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The end will be greater than the beginning, according to prophesy. If you want to know how the current world will end, you need to know how it began. We are continuing our survey through the start of creation.
Did God create the world in chaos and confusion? Isa. 45:18 says no. So how do we understand Gen. 1:2, because it seems to imply otherwise.
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם
v’erets hayetah tohu va-bohu v’khoshekh ’al-paney tehom v’ruakh ’elohim merakhafat ’al-paney ha-mayim
“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.” (NASB)
Some believe that verse 2 is about the “prehistoric” creation from before mankind were created. They believe that dinosaurs and some plants and then some kind of great distraction took place. After this “great distraction” Elohim comes along and begins to repair the damage and it took him millions of years to repair that damage to make earth habitable. All of this supposedly occurred before Gen. 1:1.
This is mankind trying to reconcile the verse in the prophets that says that God did not create the world in chaos yet Gen.1:2 specifically mentions that God formed the world from chaos.
Gen. 1:29 says:
“Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the 1surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.”
Most translations render the bolded phrase in the future tense but in the Hebrew the phrase is past tense, which shows us that from the moment God created the trees with their fruits and seeds for the specific purpose as food for Adam and Eve.
When we go back to Gen. 1:2 it says that the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. The Hebrew word that is translated as without form is תֹּהוּ tohu (Strong’s lexicon No. H8414). Other meanings include “confusion,” “unreality” or “emptiness.”
The word void is בֹּהוּ bohu (H922), which means “empty,” “without content,” “undistinguishable.” The entire phrase in Hebrew is תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ tohu v’bohu — “without form and void.”
The third word we’ll review is the Hebrew word חֹשֶׁךְ khoshek (H2822), which means “darkness” and “obscurity.” The word is also used in Gen. 10:21 to described the ninth plague inflicted on the Egyptians. They didn’t just see the darkness, they felt it all the way to their bones.
For example, the earliest submariners went down to the depths of the ocean and experience this darkness for the first time, they were so uncomfortable with this darkness that they could not stay in the ocean depths for long periods of time.
God brought order to the world. He brought light to the world. Without order and light, the world is dark and frightening.
In Psa. 104:30 says, “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” The Psalmist tells us that God repair the face the earth. As He did this at the very beginning, He will do this again and the very end.
The Bible is not about mankind; it’s about God — what He does and how He thinks. The Bible doesn’t start with man but with God.
The word renew in Hebrew is חָדַשׁ khadash, (H2318), which also means “repair.” Other verses that use this word include 1st Sam. 11:14, Psa. 51:10 and 2nd Chron. 24:4.
The second Hebrew word in Gen. 1:2 is הָיְתָה hayetah (H1961), a feminine verb that is simply translated as “was” but actually has a more profound meaning that is often glossed over in English translations of this verse. The word literally means “to exist” or “come to pass” and the verb is always an emphatic verb, not a passive verb.
Why is the Hebrew word for earth — ארץ ’eretz (H776) — a feminine word? Why is this verb considered feminine? Just as a woman bears a child, this earth, in a sense, bore the trees, the dogs, cats and man. The pagan “mother earth” concept corrupts this concept.
Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.