Murray’s so-called exegetic quote below… what an abortive load of tripe, “IMO” of course. This is EXACTLY what I mean by “prevalent gymnastics” — or let me restate that in full…
“That understanding when applied carte blanch leads to all manner of prevalent gymnastics to have God NOT doing “evil”, where in fact certain texts plainly say otherwise.”
B. SPIRITUAL EXEGESIS OF ISAIAH 45:7
Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all these things.”
Step 1) God sends a “divine impulse” to Isaiah. Satan is not involved in the original impulse. Thus, the original impulse IS “inspired” by God in totality. 2 Timothy 3:15-17.
Step 2) The divine impulse is not in any human language, and so the impulse must be processed by Isaiah through his mind and heart. Here Satan CAN be involved in “distorting” the TRANSLATION of that original divine impulse into human language.
Step 3) Because the Old Testament saints had an undifferentiated view of God, this further affected their ability to perfectly translate the original divine impulse into human language. The original divine impulse here contained information about BOTH the good things God does and the evil things He does NOT do (the evil which Satan does, in other words). Isaiah 45 says many wonderful things about God, but also a few “by the letter” misattributions, wrongly translated ideas about God which should have been EITHER attributed to Satan OR denied as being from God.
Step 4) As we now read Isaiah 45, both in proper context and by the Holy Spirit, we are compelled to “reverse-engineer” any verses inconsistent with God’s New Testament character revealed in and through Jesus Christ. We spiritually “reverse-engineer” the troubling passage back to the original divine impulse, and then retranslate the verse with New Testament light. The result will be a redividing of the Scripture to better conform to our better New Cevenantal understanding of the goodness of God.
Step 5) Below is the new reading with just a slight “reverse-engineering” adjustment that reveals Jesus’ nature. Doesn’t this passage now become beautiful and full of glory!
"I am the LORD , and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun , and from the west , that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. ****** I create the light , and in me is no darkness ******[per 1 John 1:5] . ***I make peace , and cause no evil[per James 1:13-17] : I the LORD do all these things. Drop down , ye heavens , from above , and let the skies pour down righteousness : let the earth open , and let them bring forth salvation , and let righteousness spring up together ; I the LORD have created it. " Isaiah 45:5-8.
Hermano, with all due respect to you… the inspired (by God) Isaiah was neither ignorant nor confused! You may as well apply Murray’s concocted blancmange he calls “exegesis” (cough) and magically massage it into ANY so-called “troubling passage” i.e., one that upsets the gut of any sacred cow. I feel I could use any number of other choice words here… but I’m not sure I’m getting the “impulse” quite right.