1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning, God already existed!
This simple verse shows that time began when God created. “The beginning” in Genesis 1 is the creation of time. Obviously time cannot exist before the beginning.
But God did. So there is an existence that is outside of the constraint of time. Before there was creation, before there was a beginning, before there was time - there was God!
Time began with the creation of the heavens and the earth.
“The Heavens” here refers to universes – every created thing that is not part of the earth. This story will zoom in on the earth.
GEN 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
FORMLESS: The Hebrew word for “formless” here is
tohuw (תהו). Following are other places in the Bible where that same word is translated (which I’ve made in ALL CAPS). I offer these to illustrate its rich meaning:
- 1 Samuel 12:21: “You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are FUTILE.”
- Isaiah 40:17: “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and MEANINGLESS.”
- Psalm 107:40: “He pours contempt upon princes and makes them wander in a PATHLESS WASTE.”
As you can see, “tohuw” implies purposelessness or meaninglessness.
VOID: Not only was the earth meaningless, it was also void (Hebrew “
bohuw,” or הו,). That is, it was “empty. “
In fact, its emptiness is the very reason it was meaningless.
An empty planet, like an empty bucket, has no purpose.
On this meaningless, empty planet “
Darkness was over the surface of the deep.” This is like an exclamation mark to the earth’s futility at that moment.
If we imagined for a moment that all we had was Genesis 1:1-2b, we would have nothing but a created thing – the earth – dark, empty, and without a purpose to serve.
That becomes the primary theme in this story! The writer wants us to recognize this meaninglessness. He is building a crescendo here that we shouldn’t let ourselves miss.
The earth was inanimate. The earth couldn’t love its Creator; nor could the Creator love a lifeless mass of dirt.
But this formless, empty, dark world is about to be given life by an all-powerful, loving God who wants to animate the very soil of His creation so that He can love and be loved!!
The Genesis storyteller has now set the stage for God’s activity. God will infuse meaning into this meaningless earth throughout the rest of the creation story.
We get a glimpse that this is about to happen in v.2c because God’s Spirit is “
moving,” and His moving is "
over the surface of the waters." The Creator came down here, close, to be near to what He created.
Allow yourself to feel the story’s tension and to get excited with the writer as God in His Spirit massages His creation!
In a spiritual sense we might think of the Holy Spirit pacing back and forth, thinking intently and creatively, planning what He will do with this earth to give it meaning. He is planning the greatest thing He has ever accomplished, the pinnacle of creation. He’s about to infuse this formless, void, darkness with meaning!
[Begin Day 1 – Create light, day and night]
3 Then God said, "Let there be light "; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
V.3, That infusion of meaning begins with light. The darkness that was over the face of the deep had to be remedied before anything else.
Darkness *is* meaninglessness – no one can do anything worthwhile at all without light. Light gives the opportunity for meaning.
And then BAM! God said – “Enough of this darkness! Enough meaninglessness! I AM light, and I am going to enlighten the earth!”
God spoke it and the Word - Who was in the beginning! - was sent forth to illuminate the darkness! And there was light.
No other gods to argue with. YWHW's purpose. His will. His power. God, Who is light, Who existed before the creation, shone into this darkness.
Note: God began creation in the darkness. His creating and His infusion of light were separate acts.
Also note: darkness still existed after God released light. He didn’t remove darkness completely – He created day and night, evening and morning.
V.4, The light was good. This is the first of six “it was good” statements in the story. This is very significant, because the story that follows this creation process will revolve around “good” and “evil.”
V.5, Finally note that Day 1 existed with both darkness and light before the sun was created (
vv.14-18). Light exists, and so does darkness, without our sun.
What does all this tell us about God and His intent as we watch Him prepare the earth for meaningful existence? There can be no meaningfulness to a life lived in a pitch dark cavern. Light is necessary for purpose.
But it is significant that darkness wasn’t eradicated. Rather than removing darkness, He “separated it from light.” Isn’t that rich?
[Begin Day 2 – Create an expanse between the waters; heaven or sky]
6 Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Everything was water. Then God separated the water into two parts so that there was an expanse between them. There is now water below and water above with space in between. Interestingly, the early Hebrews and others believed rain came from a “heavenly ocean.”
Why would God create this expanse between the waters?
To separate heaven and earth, God and man.
From a literary standpoint it also foreshadows that God’s focus will be on His land-dwelling creation.
God called the expanse between the waters (
šāmāyim; שָׁמָ֑יִם) -“heaven” or “sky,” depending on your English translation.
Either translation is valid as long as we understand that it’s not talking about “heaven” in the sense of a place where God lives. I prefer the NIV's "sky."
God will place the planets and stars in this expanse in vv. 14-19.
[Begin Day 3 – Uncover dry land and seas; Command vegetation to grow and reproduce]
9 Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear "; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Vv. 9-10, Now that there was a separation of upper (“heavenly”) water and lower (“earthly”) water, God could pull the earthly waters together “into one place” so that dry land could “appear” (which implies that the land already existed).
At this point, only a single ocean and a single mass of land are in view.
Just as He separated water from water and called the expanse “sky,” so now He separates the lower water and land and calls one “sea” and the other “earth.“
Notice here that these verses have effectively given a more detailed account of 1:1, where the simple statement is made that God created the heavens and earth. These verses show the process He followed in greater detail.
- He created light to expose the water
- Then He separated the water into two parts to create the heavens (sky) in between them
- Finally He separated the lower water from land to create earth and sea
He has now created the heavens and the earth.
Separating land from water is essential to this story because God will create man from the dust, and dust requires dry land.
The land and water separation “was good.”
This is good #2 of 6. It’s worth repeating: It’s highly significant that everything is “good” because it forms the backdrop for the coming tension with evil.
Although it was good, the earth didn’t serve a purpose yet. It was still “meaningless and empty,” but we get to see God’s doing His creative work with a purpose in mind.
He’s creating the good things that will ultimately give meaning to the pinnacle of His creation, mankind.
Vv. 11-13, Finally, God created vegetation even though there wasn’t a sun yet.
Separating the upper and lower waters, separating land from sea, and producing vegetation are all done on the same day.
This is significant. God begins preparing earth for His prize creation by providing plant life. Plants need both dry land and water from the “heavenly ocean.”
Remember, until the flood in Genesis 6, mankind will eat only plants. God is creating mankind’s sustenance.
God doesn’t just create. He actually does three things: He CREATES some things, ARRANGES other things, and COMMANDS still other things to reproduce.
- In v.3 He spoke light (which didn’t exist here) into existence. That is CREATION.
- In vv.4-5 He actively separated light from darkness. That’s ARRANGING what already existed.
- In vv.6-8 God spoke an expanse between the waters into existence. That is CREATION.
- In vv.9-10 God commanded the waters to move to expose the land. This is ARRANGEMENT.
- In vv.11-13 the earth produced at His COMMAND.
For the first time here, something God created becomes creative (reproductive). Plants are given seeds so that they can continue to reproduce. Mankind was not the first reproductive life form God created on earth. The plants were the first. Those plants will feed man and give him purpose.
Again, we get to watch God creating the things that will sustain His prize creation!
