In the second issue on God, creation, and the Fall, I want to look at Genesis 1:2 and how God brought the earth from chaos to order. We also see evidence of the Trinity as I will point out with other scriptures added.
In Issue 1, we have looked at the context for Genesis 1:1 and have traced thoughts on what the beginning of creation means to us biblically and theologically. I discussed the first verse of Genesis and how it gives us the foundation for the whole Bible and our faith.
Remember that I described the literary device of zooming in on God’s creative works from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:2, and then zooming in again in Genesis 1:3. Genesis 2 has even further zooming in. But in this issue, we will discuss Genesis 1:2
Formless and Empty (Chaos becomes Order)
Genesis 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the face of the deep…”
The word “now, and” does not signify a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. It starts the narrative of God’s creation of the earth, the place we dwell. It is more specific than Genesis 1:1 and calls attention to how God was creating.
It’s like taking a giant painting and focusing on one little piece of the painting. The painting is all of creation, the whole universe. By saying “Now the earth,” Moses zooms in on just one little planet in the vast array of God’s design.
Genesis describes the earth in the beginning state of creation as “formless and empty.” You may be more familiar with “formless and void” as most translations have. Void is essentially the same thing as empty. Moses is setting up the imagery of what God does with “formless and empty.”
We will see a pattern in the six days of creation. God takes the formless and empty earth and creates an environment, and then fills it. We’ll get to that in our next issue. I want to focus on “formless and empty.” The word “formless” can also refer to emptiness. Essentially, these are synonyms of a kind.
This phrase occurs only one other time in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 4:23). It’s an interesting prophecy about how God’s people have abandoned Him and so His judgment will rain down on them.. The quotation from “formless and empty” describes the land of Israel after God’s judgment. The land is uninhabitable, which may be the best understanding for Genesis 1:2. Creation is not suitable for animals and humans (especially) living in it.
It is almost like seeing that without God’s presence, the land will return to its pre-creation state. That’s interesting to me because the Spirit of God is instrumental in bringing order to chaos. While “formless” has 20 references in the Old Testament, “empty” only occurs 3 times. Once is in Jeremiah 4:23 as we discussed.
The other time it occurs is Isaiah 34:11. Isaiah prophesied against Edom and describes God’s judgment as a time when the land will not be inhabited by people, but rather by animals. Jeremiah also describes the land as thrown into confusion. This goes right along with Moses’ use of “empty” and the confusion of the darkness and deep waters. The Israelites understood a desert like wasteland because they lived in the wilderness.
The meaning of “formless and empty” based on other passages with the same phrase or words tells us this was more than just a part of creation. It was chaotic and required God’s presence to be brought into order. We’ll talk about that in the next section on God’s Spirit.
There’s still more to unpack about the chaotic nature of the earth before God brought order to the chaos of creation on earth. Two other terms for chaos appear in this verse. First, “darkness” was over the face of the deep.
Darkness is often associated with negative things like wickedness (John 1:5; Ephesians 5:8-12) and death in the Bible. Darkness is part of God’s judgment against Egypt (Exodus 14:20). Even when Jesus is on the Cross, darkness strikes the land from noon until 3 PM (Matthew 27:45).
But darkness can also refer to things that are hidden, so it may surprise us to find that darkness surrounds God especially in the thick clouds resulting from fire on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18; 20:20; Psalm 18:11).
The glorious good news about darkness is that even the darkness is not darkness to God (Psalm 139:12). He can see us no matter how dark and gloomy our situation feels. He brings the light of His goodness into our situation because there is no darkness in him at all (1 John 1:5?). Cry out to God in your times of darkness and He will shine His light on you.
Not only is darkness associated with negative things, but “the deep” is seen especially by cultures in the Ancient Near East as a dark, chaotic place and often seen as the place of the dead or the underworld. It is into this disorganized and chaotic creation that God steps in and brings order.
God’s Spirit Hovers
Genesis 1:2: “… and God’s Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters.”
For the first time, the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit. His appearance in creation is just as interesting as what He does. We’ve already seen God the Father (Genesis 1:1) and now we see the Holy Spirit with Him, both acting to produce creation the way God wishes.
Most interestingly, the Apostle John records by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was also present at creation. He begins his Gospel with the same words of the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) “In the beginning.” Combining these three references, we have a clear view of the Trinity and how they work together.
I love what Paul says about Jesus, that He holds creation together (Colossians 1:16-17). I like to call Jesus based on this passage the “cosmic glue” of creation. The New Testament has several references to Christ as an active Member of creation. Some more interesting food for thought is to consider on its head John’s reference to Jesus as the Word. There are two ways to look at Jesus as the Word.
Greek philosophers understand the Word (Gr. logos) to be an almost mystical matter of creation. They may have seen it as a spark that started it all. John could be using it that way but it’s more likely he is talking about Jesus as the pre-incarnate Word of Yahweh that visited prophets. This would also encompass Jesus being the Angel of Yahweh, at least in some of the most prominent passages of the Old Testament.
Don’t think I’m crazy because I’m getting this from Old Testament scholars. Remember that we talked about the two Yahwehs theory even the Jewish rabbis had. That Angel of Yahweh who spoke for God is probably the pre-incarnate Jesus. But that’s not the only place we see Him.
Many times the prophetic books open with “And the word of the Lord came to…” How does a word come to a person? Many scholars see that the Word is not a thing or a saying but a person. We should think of it as, “The Word of Yahweh appeared to…” If this is the case, John is alluding to Jesus as this pre-incarnate and divine Word.
I will take it a step further especially in my next issue of BIG. I’ll give you a taste of it here. Take on its face the fact that God spoke all things into existence. He used words. If God the Father used a word of proclamation or command to create all things, think of Jesus as the Word of God declared and put into action. Simply put, God said it in Jesus did it. I’ll develop this a little bit more as we cover the rest of creation in our next issue.
Getting back to the text of Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God was “hovering” over the surface of the waters (the deep). The word for “hover” occurs in only two other verses. It is used in Jeremiah 23:9 of human bones that “tremble, shake, or flutter.” That’s the only reference with that context and Hebrew verbal stem.
Here in Genesis 1:2 it is used of God’s Spirit. The other occurrence is Deuteronomy 32:11. Determining the word’s meaning aside from the Jeremiah passage is based on its usage in the context but also on the fact that these two references have the same stem (Pi’el). That means the meaning of the word has a similar context.
The reference in Deuteronomy is to an eagle taking care of her chicks. Based on the context, the hovering motion is of a nurturing and teaching mother over her children. We can think of the Spirit hovering over the waters to bring them into conformity with God’s will. He is bringing order to the chaos of the deep and the waters.
Literally, the Spirit hovers “over the face of the waters.” The face could better be understood as the surface of the waters. His calming presence brings order to the waters. It should be no surprise to us that Jesus calms the storm after being awoken by His fearful disciples (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4: 35-41; Luke 8:22-25) or comes the storm the disciples struggled against on the sea of Galilee in the middle of the night (John 6:20-21).
He Is Still Doing It
Studying Genesis 1:2 is not just about looking at the words and trying to understand the meaning of this verse. It’s not about the theology of God bringing order to chaos or the Godhead showing up in the act of creation (it’s not the only act they share together). Study does us no good if we don’t apply it.
God is a God of order will beyond creation. Paul talks about the Christian worship service being one that follows the Holy Spirit’s leading and exemplifies God’s desire for order (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40). These are not the only places God wants to create order where chaos reigns.
At the end of time, God will judge the “ruler of this world,” Satan for what he has done with God’s good creation (Romans 16:19). We will get into this in Genesis 3, but Satan has been trying to destroy God’s order and creation since the beginning.
We make this the most practical when we realize that the chaotic parts of our lives, the times, places, and feelings that make us unsettled and confused, under the command of the God of the universe. He wants to bring order to your chaos. He wants to bring peace to your confusion.
He is the God of peace who wants to give you perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), peace that surpasses all of your understanding (Philippians 4:7). You must receive His peace, rest in His presence, and let Him give that piece to you in your chaotic situation. Ignore what your situation is telling you and focus on Jesus as Peter focused on Him before he focused on the winds and the waves as he walked on the water with Jesus.
The Saga Continues…
We have only begun our journey of Creation and the Fall. In our next issue, I will look at the rest of Genesis 1 to discover how God created everything. There are many more gems we can find within Genesis 1-3. Let’s continue in our next issue to see God as the amazing Person He is!
