Genesis 1:2 "Formless Earth"

12-31-2005

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Formless Earth

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 1:2

            Message of the verse:  “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

This verse has raised a lot of questions of which they will not be answered here, however I will write about some of the theories.  The first theory is called the “Gap” theory, and that came about from a book by G.H. Pember called Earth’s Earliest Ages, and in this book the author theorized that because of the fall of Satan God had to remake the entire earth and so there is a gap between the first and the second verses of Genesis. 

            As of lately there have been many different people who theorize that the earth is much older than what most Bible Scholars believe it to be and thus say that the days in the creation were not twenty-four hour days, but very long periods of time, like millions of years.  The word for day in the Hebrew does have different meanings, however when preceded by a number they always mean a twenty-four hour day.

            As far as my belief on this I do believe that the earth was created just like the Bible tells that it was, and that there was no gap between the first and second verses and that the days were twenty-four hour days. 

            God does not always tell us everything that we would like to know, but only tells us what he wants us to know.  Deu. 29:29 speaks to this when it says:  “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

            This verse seems to say that the initial creation of the earth was without any light at all and it was also covered with water, and the Holy Spirit was hovering over it like an eagle hovers over the earth now.  The question has already been raised as to why the Lord created the earth in stages and why was it like this before He began to make it perfect?  Like Deu. 29:29 speaks to the secret things do belong to the Lord and perhaps this is a secret thing that does belong to Him and He does not want us to know why He made the earth in the way He did.  With that being said one can look at the way some of the words used in this verse are used in other places of the Scriptures to perhaps shed some light on this verse.  The word “darkness” is mostly used in conjunction with sin, but there was no sin committed by a man at this time because man had not been created.  However man would soon be created and man would soon sin after he was created, and if one would look at this world in a spiritual way it is pretty dark, that is the world system, and pretty formless.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at and try to completely understand what this verse is saying, I cannot understand it completely, and so faith has to enter into the picture, faith in God that He will tell me the things that He wants me to know, and faith to believe that it was God who created this world that we live in.  I don’t have to understand everything that God has done, nor how He has done them, however I must obey the things that God has revealed to me, and when I fall ask God to forgive me as He has promised to do.

The Word of God was indeed a challenge to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Trust the Lord to led and direct my path in 2006 and give contentment to my heart as I go through the troubles that He is leading me through.