In the Beginning
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
In the beginning
What beginning is referred to here? The beginning of the created universe, this natural world and universe.
The Bible tells us that God Himself has no beginning and no ending, that He is from everlasting to everlasting, from infinite past to infinite future. So then, God Himself has no beginning.
God Resides in Heaven
Where did God live prior to the time when He created the heaven and the earth? He lived where He has always lived, in a place called Heaven. Heaven is more real than the natural world, in that it has no beginning nor ending, and in the fact that it, like God, is unchanging. Things are constantly changing in the natural world, it is temporal, but things remain the same in Heaven, the place where God resides.
God resided in Heaven for infinite eons before He created the heaven (the natural sky) or the earth. And He will reside there for infinite eons after the earth has served its purpose.
Time
This beginning in Genesis 1:1 refers to the beginning of this natural world and the beginning of time as we know it.
In the Book of Revelation there is a verse that speaks of time being no more, letting us know that time itself, the form of time that we are familiar with, is a created thing that does, in fact, have a beginning and an end.
The natural universe had a beginning, and the Bible tells us that it will have an ending. It is a temporary phenomenon.
The Hebrew word translated as “beginning” here means first, beginning, and chief or choice part.
You could say “at the first” God created.
Theological Theories
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
There are several theological theories around this verse. Some refer to this as the second creation, based on the notion that when God created the heaven and the earth that an evil force, the devil, laid waste to it over time, and thus it was left in the condition of being without form and void having darkness covering it. This idea of a first and second creation is often used to explain the existence of dinosaurs, and so forth.
There is much teaching available about this idea of a first and second creation.
The other option is that this was just the condition of the creation before the LORD added the finishing touches to it, such as light, lands, seas, vegetation, animals, and so forth.
Without Form
The Hebrew word translated “without form” is Tohuw (to'-hoo), which means formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness. It was formless, empty, and in a condition of unreality.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. So, it was covered with water, the deep, and it was completely dark.
The Spirit of God Hovered
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The Hebrew word translated as “moved” in this verse is Rachaph (raw-khaf') means to grow soft, to relax, to hover. The Spirit of God was softly hovering over the vast waters.
The Story of Creation
How do we know this story is accurate? Who was there to see it? No man existed at this point, no man existed until the creation was completed. Yet the author of the book describes it in great detail.
Who is the author? Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. How did he know these things? It could only have been given to him by divine revelation. That’s the only possible choice. It had to be revealed to him by the LORD.
But, as we think about it, it was Moses who spend forty days with God in Mount Sanai, whose face glowed when he came back down among the people, so that his face had to be covered with a veil. Could the story of creation be one of the many things the LORD revealed to Moses on the mountain? Yes, this is quite likely the case.
Let there be light
Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
God spoke. He released a command. He said, let there be light.
The Word
In John chapter one, the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, the One by Whom all things were created.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
And in the Book of Hebrews the Bible tells us that the word of God is alive and powerful. God’s word is as alive as He Himself is.
Conclusion: All three persons of the Trinity were present at the creation.
Day and Night
Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
It’s interesting that the sun, moon, and stars were not created until the fourth day of creation. Yet light existed on the first day. This could not have been a light generated by the sun since the sun did not yet exist. This would have been a type of light with a different source. The Bible speaks of another kind of light.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
This is the light that was released into the darkness on the first day of creation. It was a heavenly light, not a natural light.
Heavenly Light
The LORD released heavenly or divine light into the earth before He created the natural light of the sun. There has therefore always been two form of light existing in the natural universe, the heavenly and the natural.
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
He called them Day and Night. Both existed before the creation of the sun and the moon. The darkness, or the Night, was already there before God said, let there be light. The light that came when He spoke was the opposite of the darkness, and He called it Day.
These are the spiritual conditions of Day and Night, and they have existed underneath the surface of the natural realm since time began, or since the beginning of creation.
We will continue from here in a later meditation.