considered, that a man can deny the truth uttered by Moses, and accept the

truth uttered by Christ, even though that same Christ asked the question `If

ye believe not his ("Moses") writings, how shall ye believe My words?' (John

Creation not only meets the reader in the opening chapters of the

Bible, its terms are reiterated throughout the inspired Volume, and it will

be found that practically every doctrine or prophetic utterance includes,

either stated or implied the great fact of creation.  Here in Isaiah 45 the

fact of creation is brought forward to show that `purpose' underlies all the

acts of God.  Bara the Hebrew word `to create' occurs about twenty times in

Isaiah, and it would make a profitable study to observe how the progress of

the prophecy is threaded upon this one great act.  Every occurrence except

the first (Isa. 4:5), is found in the second half of Isaiah (Isa. 40 to 66),

which deals with restoration and concludes with the creation of the new

heavens and earth and of the new Jerusalem.  Consequently it is directly to

the point that the reference to creation in Isaiah 45:18 should focus our

attention on the beneficent purpose of the Creator.

`He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited'.

The reader is doubtless familiar with the words `create', `form', and

`make', which are used here in Isaiah 45:18, or elsewhere in the record of

creation.  Let us devote our attention to the balancing words `establish',

`not in vain', `inhabited', for these words supply the reason why creation is

introduced into the argument.

The Hebrew language contains a fairly full range of words for

expressing the idea of `establishing'.  Each word, as it were, illuminates

one facet of the whole meaning of the expression.

There is a word that means `faithful and true' (1 Sam. 3:20); there is

another that means `to lay a foundation' (Psa. 78:69); another means `to

stand' (2 Chron. 9:8); and yet another which means `to arise, to stand firm'

(Gen. 6:18) which word is more often translated `establish' than any other.

None of these however are used by Isaiah in chapter 45:18.  The word there

translated `established' being kun.  This word means primarily `to set up',

and then secondly `to prepare, fashion, form and adjust'.  There is an

underlying thought of perfect adaptation running through all its occurrences,

and the thought in Isaiah 45 is that the earth was purposely prepared, fitted

and made ready as the dwelling place of man.  Had the gravitational pull of

the earth been much greater than it is, man as now constituted would drag his

heavy footsteps with labour and weariness.  Had it been as slight as it is on

the surface of the moon, every step would have been a leap, a bounce and a

jostle.  Had the sun been much nearer than it is, all life as we know it

would have been destroyed by the heat; had it been much farther away, all

life would have perished with the cold.  The twenty -four -hour day, divided

as it is into darkness and light, is exactly adapted to the requirement of

man, its destined inhabitant.  Consequently, we find, as Hebrew poetry so

fully sets out, the meaning of `established' is expressed in the negative

clause that follows: `He created it not in vain'.

Before going on to the further explanatory clause `He formed it to be

inhabited' it will be necessary to examine the word translated `in vain', the

Hebrew word tohu.  This word meets us in Genesis 1:2, in the phrase `without

form and void' and is used in Deuteronomy 32:10 to describe the wilderness of

Israel's long wandering `in the waste howling wilderness'.  Job uses this