Isaiah 45:7,8

These are impressive ways to say that nothing can ever be outside God’s plan and purpose.

*Woe to people who do not agree with God’s actions

v9 *Woe to anyone who argues with God who created him. That is like a pot that argues with its maker. The *clay cannot argue with the person who shapes it. The *clay cannot order that person to explain what he is doing. Nor can the pot complain because it has no handle. v10 *Woe to anyone who does not approve of the way that he was born. v11 It is the *Lord, the Holy God of Israel, who shapes the future. It is out of the question for anybody to tell God what he ought to do about his people. v12 ‘I am the *Lord, who made the earth. I am the *Lord, who created people to live in it. It was my hands that established the heavens. And it was I who put sun and moon and stars in their places. v13 It is I who have urged the foreigner Cyrus to put things right among the nations. And I will make his path straight. He will repair my city *Jerusalem. He will send home my people who are in foreign countries. And he will do all this freely and without any payment.’ That is what the *Lord (commander of heaven’s armies) says.