God does reveal elsewhere in scripture that He did not design and create the heavens and earth in this disorderly state.
It is a simple statement, but a powerful statement of truth. The term in vain is the same word translated without form in Genesis 1:2. Isaiah says that God did not originally create the earth in this condition.
Other scriptures, such as Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23, describe similar devastation on the earth using the same words translated without form, and void in Genesis 1:2. There is no doubt that these words describe the earth as being an empty wasteland.
Other Bible scriptures fill in the missing pieces and tell us of Satan's rebellion against God. They describe his attempt to overthrow God, and as a result, of a great supernatural battle that he lost, as mentioned in several places - Luke 10:18; II Peter 2:4; I John 3:8; Jude 6.
We see what appears to be a parallel situation in Revelation 12:7-9, which apparently describes an attempt by Satan to overthrow God shortly before Christ's return, from which he is thrown out of heaven. But, God has allowed Satan to retain authority over this present world for the time being. That is a future event.
The apostle John, writing under God's inspiration, takes us back to a time before the events described in Genesis 1. This is a very foundational scripture and it is so important that we, in many sermons, keep turning back to it.
Here the Bible reveals that, before the creation of the heavens and the earth described in Genesis 1, the Word was with God, and God made everything through the Word. Nothing of this is revealed in the Genesis account, yet these details help us understand who God was in the beginning and who He was at the time of the earth's creation.
In another passage God explains that angels were present at the creation of the earth. The book of Genesis does not mention this, but it is an important fact. We find this detail recorded in the book of Job, where God asks Job where he was when He laid the foundations of the earth.
Here the morning stars and sons of God - - the angels - - exulted as they saw the earth miraculously come into existence. They were created long before the earth and the heavens.
Boy, is that a list of qualifications! Or, how would you say that? A resume, or what? I am the Lord who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who established it, one who didn't create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited. There's no other like Me! That tells you a great deal about where we are coming from here.
