encounterHim wrote:If God knew us before we were conceived, I can deduce that He knew Ishmael whom He knew and told would be a father to many nations, and that those from his line would be raised as wild asses among men and eventually starting the worlds most murderous religion, did YHWH allow evil to exist in our presence?
I've had this conversation with a friend a number of times, the crux of it is, is God guilty of a crime of omission for not acting to stop evil. I would say no because to engage and stop it is a violation of free will. Ishmael and thus Islam is a result of man exercising his free will badly. Abraham exercised his free will against the wishes and desires of Yahowah, and Ishmael and Islam was the consequence.
That said:
Isa 45:6 ...I am יהוה, and there is none else,
Isa 45:7 forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil. I, יהוה, do all these.’
I'll look at getting a better translation of Isa 45:7
edit.
Without fully translating the Isa 45:7 verse her are the pertinent words.
Form light is yatsar owr, owr is easy you can look it up in YY there is a whole chapter on it. yatsar is the Hebrew verb for to form, fasion, shape or forge, to create an object from existing material or within existing events of time.
Create darkness is bara' chosek, bara' is the same word used in Barashiyth 1:1 and means to create or make something from nothing. And chosek, which is also used in Bareshiyth 1, means darkness as in the absence of light.
Make peace is asha shalowm, asah means to work to cause or bring about something. And Shalowm is to complete, to satisfy, to rectify or simply peace.
Create Evil is bara' ra', we already looked at bara' to create or make something from nothing. And ra' is bad, evil, wicked, not good, firece, wild, harmefull, sad or troubled.
So there is that to consider.
edit 2
Well I made the amateur mistake of not checking the DSS first. The DSS show us that shalowm was not written, but rather tuwb was written. Tuwb means that which is good, beneficial, prosperous, and beautiful.