly adapted for their calling to be distinct and yet a witness of His power. It is a secluded land hedged around by mountains, desert, and water. Hostile neighbors surround it and isolate it on all sides. Yet it is the “center of the earth,” the bridge between the ruling nations of the Middle East, the place where three continents most nearly touch, the location from which it is easy to reach the chief Gentile countries.

Therefore Solomon, when dedicating his temple, prayed that when “the foreigner” who has heard about God comes to worship, he will respond so that “all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears Your Name” (1 Ki. 8:43).

That this was God’s intention was clearly stated at Sinai when God called the nation to be “a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:5-6), mediating God’s blessings to her neighbors. But the nation, through her continual disobedience, never fulfilled her calling. And as we have seen, this pattern of rebellion was very much in evidence during the time of Isaiah’s ministry. In fact, at the time of the vision recorded in chapter 6, God informed Isaiah that the nation was so completely given over to pagan practices that the people would not listen to him and would continue on the path to destruction. But, as we’ll see in the following two sections of this booklet, He also led Isaiah to prophesy of promised deliverance, restoration to their land, and salvation through His “Servant.”

In summary, Isaiah’s God is the almighty Maker and Creator of all that exists. He has a right to expect worship and obedience from every person everywhere. He brought all nations into being, but Israel is His uniquely created people—His miracle nation. She has been given a special place on earth and within mankind. And though Israel has repeatedly failed to live up to her calling, Isaiah’s God has not given up on her. He will carry out all His plans for her. As the Maker and Creator of everything that exists, He unquestionably possesses the wisdom and power to bring about all the plans He has for her and for all mankind.

 

SEEING GOD

• In Isaiah’s eloquent portrayal of God’s role as Creator (40:21-25), we catch a glimpse of His wisdom and power.
• In God’s revelation of Himself through the created world, we see His desire to communicate with us.
• In God’s creation of Israel through the miraculous birth of Isaac, we see the power He exerts in our own regeneration.
• In God’s placement of Israel in Canaan, we see His loving purpose for all mankind.

 

SEEING OURSELVES

• In mankind’s reluctance to see God as Maker-Creator, we see our prideful desire for independence.
• In Israel’s rebellion after being made a special people, we see our own reluctance to give ourselves completely to God.
• In our doubts and desire for proofs that we didn’t demand as children, we see our own unwillingness to trust without external evidence.
• In our failure to witness as we should, we see the deficiency of our love and gratitude.