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And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep: and the spirit of God moved (R.V. m. was brooding) upon the face of
the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.—Gen
1:2-3.
This is the second stage in the history of the Creation. After the first verse, it
is of the earth, and of the earth only, that the narrative speaks. The earth
did now exist, but in the form of chaos. This expression does not mean a
state of disorder and confusion, but that state of primitive matter in which
no creature had as yet a distinctive existence, and no one element stood out
in distinction from others, but all the forces and properties of matter existed,
as it were, undivided. The materials were indeed all there, but not as such—
they were only latent. However, the creative spirit, the principle of order and
life, brooded over this matter, which, like a rich organic cell, comprehended
in itself the conditions, and up to a certain point the elementary principles,
of all future forms of existence. This Spirit was the efficient cause, not of
matter itself, but of its Organization, which was then to begin. He was the
executant of each of those Divine commands, which from this time were to
succeed each other, stroke after stroke, till this chaos should be transformed
into a world of wonders.
We cannot tell how the Spirit of God brooded over that vast watery mass. It
is a mystery, but it is also a fact, and it is here revealed as having happened
at the very commencement of the Creation, even before God had said, “Let
there be light.” The first Divine act in fitting up this planet for the habitation
of man was for the Spirit of God to move upon the face of the waters. Till
that time, all was formless, empty, out of order, and in confusion. In a word,
it was chaos; and to make it into that thing of beauty which the world is at
the present moment, even though it is a fallen world, it was needful that the
movement of the Spirit of God should take place upon it. How the Spirit
works upon matter, we do not know; but we do know that God, who is a
Spirit, created matter, and fashioned matter, and sustained matter, and that
He will yet deliver matter from the stain of sin which is upon it. We shall see
new heavens and a new earth in which materialism itself shall be lifted up
from its present state of ruin, and shall glorify God; but without the Spirit of
God the materialism of this world must have remained for ever in chaos.
Only as the Spirit came did the work of creation begin.1 [Note: C. H.
Spurgeon.]
We have first chaos, then order (or cosmos); we have also first darkness,
then light. It is the Spirit of God that out of chaos brings cosmos; it is the
Word of God that out of darkness brings light. Accordingly, the text is easily
divided in this way—
I. Cosmos out of Chaos.
i. Chaos.
ii. The Spirit of God.
iii. Cosmos.
II. Light out of Darkness.
i. Darkness.
ii. God’s Word.
iii. Light.
I
Cosmos out of Chaos
i. Chaos
“The earth was without form (R.V. waste) and void.” The Hebrew (tôhû wâ-
bôhû) is an alliterative description of a chaos, in which nothing can be
distinguished or defined. Tôhû is a word which it is difficult to express
consistently in English; but it denotes mostly something unsubstantial, or
(figuratively) unreal; cf. Isa 45:18 (of the earth), “He created it not a tôhû,
he fashioned it to be inhabited,” Gen 1:19, “I said not, Seek ye me as a tôhû
(i.e. in vain).” Bôhû, as Arabic shows, is rightly rendered empty or void.
Compare the same combination of words to suggest the idea of a return to
primeval chaos in Jer 4:23 and Isa 34:11 (“the line of tôhû and the plummet
of bôhû”).
Who seeketh finds: what shall be his relief
Who hath no power to seek, no heart to pray,
No sense of God, but bears as best he may,
A lonely incommunicable grief?