Post #2

THAT'S WHAT'S UP
     You know what's cool? When you read something that you've read a thousand times and you notice something that you've never noticed before. This happened to me yesterday.

TACKLING THE O.T.
     One of the assignments that my New Testament teacher Mr. Kingswood gave us, was to read and log the entire New Testament. For semester two, every Wednesday and Friday when we came to class we had the next book of the New Testament read and logged. For our logs we took each book chapter by chapter and wrote a summary for each one and also inserted any corresponding comments or questions that we had. By the end of the semester each of us had a personal log book of the entire New Testament. So now that I have that, I thought I'd try and tackle the Old Testament!

“AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD.”
     Naturally, I started the challenge of logging the Old Testament at Genesis Chapter 1. As I was reading through the first chapter I noticed something. After almost every day of creation you read the phrase, “And God saw that it was good” (vs. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21 and 25). There are two days on which God does not say this. On the sixth day instead of reading, “God saw that it was good,” we read that God saw that it was VERY good. This is because on that day, what God created was created in His very own image or likeness. This made it particularly special to God. The fact that God didn't say that what happened on the sixth day was just “good” I can understand. What I'm confused about is why God didn't say it after day 2.

THE SECOND DAY
     Genesis 1:6-8 records for us the happenings of the second day. There it says, "6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day."

A THEORY OR TWO

     If I remember correctly, in his commentary on this passage John Calvin suggests that perhaps God didn't call the happenings of the second day “good” because He was merely laying the foundation/He wasn't yet finished. Personally I wasn't satisfied with this answer because I feel like you could say the same thing for the other days as well.

     I brought up the question at Bible study last night and the most satisfactory explanation that we came up with was that God didn't actually create anything on day 2. To create means to make something from nothing. If you read Genesis 1:6-8 you will notice that God didn't create anything, rather he fashioned something with what was already there. When you look back at verse 2 of Chapter 1 you will see that the waters already existed prior, particularly, to day 2. On day 2 God merely separated the waters.

IMPART TO ME YOUR WISDOM!

     So as of right now, the best answer that I have to my question is this: The reason that God didn't say that the happenings of the second day were “good” but said it for all the others, was because He didn't actually create anything on that day. I'll be willing and happy to be corrected on this when/if I'm presented with objective biblical arguments, so if anyone else has any different or further thoughts on this, I'd love to hear from you!

THANKFULLY, THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN

     Something I realized during my experience at Gillespie Academy was that the more you know, the dumber you feel because the more you know, the more you realize you DON'T know. Still with me? Haha.

     Looking back on my time at Gillespie I can remember there were times when I felt extremely overwhelmed and sometimes discouraged because as I was increasing in my knowledge of God and His Word I realized that I wasn't even getting close to learning and understanding it all.

     I've come to realize that it's pretty foolish to think that I, an finite creature, could ever come close to fully understanding an infinite God. By God's grace, as time goes on instead of being overwhelmed with discouragement I'm becoming overwhelmed with thankfulness that I'll never stop learning about God and His Word. I'm glad that I'll never know all that there is to know about God, because if I could possibly arrive at that point, that would mean that God would cease to be infinite. I'm totally okay with not knowing and understanding everything (as if I had the choice) if it means that God is infinitely loving, true, faithful, just, perfect...and everything else that God is! :D

"OH, THE DEPTHS..."

     At the end of Romans 11 we read Paul's response/reaction to all that he had written previously in his letter. He came to a point where he was completely overwhelmed with the awesomeness, in the true sense of the word, of God. I'll close this (rather unintentionally long—for that I do apologize :P) blog post with what he said. In Romans 11:33-36 we read, “33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”