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out their host by number; He calleth them all by their names by the greatness of His
might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth . . . . . The everlasting God, the
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no
searching of His understanding" (Isa. 40: 21-28).
It is this God of Creation that stands behind the covenant made with Abraham and
with the Messiah.
"Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He
that spread forth earth, and that which cometh out of it, He that giveth breath unto the
people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. I, the Lord, have called thee . . . . . I
am the Lord, that is My Name, and My glory will I not give to another" (Isa. 42: 5-8).
Further light upon the purpose of creation, and the place of Gen. 1: 2 is found in
Isa. 45: 18:
"For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth
and made it: He hath established it, He created it not in vain (tohu = `without form',
Gen. 1: 2), He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord: and there is none else"
(Isa. 45: 18).
We trust that the reader will not fail to appreciate the nature of the testimony given by
these inspired declarations. In Isa. 40:, quoted above, we have the Divine challenge:
"To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal?" The Hebrew word "to be equal" is
shavah, and means "to be, or to be put upon a level or equality, to be made equal by
comparison". It is variously translated: for example, "counter-vail" in Esther 7: 4,
where the idea of balancing "damage" is uppermost, and "to avail" in Esther 5: 13,
where the honours heaped upon Haman are counterbalanced by the attitude of Mordecai.
It is also translated "profit" in Esther 3: 8, where the idea of "balance" is again implied.
In the second quotation given above from Isaiah, there is another challenging
statement: "I am the Lord, that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another." In
the third quotation we read the equally emphatic statement: "I am the Lord, and there is
none else."
These passages are written in language that admits of no misunderstanding. If we
discover in the N.T. that there is One Who claim equality with God, and to Whom the
creation of all things in heaven and earth is ascribed, then we are faced with one of three
possibilities:
(1)
The O.T. is to be believed, but not the N.T.
(2)
The N.T. is to be believed, but not the O.T.
(3)
Both Testaments are to be received as unequivocally true (even though some
statements in each may appear contradictory) because they both refer to the same
Person. There is no problem to be solved when once we perceive that the Lord
Jesus Christ is "God manifest in the flesh".
There are three passages in the N.T., each of which taken alone would be sufficient to
establish this fact, and taken together their evidence is overwhelming.