I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create calamity: I the LORD do all these things.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 45:7 Go To Isaiah 45
John Chrysostom
AD 407
These things have thus been clearly shown to you to be in some cases bad, some good and some in between, … the inspired author is saying the in-between things are not really bad but are thought to be by the general run of people—things like captivity, servitude and exile. Now, it is necessary to explain the reason for this statement. Loving as [God] is and quick to show mercy, while slow in exercising retribution and punishment, God sent prophets so as to avoid consigning the Jews to punishment, intending to frighten them in word, so as not to punish them in deed.…
Observing this and wishing to undermine the reform that was the result of such a threat, the devil sent down false prophets, and in contradiction of the prophets’ threats of captivity, servitude and famine, false prophets preached the opposite—peace, prosperity and enjoyment of countless good things. Hence, the genuine prophets also mocked the false by saying, “Peace, peace—and where is peace?” This every scholar knows, that everything happened just as the prophets had foretold against the false prophets, who were undermining the people’s zeal. So when they undermined the people in this way and corrupted them, God said through the prophets, “I, God, am making peace and creating evils.” What sort of evils? Those mentioned—captivity, servitude and the like. Not fornication, licentiousness, avarice and anything else like that.…
Do not let the false prophets undermine you; God can give you peace and consign you to captivity, which is the meaning of “making peace and creating evils.” For you to learn that this is true, let us make a precise examination of the individual expressions. After saying before, “I am the one who brought light and darkness into being,” he then went on to say, “making peace and creating evils.” He cited two opposites first, and two opposites after that, for you to learn that he is referring not to fornication but to calamities. I mean, what is set as the opposite of peace? Clearly captivity, not licentiousness or fornication or avarice. So just as he cited two opposites first, so too in this case; the opposite of peace is not fornication, or adultery, or licentiousness or the other vices, but captivity and servitude.
