And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
31. and, behold, it was very good ] The work of the six days’ Creation having been completed, God, as it were, contemplates the universe both in its details and in its entirety. That which He saw to be “good,” on each separate day, was but a fragment; that which He sees to be “very good,” on the sixth day, is the vast ordered whole, in which the separate parts are combined. The Divine approval of the material universe constitutes one of the most instructive traits of the Hebrew cosmogony. According to it, matter is not something hostile to God, independent of Him, or inherently evil, but made by Him, ordered by Him, good in itself, and good in its relation to the purpose and plan of the Creator. The adjective “good” should not therefore be limited in meaning to the sense of “suitable,” or “fitting.” There is nothing “evil” in the Divinely-created universe: it is “very good” (LXX : Lat. valde bona).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 1:31
And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good
Creation very good
I.
Why was it very good?
1. It was the offspring of infinite wisdom and power and love.
2. Because guided into existence by Jesus.
3. Because there was no evil in it.
4. Because it was like God.
II. WHAT was very good? Everything which He had made.
III. How are they very good? In themselves–in their purposes–in their arrangements.
IV. IS EVERYTHING VERY GOOD STILL? God is fetching very good things out of the apparent frustration of His plan. He is restoring what is now very bad to be very good. (J. Bolton.)
The good creation
No one can prove to us that God made the world; but faith, which is stronger than all arguments, makes us certain of it.
1. All which God has made is good, as He is, and, therefore, if anything in the world seems to be bad, one of two things must be true of it.
(1) Either it is not bad, though it seems so to us, and God will bring good out of it in His own good time; or
(2) if the thing is really bad, then God did not make it. It must be a disease, a mistake, a failure of mans malting, or of some persons making, but not of Gods making. For all that He has made He sees eternally, and, behold, it is very good.
2. God created each of us good in His own mind, else He would not have created us at all. Why does Gods thought of us, Gods purpose about us, seem to have failed? We do not know, and we need not know. Whatever sin we inherited from Adam, God looks on us now, not as we are in Adam, but as we are in Christ. God looks not on the old corrupt nature which we inherited from Adam, but on the new and good grace which God has meant for us from all eternity, which Christ has given us now.
III. That which is good in us God has made; He will take care of what He haw made, for He loves it. All which is bad in us God has not made, and therefore He will destroy it; for He hates all that He has not made, and will not suffer it in His world. Before all worlds, from eternity itself, God said, Let Us make man in Our likeness, and nothing can hinder Gods word but the man himself. If a man loves his fallen nature better than the noble, just, loving grace of God, and gives himself willingly up to the likeness of the beasts that perish, then only can Gods purpose towards him become of none effect. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
God in nature; or, spring lessons
I. GLIMPSES OF THE DIVINE NATURE.
1. The ceaseless and infinite energy of God.
2. The blessedness and beauty of God.
II. LESSONS CONCERNING HUMAN LIFE. It is an old, but true comparison of this life to the seasons of the year. Spring has always suggested the refreshing, promising, transient, and changeable nature of lifes early days. But notice, especially, the improvability of life. Spring, the cultivating season. Conditional. Spring neglected, autumn shows barren fields. Precarious. Buds, etc. may be blighted. Need for watching, etc.
III. SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING HUMAN DESTINY. In spring all things become new. To be young again has been the dream of all ages. The distinct proof of immortal youth beyond the grave is given only by Christ The First-begotten of the dead. (J. Foster, B. A.)
I. THE NATURAL TRUTHS ASSERTED.
Gods approbation of His works
1. The true origin of all things.
2. The original perfection of all things.
(1) Very good, as being well adapted to answer its particular intention.
(2) Very good, as being well calculated to promote the glory of its Maker.
(3) Very good, as being conducive to the perfection and welfare of the whole
3. Gods approbation of His works.
II. THE MORAL TRUTHS SUGGESTED.
1. Seeing that God had done for man the utmost that his case admitted, both as respected himself, and as respected the world around him, the blessings of which were given him richly to enjoy, it follows that man was under the greatest obligations possible, in his then present circumstances.
2. Sin is at once the vilest injustice and the basest ingratitude imaginable Isa 1:2; Mal 1:6).
3. A continuance in sin is the most daring imprudence. According to that constitution of things which was very good, holiness and happiness went together. Sin, by violating that constitution, brought death into the world with all our woe.
4. Reformation is well-pleasing to God. He approved of things in their original state. He is unchangeable.
5. The text suggests a lesson of humility. How is the gold become dim! the Divine image effaced I Humility becomes every rational creature, on account of its debt and its dependence.
6. The text furnishes ground of hope and encouragement. It proclaims the goodness of Him with whom we have to do; and therefore encourages us to hope in His mercy. Let us remember, however, that it is to the gospel we are indebted for improving hope into assurance (Rom 8:32). (Sketches of Sermons.)
Gods approbation of His works
Let us consider–
I. The natural truths asserted by our text. Among these are–
1. The true origin of all things–God saw everything that He had made.
2. The original perfection of all things very good, very good, as being–
(1) Well adapted to answer their particular intention.
(2) Conducive to the perfection of the whole.
(3) Well calculated to promote the Creators glory.
3. Gods approbation of His work. He saw it very good.
II. The moral truths suggested.
1. Gratitude.
2. Hatred of sin.
3. The discontinuing of all evil.
4. Reformation and return to virtue.
5. Humility.
6. A ground of hope and encouragement.
Everything in species made perfect at one and the same time in the creation
All artists, in what they do, have their second thoughts (and those usually are the best); as, for example, a watchmaker sets upon a piece of work (it being the first time that ever men were wont to carry a pastime in their pockets), but, having better considered of it, he makes another, and a third, some oval, some round, some square, everyone adding lustre and perfection to the first invention, whereas, heretofore, they were rather like warming pans, to weary us, than warning pieces, to admonish us how the time passed. The like may be said of the famous art of printing, painting, and the like, all of them outdoing the first copies they were set to go by. But it was not so with God in the creation of the several species of nature; He made them all perfect, simul et semel, at one and the same time, everything pondere et mensura, so just, so proportionate in the parts, such an elementary harmony, such a symmetry in the bodies of animals, such a correspondency of vegetals, that nothing is defective, neither can anything be added to the perfection thereof. (J. Spencer.)
The love of beauty: in nature
In these most simple and mysterious words we are plainly told that in the beginning the Creator of this world delighted in the beauty of its outward form. He approved it not only as fit for the material development which He had designed for it, fit for the ages of change, the course of history which should be enacted on it: but also as outwardly delightful. He saw His work, and, behold, to sight it was very good. Apart from all the uses it would serve, its outward aspect was in harmony with a certain Divine law: and for this Almighty God judged that it was very good. If men would only look frankly at the first chapter of Genesis, without either timidity or injustice, it would surely seem very strange to find this simple and complete anticipation of a thought which, though it has been astir in the world for many centuries, has only in the last few years received its due emphasis and its logical force. I mean the thought that our delight in the visible beauty of this world can only be explained by the belief that the world has in some way been made to give us this delight by a Being who Himself knows what beauty is: and that the beauty of Nature is a real communication made to us concerning the mind and will that is behind Nature . . . We have then a right to say that the quality or character which can thus speak and appeal to our spirit must have been engendered in this visible world by a spiritual Being able and willing to enter into communion with us, and knowing what would affect and raise our thoughts. When we receive and read a letter, we are sure it has come from someone who knew our language and could write it. When we listen to a beautiful piece of music we are sure that the composer had either a theoretic or at least a practical acquaintance with the laws and the effects of harmony. And when at the sight of a great landscape, rich and quiet in the chaste glory of the autumn, or glad with the bright promise, the fearless freedom of the spring, our whole heart is filled with happiness, and every sense seems touched with something of a pleasure that was meant for it, and all words are utterly too poor to praise the sight–then surely, by as good an argument, we must say that, through whatever ways and means, the world received its outward aspect by the will of some being who knew the law and truth of beauty. It does not matter, so far as this inference is concerned, how the result has been attained, or how many ages and thousands of secondary causes are traced between the beginning of the work and its present aspect: it is beautiful now: it now speaks to us in a language which our spirits understand: and, however long ago, and in whatever way, only a spiritual being could have taught it so to speak. Whatever creation means, the world was created by One who could delight in beauty: whenever its Author looked out upon His work He must have seen that it was very good Lastly, but above all, if we are to receive from the visible beauty of the world all that it can reveal to us concerning Him who made and praised it, we must draw near to it with watchful obedience to His own condition for so great a blessing: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It was nobly said by the founder of inductive science, that for entrance into the kingdom of knowledge as for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, men must become as little children. They must draw near with free and humble hearts if they are to enter into the mysteries of natural science: they must not dictate to Nature, or assert themselves in her presence: they must come to her with affectionate attention to wait upon her self-revealing. (F. Paget, D. D.)
Admiration of completed work
The Lord rejoices in His works. What a wonderful sentence that is! That man must have been inspired when he said that God rested from His labours, and looked upon His works, and pronounced them good. Of all joys, that is the grandest and sublimest, to review ones own work and pronounce it good. There is no passage in English much more beautiful than that which describes the author of that great work on Falling Rome (Gibbon) when he had just come to the conclusion of his task. Walking there under the trees of Lausanne, he, like a true artist, drew back and admired his finished work. And he was right. For there are times when a man may look upon his work, and say, That is genius! When Swift was beginning to doat, he took down from a shelf one of his own works, and exclaimed, What a genius I must have had when I did that! (G. Dawson.)
Perfection of nature
I have seen the back of a splendid painting, and there, on the dusty canvas, were blotches and daubs of colour–the experiments of the painters brush. There is nothing answering to that in the works of God! I have seen the end of a piece of costly velvet; and though man had in it fairly imitated the bloom of the fruit and the velvet of the flowers, there was a common, unwrought, worthless selvage–a coarse, unsightly selvage. There is no selvage in the works of God! (H. Wonnacott.)
A pretty world
I once, writes Joaquin Miller, strolled through a miserable Mexican village. The shadows were creeping over the cabins, where women came and went in silence, and men sat smoking at the cabin doors, while children played in swarms by the water. The air was like a breath of God, and all nature seemed as sacred as rest to a weary man. A black, bent, old negro woman, all patches from head to foot, frosty-headed and half blind, came crooning forth with a broken pot tied together, in which she had planted a flower to grow by her door. I stopped, watched her set it down and arrange it; and then, not wishing to stare rudely at this bent old creature, I said–Good evening, auntie; its a fine evening. She slowly straightened up, looked at me, looked away at the fading sunlight on the hills, and said softly, Oh, its a pretty world, massa! The old woman was a poetess–a prophetess. She had a soul to see the beauty, the poetry about her. Oh, its a pretty world, massa! She had no other form of expression, but that was enough. Hers was the password to nature. And God saw every, thing that He had made, and, behold it was very good..
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. And, behold, it was very good.] tob meod, Superlatively, or only good; as good as they could be. The plan wise, the work well executed, the different parts properly arranged; their nature, limits, mode of existence, manner of propagation, habits, mode of sustenance, c., c., properly and permanently established and secured for every thing was formed to the utmost perfection of its nature, so that nothing could be added or diminished without encumbering the operations of matter and spirit on the one hand, or rendering them inefficient to the end proposed on the other and God has so done all these marvellous works as to be glorified in all, by all, and through all.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.] The word ereb, which we translate evening, comes from the root arab, to mingle; and properly signifies that state in which neither absolute darkness nor full light prevails. It has nearly the same grammatical signification with our twilight, the time that elapses from the setting of the sun till he is eighteen degrees below the horizon and the last eighteen degrees before he arises. Thus we have the morning and evening twilight, or mixture of light and darkness, in which neither prevails, because, while the sun is within eighteen degrees of the horizon, either after his setting or before his rising, the atmosphere has power to refract the rays of light, and send them back on the earth. The Hebrews extended the meaning of this term to the whole duration of night, because it was ever a mingled state, the moon, the planets, or the stars, tempering the darkness with some rays of light. From the ereb of Moses came the Erebus, of Hesiod, Aristophanes, and other heathens, which they deified and made, with Nox or night, the parent of all things.
The morning – boker; From bakar, he looked out; a beautiful figure which represents the morning as looking out at the east, and illuminating the whole of the upper hemisphere.
The evening and the morning were the sixth day. – It is somewhat remarkable that through the whole of this chapter, whenever the division of days is made, the evening always precedes the morning. The reason of this may perhaps be, that darkness was pre-existent to light, (Ge 1:2, And darkness was upon the face of the deep,) and therefore time is reckoned from the first act of God towards the creation of the world, which took place before light was called forth into existence. It is very likely for this same reason, that the Jews began their day at six o’clock in the evening in imitation of Moses’s division of time in this chapter. Caesar in his Commentaries makes mention of the same peculiarity existing among the Gauls: Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatas praedicant: idque ab Druidibus proditum dicunt: ab eam causam spatia omnis temporis, non numero dierum, sed noctium, finiunt; et dies natales, et mensium et annorum initia sic observant, ut noctem dies subsequatur; De Bell. Gall. lib. vi. Tacitus likewise records the same of the Germans: Nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant: sic constituent, sic condicunt, nox ducere diem videtur; De Mor. Germ. sec. ii. And there are to this day some remains of the same custom in England, as for instance in the word se’nnight and fortnight. See also Aeschyl. Agamem. ver. 273, 287.
Thus ends a chapter containing the most extensive, most profound, and most sublime truths that can possibly come within the reach of the human intellect. How unspeakably are we indebted to God for giving us a revelation of his WILL and of his WORKS! Is it possible to know the mind of God but from himself? It is impossible. Can those things and services which are worthy of and pleasing to an infinitely pure, perfect, and holy Spirit, be ever found out by reasoning and conjecture? Never! for the Spirit of God alone can know the mind of God; and by this Spirit he has revealed himself to man; and in this revelation has taught him, not only to know the glories and perfections of the Creator, but also his own origin, duty, and interest. Thus far it was essentially necessary that God should reveal his WILL; but if he had not given a revelation of his WORKS, the origin, constitution, and nature of the universe could never have been adequately known. The world by wisdom knew not God; this is demonstrated by the writings of the most learned and intelligent heathens. They had no just, no rational notion of the origin and design of the universe. Moses alone, of all ancient writers, gives a consistent and rational account of the creation; an account which has been confirmed by the investigation of the most accurate philosophers. But where did he learn this? “In Egypt.” That is impossible; for the Egyptians themselves were destitute of this knowledge. The remains we have of their old historians, all posterior to the time of Moses, are egregious for their contradictions and absurdity; and the most learned of the Greeks who borrowed from them have not been able to make out, from their conjoint stock, any consistent and credible account. Moses has revealed the mystery that lay hid from all preceding ages, because he was taught it by the inspiration of the Almighty. READER, thou hast now before thee the most ancient and most authentic history in the world; a history that contains the first written discovery that God has made of himself to man-kind; a discovery of his own being, in his wisdom, power, and goodness, in which thou and the whole human race are so intimately concerned. How much thou art indebted to him for this discovery he alone can teach thee, and cause thy heart to feel its obligations to his wisdom and mercy. Read so as to understand, for these things were written for thy learning; therefore mark what thou readest, and inwardly digest – deeply and seriously meditate on, what thou hast marked, and pray to the Father of lights that he may open thy understanding, that thou mayest know these holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.
God made thee and the universe, and governs all things according to the counsel of his will; that will is infinite goodness, that counsel is unerring wisdom. While under the direction of this counsel, thou canst not err; while under the influence of this will, thou canst not be wretched. Give thyself up to his teaching, and submit to his authority; and, after guiding thee here by his counsel, he will at last bring thee to his glory. Every object that meets thy eye should teach thee reverence, submission, and gratitude. The earth and its productions were made for thee; and the providence of thy heavenly Father, infinitely diversified in its operations, watches over and provides for thee. Behold the firmament of his power, the sun, moon, planets, and stars, which he has formed, not for himself, for he needs none of these things, but for his intelligent offspring. What endless gratification has he designed thee in placing within thy reach these astonishing effects of his wisdom and power, and in rendering thee capable of searching out their wonderful relations and connections, and of knowing himself, the source of all perfection, by having made thee in his own image, and in his own likeness! It is true thou art fallen; but he has found out a ransom. God so loved thee in conjunction with the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe on HIM; through him alone cometh salvation; and the fair and holy image of God in which thou wast created shall be again restored; he will build thee up as at the first, restore thy judges and counsellors as at the beginning, and in thy second creation, as in thy first, will pronounce thee to be very good, and thou shalt show forth the virtues of him by whom thou art created anew in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And God saw everything that he had made,…. Either all that he had made on the several six days of the creation, he took a survey of them, looked over them again, as workmen do when they have finished their work, to see if anything is amiss or wanting; not that anything of this nature can be supposed in the works of God, but such a survey is attributed to him after the manner of men, to show the completeness of his works, and the excellency of them. Picherellus q limits this to what had been done on this day, with respect to man, who alone, as he thinks, was the subject of this day’s work; and so it respects the creation of man after the image and likeness of God; the forming of the woman out of his rib, and so providing a suitable helper for him; giving them dominion over all the creatures, and suitable food for the support of the animal life; and God reflected on this, and foresaw it would be good in the issue, as it was in itself.
And behold, [it was] very good; it had been said of everything else, at the close of each day’s work, excepting the second, that it was good; but here the expression is stronger upon the creation of man, the chief and principal work of God, that it was “very good”; he being made upright and holy, bearing the image of his Creator upon him, and in such circumstances as to be happy and comfortable himself, and to glorify God: the phrase may be expressive not only of the goodness of everything God had made, as it was in itself, and in its use; but of his complacency, and delight therein, every thing being made for himself and for, his pleasure, Re 4:11
and the evening and the morning were the sixth day; by that time all these works on this day were finished; the sun had gone round the earth, or the earth about that, for the space of twenty four hours, which completed the sixth day, within which term of time God had determined to finish all his works, as he did. This day, according to Capellus, was the twenty third of April, and, according, to Archbishop Usher, the twenty eighth of October, or, as others, the sixth of September. Mr. Whiston, as has been before observed, is of opinion, that the six days of the creation were equal to six years: and the Persians have a tradition, which they pretend to have received from Zoroastres, that God created the world, not in six natural days, but in six times or spaces of different length, called in their tongue “Ghahan barha”. The first of these spaces, in which the heavens were created, was a space of forty five days; the second, in which the waters were created, sixty days; the third, in which the earth was created, seventy five days; the fourth, in which grass and trees were created, thirty days; the fifth, in which all creatures were made, eighty days; the sixth, in which man was created, seventy five days; in all three hundred sixty five days, or a full year r. The first of the six principal good works they are taught to do is to observe the times of the creation s. And the ancient Tuscans or Etrurians allot six thousand years to the creation; the order of which, with them, is much the same with the Mosaic account, only making a day a thousand years: in the first thousand, they say, God made the heaven and the earth; in the next, the firmament, which appears to us, calling it heaven; in the third, the sea, and all the waters that are in the earth; in the fourth, the great lights, the sun and moon, and also the stars; in the fifth, every volatile, reptile, and four footed animal, in the air, earth and water, (which agrees with Picherellus); [See comments on Ge 1:25] and in the sixth, man; and whereas they say God employed twelve thousand years in all his creation, and the first six being passed at the creation of man, it seems, according to them, that mankind are to continue for the other six thousand years t. And it is a notion that obtains among the Jews, that, answerable to the six days of creation, the world will continue six thousand years. It is a tradition of Elias u, an ancient Jewish doctor, that
“the world shall stand six thousand years, two thousand void, two thousand under the law, and two thousand, the days of the Messiah.”
And Baal Hatturim w observes, there are six “alephs” in the first verse of this chapter, answerable to the six thousand years the world is to continue: and R. Gedaliah says x, at the end of the sixth millennium the world shall return without form and void, (to its former condition, “tohu” and “bohu”,) and the whole shall be a sabbath: and very particular is another writer y of theirs concerning these six days of the creation, who having spoken of the day of judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the world to come, observes, that the six days’ work is an intimation and sign of these things: on the sixth day man was created, and the work was perfected on the seventh; so the kings of the nations shall be in the world five thousand years, answerable to the five days in which the fowls, and creeping things of the waters, and the rest, were created; and the holding of their kingdoms will be a little within the sixth millennium, answerable to the creation of cattle and beasts, who were now created on the beginning of it, the “sixth day”; and the kingdom of the house of David will be in the sixth millennium, answerable to the creation of man, who knew his Creator, and ruled over them all; and at the end of that millennium will be the day of judgment, answerable to man’s being judged at the end of it, “the sixth day; and the seventh millennium will be the sabbath”. And a like notion obtains among the Persian Magi; it is said that Zerdusht, or Zoroastres, was born in the middle age of the world, so it was told him from the age of Keiomaras (the first man) unto thy age are 3000 years, and from this thy age unto the resurrection are 3000 years z.
q In Cosmopoeiam, p. 2841. r Hyde Hist. Relig. vet. Pers. p. 164, 166, 168, 483, 484. s Lib. Sad-der, port. 6. 94. apud Hyde, ib. p. 439, 483. t See Universal History, vol. 1. p. 64. u T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1. Avoda Zara, fol. 9. 1. w Comment. in Gen. i. 1. x Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 36. 1. y Comment. in Maimon. Hilch. Teshuva, c. 9. sect. 2. z Lib. Sad-der, port. 11. Vid. Hyde, ut supra, (Hist. Relig. vet. Pers. p. 481.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Creation. | B. C. 4004. |
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
We have here the approbation and conclusion of the whole work of creation. As for God, his work is perfect; and if he begin he will also make an end, in providence and grace, as well as here in creation. Observe,
I. The review God took of his work: He saw every thing that he had made. So he does still; all the works of his hands are under his eye. He that made all sees all; he that made us sees us, Ps. cxxxix. 1-16. Omniscience cannot be separated from omnipotence. Known unto God are all his works, Acts xv. 18. But this was the Eternal Mind’s solemn reflection upon the copies of its own wisdom and the products of its own power. God has hereby set us an example of reviewing our works. Having given us a power of reflection, he expects we should use that power, see our way (Jer. ii. 23), and think of it, Ps. cxix. 59. When we have finished a day’s work, and are entering upon the rest of the night, we should commune with our own hearts about what we have been doing that day; so likewise when we have finished a week’s work, and are entering upon the sabbath-rest, we should thus prepare to meet our God; and when we are finishing our life’s work, and are entering upon our rest in the grave, that is a time to bring to remembrance, that we may die repenting, and so take leave of it.
II. The complacency God took in his work. When we come to review our works we find, to our shame, that much has been very bad; but, when God reviewed his, all was very good. He did not pronounce it good till he had seen it so, to teach us not to answer a matter before we hear it. The work of creation was a very good work. All that God made was well-made, and there was no flaw nor defect in it. 1. It was good. Good, for it is all agreeable to the mind of the Creator, just as he would have it to be; when the transcript came to be compared with the great original, it was found to be exact, no errata in it, not one misplaced stroke. Good, for it answers the end of its creation, and is fit for the purpose for which it was designed. Good, for it is serviceable to man, whom God had appointed lord of the visible creation. Good, for it is all for God’s glory; there is that in the whole visible creation which is a demonstration of God’s being and perfections, and which tends to beget, in the soul of man, a religious regard to him and veneration of him. 2. It was very good. Of each day’s work (except the second) it was said that it was good, but now, it is very good. For, (1.) Now man was made, who was the chief of the ways of God, who was designed to be the visible image of the Creator’s glory and the mouth of the creation in his praises. (2.) Now all was made; every part was good, but all together very good. The glory and goodness, the beauty and harmony, of God’s works, both of providence and grace, as this of creation, will best appear when they are perfected. When the top-stone is brought forth we shall cry, Grace, grace, unto it, Zech. iv. 7. Therefore judge nothing before the time.
III. The time when this work was concluded: The evening and the morning were the sixth day; so that in six days God made the world. We are not to think but that God could have made the world in an instant. He said that, Let there be light, and there was light, could have said, “Let there be a world,” and there would have been a world, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as at the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv. 52. But he did it in six days, that he might show himself a free-agent, doing his own work both in his own way and in his own time,–that his wisdom, power, and goodness, might appear to us, and be meditated upon by us, the more distinctly,–and that he might set us an example of working six days and resting the seventh; it is therefore made the reason of the fourth commandment. So much would the sabbath conduce to the keeping up of religion in the world that God had an eye to it in the timing of his creation. And now, as God reviewed his work, let us review our meditations upon it, and we shall find them very lame and defective, and our praises low and flat; let us therefore stir up ourselves, and all that is within us, to worship him that made the heaven, earth, and sea, and the fountains of waters, according to the tenour of the everlasting gospel, which is preached to every nation, Rev 14:6; Rev 14:7. All his works, in all places of his dominion, do bless him; and, therefore, bless thou the Lord, O my soul!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
31. And God saw everything Once more, at the conclusion of the creation, Moses declares that God approved of everything which he had made. In speaking of God as seeing, he does it after the manner of men; for the Lord designed this his judgment to be as a rule and example to us; that no one should dare to think or speak otherwise of his works. For it is not lawful for us to dispute whether that ought to be approved or not which God has already approved; but it rather becomes us to acquiesce without controversy. The repetition also denotes how wanton is the temerity of man: otherwise it would have been enough to have said, once for all, that God approved of his works. But God six times inculcates the same thing, that he may restrain, as with so many bridles, our restless audacity. But Moses expresses more than before; for he adds מאד, ( meod,) that is, very. On each of the days, simple approbation was given. But now, after the workmanship of the world was complete in all its parts, and had received, if I may so speak, the last finishing touch, he pronounces it perfectly good; that we may know that there is in the symmetry of God’s works the highest perfection, to which nothing can be added.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) Behold, it was very good.This final blessing of Gods completed work on the Friday must be compared with the final words of Christ spoken of the second creation, upon the same day of the week, when He said It is finished. Next we must notice that this world was only good until man was placed upon it, but then became very good. This verdict, too, had respect to man as a species, and is not therefore annulled by the fall. In spite, therefore, of the serious responsibilities attendant upon the bestowal of freewill on man, we believe that the world is still for purposes of mercy, and that God not only rejoiced at first, but shall rejoice in His works (Psa. 104:31). (Comp. Psa. 85:10; Rom. 5:15, &c.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning a sixth day.’
The world has been prepared for man and man can be satisfied because God is satisfied with it from start to finish. His final day of work is over. He has now completed His work satisfactorily and can leave it in man’s hands. Whatever happens it will not be His fault. Up to now things have been ‘good’. Now it is all ‘very good’. This stress clearly has in mind the following chapters when that ‘goodness’ will be marred by the effects of the fall.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 1:31. Behold, it was very good The separate productions are pronounced good: but when the whole is perfected, and, as it were, surveyed by the Almighty Master, or Creator, the superlative particle is added, and the whole is pronounced very good, perfectly adapted to answer the end for which it was designed, as well as consummately excellent and beautiful in itself: agreeable to the mind of the Great Designer, without evil or imperfection, or any thing which might impugn his wisdom, goodness, and purity. Mr. Locke observes, that “When Moses tells us of God’s pronouncing of every thing that he had made, that it was very good, we are to understand the meaning to be, that it was the best; the Hebrews having no other way to express the superlative.” I cannot better conclude this note than with the words of Plato in his Timaeus: “The Architect of the world had a model, by which he produced every thing, and this model is himself. As he is good, and what is good has not the least tincture of envy, he made all things, as far as was possible, like himself. He made the world perfect in the whole of its constitution; perfect too in all the various parts which compose it; which were subject neither to diseases nor decay of age. The Father of all things beholding this beautiful image, took a complacency in his work.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Ver. 31. Behold it was very good. ] Or, extreme good, pleasant and profitable, a curious and glorious frame, full of admirable variety and skill, such as caused delight and complacency in God, and commands contemplation and admiration from us, like as a great garden, stored with fruits and flowers, calls our eyes on every side. Wherefore else hath God given us a reasonable soul, and a Sabbath day, and a countenance bent upward, and, as they say, a peculiar nerves in the eyes, to pull them up toward the seat of their rest? Besides a nature carried with delight after plays, pageants, masks, strange shows, and rare sights, which oft are sinful or vain, or, at best, imperfect and unsatisfactory? Surely those that “regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, God shall destroy, and not build them up”; Psa 28:5 which to prevent, good is the counsel of the prophet Amos; and that upon this very ground, “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel: for lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind,” &c. Amo 4:12-13 When he had made man, he made an end of making anything more, because he meant to rest in man, to delight in him, to communicate himself unto him, and to be enjoyed by him throughout all eternity. And notwithstanding the fall, he hath “found a ransom,” Job 33:24 and “creating us in Christ Jesus unto good works,” Eph 2:10 he “rejoiceth over” his new workmanship “with joy”; yea, he “rests in his love,” and wilt seek no further Zep 3:17 But what a mouth of madness did Alfonso b the Wise open, when he said openly, that if he had been of God’s counsel at the creation, some things should have been better made and marshalled! Prodigious blasphemy!
a Bodin. Theat. Naturae.
b Roderit. Santii. Hist. Hisp. p. 4. c. 5. ex antiq. Annanlib.
the sixth day. Here, with Art. “the”; unlike the other five days. Six, the Number of man. See App-10.
very good: Job 38:7, Psa 19:1, Psa 19:2, Psa 104:24, Psa 104:31, Lam 3:38, 1Ti 4:4
and the: Gen 1:5, Gen 1:8, Gen 1:13, Gen 1:19, Gen 1:23, Gen 2:2, Exo 20:11
Reciprocal: Gen 1:4 – that Gen 1:21 – God saw Gen 2:18 – good Exo 31:17 – six days Exo 39:43 – did look Deu 32:4 – his work Ecc 2:11 – I looked Ecc 3:11 – hath made Eze 28:15 – till iniquity Zep 3:17 – he will Mar 7:37 – He hath Rom 3:12 – become Heb 4:3 – the works
THE DIVINE VERDICT
And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Gen 1:31
No one can prove to us that God made the world; but faith, which is stronger than all arguments, makes us certain of it.
I. All which God has made is good, as He is, and, therefore, if anything in the world seems to be bad, one of two things must be true of it: (1) either it is not bad, though it seems so to us, and God will bring good out of it in His own good time; or (2) if the thing is really bad, then God did not make it. It must be a disease, a mistake, a failure of mans making, or of some persons making, but not of Gods making. For all that He has made He sees eternally, and, behold, it is very good.
II. God created each of us good in His own mind, else He would not have created us at all. Why does Gods thought of us, Gods purpose about us, seem to have failed? We do not know, and we need not know. Whatever sin we inherited from Adam, God looks on us now, not as we are in Adam, but as we are in Christ. God looks not on the old corrupt nature which we inherited from Adam, but on the new and good grace which God has meant for us from all eternity, which Christ has given us now.
III. That which is good in us God has made; He will take care of what He has made, for He loves it. All which is bad in us God has not made, and therefore He will destroy it; for He hates all that He has not made, and will not suffer it in His world. Before all worlds, from eternity itself, God said, Let us make man in our likeness, and nothing can hinder Gods word but the man himself. If a man loves his fallen nature better than the noble, just, loving grace of God, and gives himself willingly up to the likeness of the beasts that perish, then only can Gods purpose towards him become of none effect.
Canon C. Kingsley.
Illustration
(1) God saw that it was good. His ideals are always realised. The Divine Artist never finds that the embodiment of His thought falls short of the thought.
What act is all its thought had been?
What will but felt the fleshly screen?
But He has no hindrances nor incompleteness in His creative work, and the very sabbath rest with which the narrative closes symbolises, not His need of repose, but His perfect accomplishment of His purpose. God ceases from His works because the works were finished, and he saw that all was very good.
(2) It seems more like a story of mythology than a recital of truth and factthis record of the garden eastward in Eden. I have wandered far from its blessedness and innocence.
Yet I like to believe in that golden past which lies behind me. It may be a long distance behind. It may be separated from me by many more years than I am able to reckon. But once it was a reality. In the infancy of the world there was a Paradise where nothing but what was fair and gracious grew. And in this Paradise a man and a woman walked with God in the cool of the day. They were fashioned like me, but they were unacquainted with my sins. They were holy and harmless and undefiled.
And why am I glad to remember this? Because what has been may be again. I delight in the thought of that old Eden, remote as it is, impossible as it sometimes looks. It tells me of the lofty levels on which humanity has walked, and may walk. It assures me that there is no iron necessity which makes me a sinner simply because I am a man. It opens the door of a golden future as well as of a golden past.
Gen 1:31. Behold, it was very good It had been said of each days work, except the second, that it was good, but now, of every thing, that it was very good. For man, the master-piece of Gods works, and his visible image and deputy here on earth, was now formed and constituted the head and governor of the whole. And all these wonderful works being connected together and dependant one on another, till the last link of the chain was made and added to the rest, some defect and imperfection must of necessity be attached to them all: but this being now finished, the whole was complete, and very good. The evening and the morning were the sixth day No doubt, God could as easily have made the world and all things therein in an instant, as in six days: but he chose to form it in this gradual way, partly, perhaps, that his wisdom, power, and goodness, manifested in each part, might be more distinctly viewed and considered; and that he might show us how great things might rise from small beginnings, and be gradually accomplished; as also that he might set us an example of working six days, and resting on the seventh.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments