Well thank you for joining once again in this verse-by-verse Bible study, I’m Randy Duncan, and we have just gotten started with our study of the book of Genesis. In the first episode, we only covered verse 1, but we discussed how important it is that you fully understand the implications of what is being communicated in that first verse
Now, spoiler alert here, we are only going to cover verse 2 in this episode. As I mentioned in the first episode, I’m going to treat creation week a bit differently, since creation week is such a stumbling block for many people, particularly non-believers.
So, I’m going to slow down, we’re going to take our time, and have you take a look at creation week maybe in a way you have never considered it before. Then once we are finished with creation week, I’ll transition into a more normal pace in our study, which will usually be about a chapter per episode. But for now, that simply won’t do
V2 -The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
“The earth was without form and void” – what in the world does that mean? How can we have an earth that exists, but has no form?
The Hebrew term for “without form and void ” is tohuw wa bohuw , which means that the earth was completely desolate, uninhabitable, a complete wasteland, useless, completely empty. So, the earth is here. God has formed it. But it is not yet ready for life
Now, we are just getting started together in this study, but you will find that I don’t like to push my personal views too hard. What I like to do is to make you aware of various interpretations or beliefs when appropriate, and then allow you to come to your own conclusions after further study.
I think it’s important that we are aware of the different thoughts and interpretations that exist within Christianity, and to make sure we don’t become too dogmatic on issues that are not related to salvation. Having said that, I will never compromise doctrine as it relates to the basic and core tenets of Christianity, who Jesus was, how we are saved, things like that. Those are non-negotiables!
Even Paul said in Galatians 1:8 that “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!”. IOW, if someone preaches or teaches anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Well, I don’t want to be cursed! And so, I will never negotiate or compromise on the essential fact that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can be saved.
But having said that there are a few beliefs or interpretations that fall into more of a non-essential category. So, for example, the age of the earth, days of creation, the Rapture, things like that. We can disagree on the details of those things, because they aren’t essential or necessary for your salvation. We can debate and discuss with one another in love as to why we hold certain beliefs about these non-essential topics.
I think Augustine gave us sound advice when dealing with these types of issues, when he said: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
So having said that, and getting back to the earth being formless and void, an uninhabitable wasteland, there does exist the idea held by a minority of believers that this term tohuw wa bohuw means “but the earth had become empty and void” …meaning that at one time in the past, after God created the earth, that the earth was habitable, but that for some reason it had become uninhabitable
They attribute the fall of Satan, and Satan being cast down to earth, as the cause of the earth becoming this wasteland. This is where the idea that the earth lay in ruins for a long time, billions of years perhaps, comes in.
This is called the Gap Theory. And it theorizes a very large “Gap” in time between when God created the earth, and when Satan fell and turned it into a wasteland, until God once again renews the earth, and does what Satan cannot, which is to create.
Now, for those who believe this, the attractiveness of this theory is that it can perhaps make better sense of the scientific data that tells us the earth is 4.5 billion years old. And so, in this way, they can hold onto the scientific data of an old earth, while also holding onto the belief in a recent creation for animals and humans. And when I say “recent creation for animals and humans, I mean, they believe that although the earth is billions of years old, animals and humans are less than 10,000 years old.
And so, for those people who adopt this view, in their mind they are able to marry the long ages of the earth that science tells us there has been, with what they believe scripture teaches about recent creation for humanity
But most commentators agree that there is no reason to interpret tohuw wa bohuw as meaning “but the earth had become”. Therefore, most people stick with “and the earth was empty and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”, meaning, God is in the process of forming the earth, but that it is not yet ready for life
“Darkness over the face of the deep” Wait, I thought God had already created the heavens and the earth in V1? How can there be darkness if the universe, which is full of light, was already created? And what is “the deep”?
V1 is a summary statement. An introduction. V2 will now provide more details into the account of God’s creation.
As for the deep, there is now strong scientific evidence that earth began as a water world. So, what would be in mind here are deep waters. So, what is described is in essence, a dark, water world. Which happens to be exactly the way scientists believe the earth started off…a lifeless, dark, water world. Now, I will definitely be coming back to this issue of darkness over the coming episodes, as we look at each day of creation separately, so I’m not going to go into much detail here.
But it’s interesting, Psalm 104:5-6 speaking of the earth- You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
Until…. the spirit of God began hovering over the waters, the face of the deep.
The word “hovering” portrays an image of an eagle/hen brooding over her eggs in the nest. She protects them, incubates them, she covers them with her wings. This is the image that the Hebrew conveys in the spirit of God hovering over the waters
And this will lead us into the next episode, where we will begin to take a look at the specific creation days
The creation week is the source of all sorts of conjecture, disagreement, and even outright disbelief
If you think that I am going to do a quick superficial reading of the creation week narrative, and just hit the highlights that you are so familiar with, covering all six days of creation in one short episode, and not expose you to some various perspectives and interpretations, then you would be wrong! This isn’t your grandmother’s type of bible study! No offense grandma!
Because it is very important to Biblical credibility that we correctly interpret the early part of Genesis. The book of genesis is where many nonbelievers and skeptics have major hang-ups and problems with the Bible. It is where they mostly attack the credibility of the Bible.
So, we need to be able to offer credible, rational, answers to these challenges.
And the creation week seems to take on more than its fair share of challenges
Also, it is very important to our own Christian walks to understand that even the first chapters in Genesis provide valuable insight into God’s creation and plan of salvation
1 Peter 3:15 commands us, doesn’t suggest, but commands us, to always be prepared to give a reason, a defense, an explanation for the reason for the hope we have.
We can study the Bible all we want, but if we are not learning more about God, if we are not asking the “so what” questions, and how that applies to Christ, then we are wasting our time.
How is what we are studying pointing us towards Jesus Christ? That is the backdrop on which we need to study scripture.
My goal for this podcast is to encourage believers in Jesus Christ. Both to encourage current believers in their faith, and to help their faith grow stronger, but also to encourage those who have not yet believed to take a serious, fresh look at the truth claims of the Bible.
And for all of us, remember, and some of us may need to keep this in mind for the next episode, is that the only barrier to truth is the presumption that you already have it.