I Am The Lord

Isaiah 45:5-12, 18-24
English Standard Version (ESV)


5 I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
8 “Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the LORD have created it.
9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
11 Thus says the LORD,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?
12 I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hand that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.

¹⁸For thus says the LORD,
who created the heavens
   (he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
   (he established it;
he did not create it empty,
   he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the LORD, and there is no other.
¹⁹ I did not speak in secret,
   in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
   ‘Seek me in vain.’
I the LORD speak the truth;
   I declare what is right.

 ²⁰ “Assemble yourselves and come;
   draw near together,
   you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge
   who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god
   that cannot save.
²¹ Declare and present your case;
   let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
   Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the LORD?
   And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
   there is none besides me.

 ²² “Turn to me and be saved,
   all the ends of the earth!
   For I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn;
   from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
   a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
   every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

 ²⁴ “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me,
   are righteousness and strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
   all who were incensed against him.