Isaiah 45:18–22

^18–24God, Creator of the heavens—

he is, remember, God.

Maker of earth—

he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.

He didn’t go to all that trouble

to just leave it empty, nothing in it.

He made it to be lived in.

This God says:

“I am God,

the one and only.

I don’t just talk to myself

or mumble under my breath.

I never told Jacob,

‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’

I am God. I work out in the open,

saying what’s right, setting things right.

So gather around, come on in,

all you refugees and castoffs.

They don’t seem to know much, do they—

those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,

praying for help to a dead stick?

So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.

Put your heads together. Make your case.

Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?

Who made sense of things for you?

Wasn’t I the one? God?

It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—

The only God who does things right

and knows how to help.

So turn to me and be helped—saved!—

everyone, whoever and wherever you are.

I am God,

the only God there is, the one and only.