These things take place not because of anything that we do but because of what God does. In the text He says: “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord, who does all these things.” Notice that the Lord claims responsibility for both the good and the bad that we encounter in life. It is He who destroys and it is He who builds. He especially destroys in us our foolish pride and self-confidence, through which Satan would deceive us into thinking that we have some merit or ability within ourselves that enables us to stand in the presence of the holy God. Even a casual glance at the Law of God will demolish that false notion. The Lord does this not because He is cruel, but because He is loving. He knows that we will never be receptive to the Good News of forgiveness and salvation through the blood of Jesus as long as we think that we can justify ourselves. And so, as any loving parent, He destroys the attitude within us that would bring about our destruction.
But He builds in the place of what He has destroyed. In the Gospel of His Son He replaces our self-righteous attitude with the true righteousness that was accomplished for us in the life and ministry of the Savior who He sent to redeem us. He replaces our self-justifying attitude with the true justification that He accomplished for us in the perfect life and the innocent suffering and death of the Savior. He replaces our self-confidence with the sure confidence that is ours only in the slain and risen Christ. And He replaces our inadequate efforts to please Him with the perfectly acceptable works that His Spirit inspires and strengthens in us through the Gospel. This is what motivates us to do the things that glorify the Lord and proclaim His salvation in Christ. We do them not in fear but in gratitude for the things that He has done to redeem us from sin and death and to restore us as His dear children.
There is a reason why He does all of this, as He says to Cyrus in the text: “that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me.” No other god could or would do the things that our God has done for us in the life and ministry of His Son. The reason is that there is no other God. Oh, there are a lot of other things (people, places, interests, and ideas) that people may worship as gods--things that they allow to control them--things to which they devote all of their time, money and attention, and in which they have confidence. But these other “gods” are no gods at all. God is One: the One who in His mercy and grace has reached down to His fallen creation in the Person of His Son and has redeemed it. This is Good News--Good News that we are privileged to share with the whole world. He Himself has made that possible and He Himself will enable us to do it.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.