Was Creation "Very Good" or "Not Good"?
In Genesis 1:31, God states that His creation was “very good.” However, in Genesis 2:18, He says “it is not good.” Was God’s creation good or not? Is God contradicting Himself?
The danger in quoting verses in isolation is that a key component of understanding is lost, namely context. Understanding the context of each of these verses is the key to resolving this apparent contradiction.
Genesis 1
The first chapter of Genesis gives us an overview of the entire week of creation. For review, let’s see what was created and when:
Space, time, matter, energy, with Earth existing initially as a big rotating of water (cf. 2 Peter 3:5), and light. (Genesis 1:1-5)
The sky (Genesis 1:6-8)
Dry land, vegetation (Genesis 1:9-13)
Sun, moon, stars (Genesis 1:14-19)
Sea creatures and birds (Genesis 1:20-23)
Land animals, and Man (Genesis 1:26-2:1)
On Day Seven, God rested from all His creative works (Genesis 2:2, 3).
Genesis 2
In Genesis 2, Moses “flashes back” and zooms in on the Sixth Day. It is in this chapter that we see not only that God created Adam, but also how He did so—by forming him from the dust of the ground and by breathing life into him (Genesis 2:7). We learn about details of the Garden of Eden, including the trees of both Life and Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9), and the sole prohibitive command given to Adam, namely “Don’t eat from that tree.”
Then God makes the statement under examination in Genesis 2:18: “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.” Rather than declaring to Adam that he needed a help-meet, He let Adam discover this on his own by giving Adam the task of naming the livestock, birds, and animals of the field. Adam comes to the realization that while there is a cow for the bull, a mare for the stud, and a hen for the rooster, there was no woman to be found for the man (Genesis 2:20). So, God knocks Adam out (maybe to prevent Adam from giving his unwanted opinion in what the perfect woman should look like!), creates a woman from his own flesh, and presents her to him (Genesis 2:21-22). All of this happened on Day 6 of the creation week.
Conclusion
When we put both chapters together, we get the full picture of what God did during creation week:
God creates space, time, matter, energy
God creates the sky
God creates dry land and vegetation
God creates the heavenly bodies
God creates sea creatures and birds
God creates land animals
God creates Adam
God declares that Adam’s bachelor status was “not good”
God creates Eve
God declares His creation “very good”God rests