“I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King” (Isaiah 43:15).
God is often referred to as the Holy One of Israel and as the King of Israel, but this reference to Him as creator of Israel is unique. In the four other passages where God is named creator, He is called “thy creator” (Ecclesiastes 12:1), “creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28), “the creator, who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:25), and “a faithful creator” (I Peter 4:19). But in what sense has God become Israel’s creator?
Related to this truth is God’s testimony in Isaiah 65:18: “Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” Note also Isaiah 43:1: “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”
It is obvious that God did not create the physical city of Jerusalem, for all its streets and walls were built by its inhabitants. Neither did He specially create the physical bodies of the Israelites nor the topography of the land of Israel. These testimonies apply rather to the spiritual creation of Israel in its special relation to God and to the world. In one sense, of course, He even created physical Israel, for He created the marvelous process of human birth and the geological processes of the earth system, which He then providentially directed to eventually produce the people and the land of chosen Israel. There may also be an implied reference to the New Jerusalem, which will indeed be specially created (Isaiah 65:17).
In any case, God is creator—not un-creator. “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever” (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Israel, like the heavens and the earth, is forever, for God is her Creator. HMM
