Maybe we should ask if God didn't know that whatever He was going to make was going to be good before He made it?

Of course He knew. So what gives?

As I've mentioned before in other posts, the biblical authors love to link together ideas through repetition, and paying attention to the language of the Hebrew text can make these links (and the lessons we're meant to learn) even clearer.

Take a look at the following 5 examples. Do you "see" anything?

Gen 3:6 - "And when the woman saw that the tree was good...she took of the fruit thereof..."

Gen 6:2 - "The Sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful...and they took them wives of all which they chose."

Gen 12:14  - "...the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful...and she was taken into his palace."

Ex 32:1-5  - "Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming...Aaron took the gold from their hands and...he made it into a molten calf....and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it."

Jos 7:21 - "When I saw among the spoils...I coveted them and took them."

In each case, someone sees something they think is good, and then they take it.

And every time, the same Hebrew words are used: Strong's 7200, רָאָה raah, for saw; and Strong's 3947, לָקַח laqach, for take.

To be clear, "seeing" here is not so much about the actual eye seeing something being good as much as it is about deciding (thinking you can "see") for yourself what is good and then taking it.

"Seeing" what is good and what is bad is for God, not for us. It is for us to live according to the good as God "sees" it. Whenever we try to live according to what God "sees" as good, good things happen; whenever we try to see/decide what is good in our own eyes and take it, we bring disaster upon ourselves as did Eve, the sons of God, the Egyptians, the Israelites, Aaron, Achan, et al.

P.S. There's also a hidden link when it comes to Aaron making the golden calf, seeing it after he made it, and then building an altar to it. But that's for another post!

P.P.S. Did you know God didn't call what He did on the second day of creation good? It's true, and this post explains why.