The first command in God's Word is Let there be light. After introducing God as Creator of heaven and earth, the Book begins by describing earth, that is, our world, and the Bible describes it as tohu and bohu, as we have said in the past, in the Hebrew. That it was formless and empty. It existed in a chaotic state. There was futility there, it was covered in darkness. It describes a place, a state without God.
The church has taught that the language that Moses uses here in verses 1 and 2, as describing what happened to the earth, what happened to the whole galaxy, if you will, the solar system at least after, Satan's rebellion. This is the way it was once rebellious angels tried to take over God's throne and were spat back to earth by His might. That is called the gap theory. That is what creationists call it. That there was a gap of some time between the first verse and the second.
And if we are correct in believing that, it is a description then of the result of sin and rebellion. And so the earth that was without form and void, and darkened, where there was no light, that is the way that is opposed to God, that is the result of sin.
But the end of verse 2 informs us that God was poised to act. He was not willing to leave His creation in such a displeasing ruined state. His Spirit, that is, the power by which He works, was hovering in the darkness over the waters. It is almost like it was a bird just kind of hovering in the breeze, kind of like you see the gulls do on the beach, where they just seem to stay hovering as the wind holds them up. And of course, many people have drawn a parallel to the Spirit coming like a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, as kind of a throwback to this. That the One who was going to cleanse the world was here.
But that Spirit, His Spirit, was above the waters. And the image of hovering, the idea of hovering, gives you the idea of kind of a tenseness that is there. Like there is a readiness to go. It is almost like when you are on the starting line in a race. Everybody is just waiting for the gunshot to go off or the whistle to blow or the flag to wave. The Spirit was waiting for a command. Then God said, Let there be light. That was the command - and there was light. It happened. Light bloomed around the earth. So God banished the darkness for a time so He could work.
Notice it tells us there that once He saw the light and said it was good, that He divided the light from the darkness, and there was a day portion and a night portion, a light portion and a dark portion. And they became part of our day. Have you ever tried, let us say it is pitch black outside, but you have to do something and you do not have any light source. And so you try to fumble around and try to figure out how to do this thing and you never do it quite right. Even if you can do what it is that you need to do, you do not feel real secure about it because it is dark. You cannot see what you have just done, but you assume maybe that you got it okay.
But if you need to be able to see and light is not available or your abilities are not there, then you are going to have trouble. It is a struggle. But as soon as the ability to see is there and as soon as light is there, it becomes almost easy. You do not have to put quite so much work into it. So it is almost impossible to do anything well in darkness.
Jesus Himself says in John 9:3, that the night is coming when no one can work. It is a generality, but it is a truism. Work is far more difficult in darkness. We work best in the daylight, in the daytime when we can see because there is plenty of light to illuminate what we are doing.
God, then, brought light into the world to do His work of creation. That was the first thing He called for. I need a lamp. I can't see what's in here in the engine. You ever worked on a car at night? How much light do you need to do some of that work? And of course, there are shadows everywhere and you have to get the light in … . . .
But we are going to start here in Genesis 1:26, on the sixth day of God's rebuilding of the earth and what had been terribly demolished by Satan.
As most of us know, as far as we understand these two verses, the Church of the Great God generally subscribes to what is called the Gap Theory, also more properly referred to as Restoration Creationism. Sometimes, it is called the re-creation theory.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and we know what God creates is very good. However, verse 2 gives us a completely different picture. Verse 2 shows us a creation that was without form and void,' as translated in the King James. Those two words in the original Hebrew are tohu and bohu, which mean confusion and ruin or chaos.
God does not create things in confusion and chaos, so the indication is that something drastic happened between verses 1 and 2 where we see God recreating order and productivity on the earth. Something must have happened between and which had turned the earth into a shapeless, chaotic mass, as The Living Bible puts it.
Putting scriptures together from other places in the Bible we can draw the conclusion that this gap in time and the confusion and chaos recorded in verse 2, was the result of the rebellious destruction of Satan and those demonic angels that followed him.
I would like to remind us here what we believe and teach regarding this, as stated on the Church of the Great God website under the title, How Does The Bible Explain Fossil Ages Over 6,000 Years (Genesis 1:2):
It seems interesting that God begins His thunderous account to Job of His sovereignty over every facet of His creation with the joyful songs of the angels when He created the earth. It is possible that this joy was expressed by the angels at the recreation of the earth and return to peace and order in anticipation of God's work to create additional members of the Family.
Or it may be possible that this predated Genesis 1:1 and the earth's original creation to be ultimately inhabited by those whom God intended to be in His Family. Perhaps this was at earth's pre-gap creation when the angels may have been given the task by God trusting them to finish the preparations for mankind.
Perhaps we may be able to piggyback on what Bill said a few weeks ago to see just how notoriously horrible in breaking the bond of trust with God is envy. I think we can make a biblically sound guess that it was envy over what did not rightly belong to him or any angels - being created in the image and likeness of God!
Brethren, as we saw Satan is the ruler of this world, with the authority and power that God had given to His created angels as ministering spirit being of great power. Is it possible that his original rulership was to complete the construction of earth as a suitable habitat for physical man who were going to be in God's Family, but his envy for what was never going to be his got in the way, and ate away at him?
Four places - heaven, earth (which is one merism), seas, deep places (another merism). Focusing on the second merism, it is important to note that the Hebrew noun translated deep places is a different one from the word translated sea. However, it is the same word translated deep in Genesis 1:2: and darkness was on the face of the deep. In verse 6 God is distinguishing between the seas, filled with water, and the deep places, which are in this context apparently filled with rocks and dirt. It is noteworthy that, in Deuteronomy 33:13, Moses, in his prophecy about the tribe of Joseph, uses the same word when he mentions the deep lying beneath. Combined with the term lying (or couching in the King James Version), it probably refers to mineral wealth lying deep in the ground, a blessing Joseph has enjoyed.
In this passage, the psalmist is saying that God rules in heaven and earth, seas and deep places - four distinct places. Remember, God has no trouble seeing these areas. In Psalm 139:11-12, we learn that to God, the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You. The light-dark dichotomy does not affect God. The darkness is not dark to Him. He is able to peel through, like a medical imaging device can do, able to penetrate, deep down through each layer of darkness, to see what man cannot see - as if it is in broad daylight. That may give insight to Psalm 74:12, a passage you all know well, where the psalmist writes that God works salvation in the midst of the earth. The Common English Bible interprets that to mean, in the heart of the earth. Of course, God is obviously not offering spiritual salvation to bacteria, but, as part of His creation, He is certainly using them in working out His plan of salvation.
As most of us know, as far as we understand these two verses, the Church of the Great God generally subscribes to what is called the Gap Theory, also more properly referred to as Restoration Creationism. Sometimes, it is called the re-creation theory.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and we know what God creates is very good. However, verse 2 gives us a completely different picture. Verse 2 shows us a creation that was without form and void,' as translated in the King James. Those two words in the original Hebrew are tohu and bohu, which mean confusion and ruin or chaos.
God does not create things in confusion and chaos, so the indication is that something drastic happened between verses 1 and 2 where we see God recreating order and productivity on the earth. Something must have happened between and which had turned the earth into a shapeless, chaotic mass, as The Living Bible puts it.
Putting scriptures together from other places in the Bible we can draw the conclusion that this gap in time and the confusion and chaos recorded in verse 2, was the result of the rebellious destruction of Satan and those demonic angels that followed him.
Peter reminds us that the earth was composed of water and through water. According to the Genesis story, in the beginning, there was a kind of watery chaos.
So out of this watery chaos, the world was formed. Also it is through water that the world is sustained because life is sustained by the rain that comes down from the skies. So Peter is pointing out that the world was created out of water and is sustained by water, and it was by the same element that the ancient world was destroyed.
The warning that Peter is giving to the church is that these scoffers reason like this: As things are so they will be forever, nothing changes. That is what we say about our politicians and their methods of rule in one sense. But it will all change, thankfully. They build their hopes on the idea that this is an unchanging universe, but of course, they are wrong because the ancient world was formed out of water and is sustained by water and it perished in a watery flood.
So darkness symbolizes a life lived in ignorance, ignorance of the truth of God. It is a life that is in reality hostile to truth and tries to snuff it out, and so darkness also stands for chaos and immorality of a life lived apart from God and His truth. Do you not think that it is interesting that when the Bible begins in Genesis 1:2 that it begins with the earth in darkness and chaos and the first thing God does to put things in order is allow the light to shine through? It is a very deep and important spiritual lesson that God begins the very Bible with - that in order for people to get out of the chaos and confusion of their life, they have to have light, truth. So truth then, or light, is reality and it reveals reality so that we are able to see things in their true character.
The word hovers here is interesting. It is exactly the same word that is translated in Genesis 1:2 about the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. It can be translated, to brood. It does not merely mean that God is over there watching, but rather it means that He is watching and meditating, thinking, evaluating. What is He doing? It says in Psalms 11:4, His eyelids test the sons of men. It means He is evaluating what is going on. It tells us that we are the apple of His eye. He is focusing on us. He has others in view, but His real focus is on us. It tells us an Isaiah 49:16 that we are written on the palms of His hands. And so we are getting a special attention that only God is able to give. We are receiving personal instruction and care.
This is very interesting because in Genesis 1:2 (where it says the spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep), do you know that word moved is more closely related to our English word fluttered than it is to the word moved? It fluttered about. I think that is kind of interesting - connecting the two creation chapters of the Bible, John 1 with Genesis 1; and the Holy Spirit flutters. Brethren, there is a lesson there!
God's Holy Spirit can be described simply as the mind and creative power of the Almighty God. Now note here in these scriptures, it was not God Himself that was hovering over the face of the waters. No. It tells us God created everything through His powerful Spirit. It was through the thought processes that emerged from God's mind that He thought and His Spirit made it.
