“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 1:31
Seven times In Genesis 1 God says that His creation is good. The word good is “tov”. It means to be in harmony with God. The concept of good is related to one’s expectations. It means that creation did exactly what God designed it to do. This is the same concept of believers pleasing God. We read without faith “it is impossible to please Him”. That shows God’s expectation is that our lives be lived in faith and when we do that, it is pleasing to God. It is also the criterion used at the Bema Seat. There, for lives lived in faith, the Lord will say, “well done good and faithful servant’. The life lived in harmony with God’s expectation (trusting Him) is one that is pleasing to the Lord. We learn several things from this concept of good in creation. First God designs His creation with a specific purpose. Every part of the universe, every plant, every animal and all of mankind are designed for a specific reason. Second we see that God watches how his creation preforms against His design. He watches how it performs. Third, we see the Lord assesses that performance on a standard. At the end of creation God says that all of His creation is very (surely or certainly) good. Good also means that creation functions without defect and together in unity. As we know mankind marred God’s creation when Adam and Eve sinned. Sin entered into man’s life, harmony with God was broken and corruption and death entered into the creation that God designed to be in harmony with Him. The Bible talks about the mystery of iniquity. The phrase is used of the Antichrist but it carries a broader application of the growth of sin. As we read the Biblical account we see that sin and rebellion to God grows and deepens. Sin always gets worse. We see where sin leads when we understand the mystery of iniquity also means the mystery of lawlessness. Adam got to see the downward decline of the world in the deterioration of lawlessness toward God over his 930 years, a little more than halfway from creation to the flood. Genesis 6 tells us how far sin had progressed. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Later in Genesis 6 we read “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence”. God does the same thing He did at creation. First he watches very carefully what is happening. He evaluates what He sees against His design and expectation for His creation and then He assesses the result. Amazingly God tells us that in a little over 1600 years from creation, mankind’s sin reached the level of corruption. The world is filled with violence (lawlessness). God tells us that every human heart meditated on evil 100% of the time. Man’s inclination (desire and thoughts) was on wickedness. God warns the people (as He always does). He sent Enoch to them with a message of impending judgment which he preached for 300 years to no avail. The Lord warns people they are living their lives with no realization that God’s wrath on their sin is imminent. They heard His words but they did not believe them. We see in this brief description that in 1650 years people had totally rejected the two great commandments of God. “You shall love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself”. The world became so reprobate (read Romans 1 to see their downward spiral) that God had to destroy it completely. Sin always gets worse. What can we learn? We live in the last days before the second great worldwide judgment, not by water but by fire. Like in the days of Noah most are oblivious to the danger that lies before them. We also see the impact of sin and why God hates it. It destroys how God designed His creation, it ruins the perfection and holiness of the things God created. This is why the Lord tells us to separate from the world and the things that are in the world. God warned Adam and Eve and He warns us, but God also reminds us in the darkest days the world had seen to that date that a remnant, 1 family- 8 people remained faithful. May your family of however many people be like that way too