Genesis 1:1-2:3

Have you ever thought about the void that existed before the world was created?  The Scriptures say, "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep."  Imagine (I looked up the Hebrew for void and it is tohuw): emptiness, without order, formlessness, confusion, nought, nothing.  Unreality.  It is perhaps beyond my mind to comprehend or imagine.  The best I can do is imagine a black, empty space where you might float.  But then, if you are there, it is not empty.  And amidst this, God existed.  He is eternal: forever past, forever present, forever future. I try to imagine what it might be like to be God at that time and I can't.  Then again, I really can't imagine what it would be like to be God.  Perhaps I should just say, I can't imagine what it would be like to exist in such a void.

And then, a voice speaks.  The voice of God (not James Earl Jones).  And He says, "Let there be light."  And suddenly, into this dark void, there is light!  All encompassing, all-penetrating light!  I wonder if, when we get to heaven, we will be able to see the Creation played back for us as on a movie reel.  Would He let us do that?  I'd love to see it: the void, the sudden light.  God separating the waters to create the sky, separating the waters beneath the sky to form dry ground (and indeed, that's a small but definite detail).  Did the vegetation just suddenly burst from the fertile earth?  Did God grow it within the day as if watching a time lapse or sped-up animation?  The Scriptures say that each plant produced seed according to its kind and each tree fruit according to its kind, so you know that by the end of the day, they were mature.  Imagine, within a matter of days transitioning from a dark, formless void to a bright, colorful, inhabited world.  What a wonder!  And it was a world teeming with life.  The Bible says, "Let the waters swarm," and "let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of heaven," beasts and livestock, and everything that creeps along the ground.  A world full of life, when days before there had been nothing, chaos and emptiness. Yes, indeed, I'd love to see it.

And yes indeed, I believe it happened in days.  I know there are some that interpret each day to be an age within which God worked, but the Hebrew there is yom (with an accent ague over the "o"), and when it is used with cardinals (first, second, third) as it is here, it is talking about a 24-hr period.  To me, that says that God worked His creation within the period of a 24-hr day, there was evening and there was morning.  God is GOD, after all.  He is more than perfectly capable to do it.  Again, what a wonder.  It makes me want to go watch Earth and Oceans and things of that nature just to marvel at God's creation.


Reading for tomorrow: Genesis 2:4-3:24