Exceedingly Good!

"God saw that it was good." Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31

God saw that what He created was good- light (v.4), land and sea (v.10), plants and trees (v.12), sun, moon and stars (v.18), fish (v.21), animals (v.25), man and all he had made (v.31). 

It wasn't enough to say that God saw what He made and it was good once, twice, three times. In the first chapter of Genesis, it is repeated all of 7 times! And the original Hebrew translation is not only good, not only very good, but "exceedingly good". 

But how can we describe the world today as exceedingly good? Even nature cannot be described as good! Tsunamis, earthquakes, storms, fires, even comets and asteroids can bring disaster in a matter of hours! Add to that the Canadian killer whales, boa constrictors, Giant Pacific Octopuses, Cone Snails whose one little drop of venom can kill 20 people! Good? How about cancer, degenerative brain disease, Alzheimer's, and other debilitating diseases? Exceedingly good? 

The thing is, this world we live in is NOT what God created. Animals in Eden ate plants, and did not kill other animals or men. Nature was ordered, not out of order. And Adam and Eve would not have gotten sick or died. But they chose to disobey God. Chose to follow the enemy instead. It's useless to blame them because we choose to disobey God the same way they did. And so sin and death came into this beautiful, exceedingly good earth God prepared.

How sad that many people see this broken world and ask, "If God exists, if God is good, why does He allow all these atrocities to happen?" It's like when we talk to our employees after they've committed a serious offense. They know the rules as they read it and signed a memo about it. If they break the rule and get sanctioned, we say it's not us who put you in this position. You are getting a suspension because you did what you did. 

Father, thank You that You made a way for us to get into Your good graces again! Thank You that You sent Your Son to redeem us and open the door to everlasting life!