And God Created Mosquitos

“God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Creation was “very good.” God Himself declared this to be the case. Yet, if in spite of citronella candles, mosquito coils, or insect repellant liberally applied to exposed skin you have ever been driven inside by mosquitos during the warm days of summer, I doubt that few will be tempted to say that mosquitos are good. Mosquitos are one symptom of a flaw in our view of the creation. In addition to these tiny vampires, I suppose one could add gnats, wasps, black flies, and house flies, to say nothing of ants who seem to grace every summer picnic, even finding their way into our kitchens in their unending, restless search for food. Any of an astounding number of vicious flying or crawling insects compel us to wonder what could ever be thought to be good about their presence. And if these pests are of questionable value, how is it possible to think anything good about any of a number of arachnids such as spiders and scorpions.

I dare say that at one time or another you have wondered why God even bothered to make mosquitos! I know that I have groused on more than one occasions, “When I get to Heaven, I’m going to ask God why He made mosquitos!” We might question how bacteria that cause multiple deadly and debilitating diseases, spirochetes that infect the body and leave us weakened and vulnerable, viruses that destroy our lives, or even prions that can ravage the brain can be “good?” How can a virus such as the one that causes SARS, or the Covid-19 virus, be categorised as “good?”

When we allow our thoughts to turn to other aspects of the creation, we would likely question how any of a number of weather phenomena such as tornadoes and hurricanes, droughts and floods, blizzards and dust storms can be considered “good?” Beyond the various destructive elements of nature, we probably question how the evil witnessed in society can be “good.” How can a mother deserting her child, or a father abusing the children God entrusted to him to protect, be “good?” There is a lot about creation that doesn’t seem all that good.

The Apostle Paul has provided a partial answer to our quandary when he writes, “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” [ROMANS 8:19-22]. What we see is not what God intended. In fact, what we witness in nature today reveals something of the beauty the Creator intended, but without the purpose it had at the first.

There are bad things in creation, and there are bad things about creation as we see it now. However, what we witness is not what was intended, not what the Creator created. There was a dark intervention that left an indelible mark on the creation. We suffer from that darkness, and the whole creation is marred by something dark.

The simple answer to the hard questions that have been raised is that we are no longer living in the first blush of creation. We now live in a fallen state between the initial goodness of creation and the new heavens and the new earth which is promised for those who look to the Living God to restore things to a state of full harmony. The world in which we now live, the only world that any of us have known, is marked by the brokenness resulting from the world having been plunged into ruin by the sin of our first parents. Though God pronounced all that He had made as “very good,” sin has ruined the creation. This is an issue that must be explored if we understand the glory of God and what He is doing at this time. God helping us, I propose that we study this issue today.

THE CREATION WAS GOOD — Let’s allow our minds to carry us back to the first blush of the creation. It isn’t difficult to do this since the Lord God has provided us with an account of what took place at that time. God called all that is into existence. When God spoke, that which He spoke came to be. It didn’t take millions of years for things to eventually assume their shape. Therefore, we read, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” [GENESIS 1:3-5].