And God Saw It Was Good

The Bible says that a lot in the first chapter of Genesis. During each day of creation God looked at what he had created and saw that it was good. I'm thinking about the word good this morning. Here's chapter 1 verses 20-31:

20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:20-31

I think the word good has a dual purpose here. Let's think about that. When I make a cake, I go through each step exactly as it should be, mixing, baking, assembling, frosting, decorating, etc. And when it is all finished I stand back, scrutinize it, and declare "that's a good cake." Good meaning nice at that moment. But there is also the Biblical goodness. Without corruption or bad behavior. As God created each day, he sat back, looked at it and declared it good- both nice and without corruption.

Think about that creation for a minute. There were plants in the soil that no man had planted, there were fields of grain that no one cultivated. There were trees bearing fruit in orchards that no one had tended from young. There were sheep roaming in herds without a shepherd to guide them to eat or drink...God created all that- and there wasn't even any rain yet! The first rain doesn't come until later on with Noah...the plants lived and thrived with a mist that would rise from the ground. Not a day goes by that I don't marvel at my garden. That God could create a plant such as a tomato that bears the most wonderful fruit. And contained within just one fruit is hundreds of new seeds to grow new plants. It's amazing to me! And when I read Genesis and see that God created all the plants in one day... that's a lot of work! Think of all the varieties of plant life around the globe. He created each and every one for a specific purpose. No wonder God rested on the seventh day!

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:1-7

I think I won't go as far as I'd intended today and we'll stop here at verse 7. There is a change here that I think shouldn't go un-noticed. You'll see that in the first chapter of Genesis, right up to verse 2:3, God is referred to as simply God. Then he rested and blessed his day of rest and at that point, the Bible refers to God as Lord God. It's an official title, and one that to me conotates power. As a living breathing example, we can use the movie Star Wars as an example (maybe not a good example, but it works.) To all the people underneath him, the character of Darth Vader is called Lord Vader, a position of power. To the Emperor above him, he is simple Darth Vader, never called Lord Vader except in mockery.

In Genesis this is a moment in the history of the earth where God assumed his Lordship over all he created. And aren't we glad he did! He could have very well created what he did, took a few looks at it and decided it wasn't quite what he had in mind and scrapped it all. Instead, he took great pleasure in what he created and decided to take the earth and all its inhabitants under his wing. Without God we literally are nothing. As verse 2 says, we are void and without form. Aren't I grateful and humble that God decided he did want to be our Lord God after all.

Tomorrow we meet the first man and first woman.