And God Saw that It Was Good

During the first day of the six days of creation, God created light. Genesis 1:4 reports God’s assessment of His work: “God saw that the light was good.” A similar phrase appears six more times in Genesis 1, occurring

• on day 3 and referring to the dry land and the seas (see v. 10),
• on day 3 and referring to plant life (see v. 12),
• on day 4 and referring to the heavenly bodies of light and their rule over the day and night (see v. 18),
• on day 5 and referring to sea creatures and birds (see v. 21)
• on day 6 and referring to land animals (see v. 25), and finally
• on day 6 at the end of God’s creative work, assessing all that God had created (see v. 31). In this last statement of evaluation, the Hebrew word for very is added: “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”

The Hebrew word for good occurs 554 times in the Old Testament. It is used as an adjective—as in “pleasant, agreeable, excellent, fitting, appropriate, right”; a noun—as in “a good thing or a good person”; and at times as an adverb, just as we would use the English word “well.” In the HCSB this term is rendered “good” more times (280) than it is translated into any other English word.

Here’s an interesting verse where the term appears twice—first in the sense of being appropriate or beneficial, and a second time in a moral sense. Genesis 2:9 says, “The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

In Genesis 2:18 we find yet another interesting use of this word, especially in light of repeated affirmations in Genesis 1 of all God’s good creative work. The verse states, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.’” In verses 19-25 we see the story unfold further. God formed animals out of the ground and made birds, and he told Adam to name each one, and he did so; but the man could not find a suitable helper among all these creatures. So God put Adam to sleep and made a woman. When Adam saw her, was most pleased.

Do not miss these important points that arise from our study. First, God created a good, even a perfect, world. At this point sin had not entered the picture. Second, although Adam was in this good and perfect environment and had a close relationship with God, he needed a flesh-and-blood companion, a partner who also was made in God’s image. He needed someone who was human and like him, yet a woman and different from him. It was not good for him to be alone. This doesn’t mean that everyone must be married to be fulfilled, but it does mean that appropriate and quality human relationships are important for all people. Finally, when the woman arrived on the scene, this too was good. The Hebrew word for good isn’t used in Genesis 2:21-25, but the idea is inherent in these verses.