Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.“
Genesis 1:31

EVERYTHING God had made was not only good, but VERY good. There was NOTHING that was out of place. NOTHING that was a mistake. NOTHING that didn’t function EXACTLY as He had imagined, designed, and spoke it to be. NOTHING that was out of place. No death. No toil. No shame. No burdensome living. No lack. No loss. No chains. No pain. It was ALL OF IT good. It was THE plan and it WAS working as intended.

When it says ‘everything’ it means EVERYTHING. It’s easy to dismiss the snake in Genesis 3 as evil, but it is not. It was USED for evil purposes, but it was created and functioned EXACTLY as God intended until it chose to go against what God had said over it – the same way Adam did. The serpent was more subtle than any creature (Genesis 3:1), but that was not a BAD thing. It was USED by the devil FOR a bad thing. In and of itself, it wasn’t bad and neither was it’s gift of subtlety (Matthew 10:16).

At this point there is no evil on Earth. There is no Sin. There is no death. There is no evil inclination, no sinful nature. In fact, in giving authority and dominion to humanity in Genesis 1:28, God protected the Earth (and Creation) from evil. Nothing could get in without humanity’s PERMISSION – we had dominion over Earth. It was only when humanity bowed their knee to someone other than God and transferred their dominion that Sin (and evil) were able to enter as an active participant. We were meant to dominate any evil that came our way (Genesis 4:7) AND we would recognise the evil by knowing it was NOT good (not in accord with God’s moral character). By knowing GOD IS GOOD and the source of all good things (James 1:17), they would know that everything NOT good is NOT from God [more in Genesis 3].

By proclaiming that it was ‘very good’, God sealed His work of Creation. His part was done and He had turned over management to humanity, whose job was to shepherd Creation to its fullest potential. To be co-labourers with God and see the potential of Creation actualized.

Sages teach that as there are six days, there are six millenniums (or epochs) to the age of the Earth until it is over and we enter the ‘rest’ of eternity. Two millennium without Torah (the Word) – and the earth was formless (Genesis 1:2); two millennia with Torah – in order that the Law be in your mouth (Exodus 13:9); and two millennia of the days of Messiah – until He comes to whom it belongs (Genesis 49:10).

The Rabbi Kli Yakar teaches that the entire story of creation ends on the sixth day with the name of Power [yod-hay] which is a combination of the letters of a male [yud] and female [hay] to teach that God created them all male and female [together in one]. What is hinted at in Kli Yakar’s writing is that the essence of everything is humanity, and because of humanity and for him God created everything. From this we get the question why humans (Psalm 8:4-8)? And the answer is in this verse: behold, it was VERY good. We were created to rise up into Him, into His goodness from our goodness, to become more than we already are – which is fulfilled in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).