In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 KJV
What better place to start than the beginning. Basically, God created but then what?
Verse 2 tells us the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
- The Hebrew word for “without form” is tohu (phonetically to’-hoo) which can be translated “to lie waste; a desolation that is desert; figuratively a worthless thing, a waste.”
- The Hebrew word for “void” is bohu (phonetically bo’-hoo) which can be translated as “empty, an undistinguishable ruin, emptiness.”
- The Hebrew word for darkness is choshek (phonetically kho-shek’) which can be translated as “darkness or figurative destruction.”
I heard from Billye Brimm, the Jews would use to-hu wa-bo-hu to describe the condition of a teenager’s bedroom. A disastrous mess.
- The translated word “was” comes from the Hebrew word hayetah which also means “became or come to pass”.
If it became a disastrous mess, then it was not that way when God created it. It makes sense that if God created something, it was prefect simply because God made it.
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18 KJV
- The Hebrew word for “vain” is the same and the word for “without form”: tohu (phonetically to’-hoo) which can be translated “to lie waste; a desolation that is desert; figuratively a worthless thing, a waste.”
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the Earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens. Proverbs 3:18 KJV
He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion. Jeremiah 10:12 KJV
God knew what He was doing when he made the heavens and the earth It could not have been formed as a disastrous mess. It literally says in Isaiah that it was not created in vain or tohu. It was created to be habitable by his knowledge and wisdom.
So how did it become a disaster?
One school of thought which explains it nicely and I am inclined to follow, is the fall of Lucifer. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happend between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 but there are references to it in various books of the Bible relating to the fall of Satan, including:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. Isaiah 14:12-15 KJV
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke 10:18 KJV
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. Jeremiah 4:23-27 KJV
I can understand how the Earth could be laid to waste, destroyed by something hurtling from the heavens like an asteroid. What if Lucifer was that “asteroid” that hurtled to the Earth and added to the destruction? It also says that God’s presence destroyed all the cities. If God is Love how could He destroy? Light casts out darkness, love destroys sin. God would would destroy all sin simply by showing up.
Let’s back up just a bit. What was Lucifer doing on Earth before his fall; before he decided he was so amazing that he could take God’s throne?
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:12-15 KJV
Lucifer was evidently one of God’s most beautiful angels and was given much honor other all other angles and over the inhabitants of the Earth at that time; before mankind was created. We can see evidence of what the inhabitants were like by the fossils and bones that are discovered. They are similar to mankind but not the same. Mankind was a new creation, a copy of Jesus Christ who was created in God’s image (but I am getting ahead of myself).
Unfortunately, Lucifer decided he was better than God and would raise himself above God. The result of his foolish thoughts and actions was that God pretty much said, you’ve got to be kidding me and flicked Lucifer out of Heaven like a pesky ant along with one third of the angels Lucifer had persuaded to follow him. This would be the definition of “how dumb can you get?”
Then came the destruction of the “beginning” and the subsequent creation of the “Eden” Earth and Mankind.
And that is what I believe happened… In the Beginning.
References:
Brimm, Billye. The Blood and the Glory. Harrison House 1958.
Strong, LLD STD, James. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Thomas Nelson 2001.
The Bible: King James Version. Cambridge University Press 1996.
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