#6. The Primal Creation (Gen. i. 1).

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. i. 1). 

“We according to His promise look for a new heaven and a new earth,

wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Pet. iii. 13). 

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. xxi. 1). 

     Between these two sets of Scripture rolls the great purpose of the ages, occupying “the heavens and the earth which are now” (II Pet. iii. 7).   Genesis i. 1  is severed off from the rest of the Bible.  It is unique.  At  Gen. i. 2  we enter into a sphere of darkness and chaos, which will never be removed until the true light of righteousness shines forth in the new heavens and earth where the “former things” have passed away.  For the sake of those for whom these “fundamentals” are written we must explain  Genesis i. 1 & 2  a little more in detail. 

     Graphically it may be considered thus:--

Genesis i. 1.	Genesis i. 3   to   Revelation xx.	Revelation xxi.
Creation.  Past.	The creation of the six days. Sin and death enter.    Sin and death destroyed.  The ages span this section.	The new heavens  and new earth.       Future.

     The creation referred to in  Gen. i. 1  must not be taken necessarily as referring to the creation of the six days that follow. 

     To those who find suggestions in the numerical phenomena of Scripture it may be interesting to note that the words, “The heavens and the earth”, occur in the Hebrew Bible fourteen times.  Thirteen times with eth, a particle that lends emphasis, and once without.  Thirteen indicates rebellion while fourteen is suggestive of perfection.  Perfection is further stamped upon this first verse by the fact that the Hebrews words used are 7 in number, containing 14 syllables (2*7) and 28 letters (4*7). 

     The creation “in the beginning” and the creation “in six days” are divided off from each other by the chaos and darkness of the second verse.  As the words in verse 2 stand in the A.V., “The earth was without form and void”, they seem to support the false idea known as the Nebular Theory, which supposes the gradual evolution of the earth from a gaseous chaotic mass.  The words, “without form and void”, are in the Hebrew tohu va bohu.   In  Isa. xlv. 18  we read of the earth, “He created it not tohu”.  The word “was” in  Gen. i. 2  is translated “became” in  Gen. ii. 7,  “Man became a living soul” — he was not such before, and in  iv. 3,  “It came to pass” is the reading.   Genesis i. 2,  if rendered “The earth became without form and void”,  brings the verse into line with  Isa. xlv. 18  and gives the sense of the passage.  There is an indication of judgment in the words, “without form, void and darkness”.  Notice the way Jeremiah uses the expression in a context of judgment. 

     “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light . . . . . I beheld, and, lo, there was no man . . . . . I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger” (Jer. iv. 23-26). 

     Isaiah xxiv. 10  speaks of the city of “confusion” (tohu), and in verses 1, 3, & 19 are such parallel expressions as:--

     “The Lord maketh the earth empty, He maketh it waste, the land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, the earth is utterly broken down, clean dissolved and moved exceedingly.”

     The reason is given in verses 20, 21:--

     “The transgressions thereof shall be heavy upon it . . . . . The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.”

     Here it will be observed the punishment of “high ones on high” (“the powers in the heavens” that are to be shaken”, Matt. xxiv. 29) is connected with judgment falling upon the earth.  In  Isa. xxxiv. 11  we meet tohu and bohu again in a context of judgment, “the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness”.  This judgment is likewise connected with judgment in the heavens.  Verse 4 says:--

     “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.”

     Allusion to the tokens of judgment that followed Adam’s sin is found in verse.13 in the words, “thorns, nettles, and brambles.”  Burning pitch and brimstone indicate Sodom and Gomorrha as further types.  Verse 4 already referred to makes us think of  II Peter iii.  and  Rev. vi. 14.   In  II Pet. iii. 10  we are told that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise”,  and again in verse 12, “the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved”.  This third chapter from verse 3 to 13 is entirely occupied with lessons drawn from the heavens and the earth, past, present, and future.   These verses correspond in the structure of the epistle to  II Pet. ii. 1-22.    In  chapter ii.  the flood in the days of Noah, and the destruction of Gomorrha in the days of Lot, are instanced as examples of future judgment.  A still earlier judgment is referred to in the third chapter.  Verse 4 takes us back to “the beginning of the creation” — clearly  Gen. i. 1;   verses 5 & 6 speak of this beginning under the terms:--

     “The heavens of old and earth having its subsistance out of water and in water, by the word of God, through which (waters) the then world, deluged with water, perished” (II.Pet.iii.5,6).

     The then world refers to the complete order of things connected with the heavens and earth of  II.Pet.iii.5.   It is evident that the world that then was refers to the order of things pertaining to the first heavens and earth, because the parallel to the world that then was is the heavens and earth which are now, which came into being in  Genesis i. & ii.  The types of both are found in  II.Peter.ii.,  as already mentioned.  The flood of the days of Noah did not destroy the heavens and the earth, neither did the fire in the days of Lot, but they both set forth in type the judgment and time of the end.  It is evident that a close parallel is instituted between the judgment on the first heavens and earth, and that on the second.  The one by the word of God is destroyed by water;  the other is to be destroyed by fire.  The darkness which was upon the face of the deep (the waters whereby the then world perished) is another token of judgment.   II Pet. ii. 4  and  Jude 6  speak of darkness in connection with the judgment of the angels that sinned.  Darkness was one of the plagues of Egypt, even as it will be in the days to come upon a greater Pharaoh  (Exod. x. 21, 22  and  Joel ii. 2, 3).   What we learn from the Scripture leads us to see that into the creation of the beginning sin entered, and in its train came confusion, vanity, and darkness.  Man was as then uncreated.  Angels and spirit beings there were, and angels sinned and fell.  The tempter of Eve was already a fallen one before Adam’s transgression.  There is a deeply important lesson to be learned by considering how little is told us in this part of Scripture (indeed in any part of Scripture) regarding the primal creation and primal sin.  It is possible that the six days’ creation is very much more limited in scope than that of  Gen. i. 1,  yet it is set out in detail. 

     The Bible is written as a revelation of God to MAN, and many things outside his sphere, though subjects of his enquiry and curiosity, do not come within the scope of Scripture. 

     When man, looking out into this wider sphere and thinking of the destiny of angels and principalities, or of the possibilities that lie beyond the ages to come, when man asks as Peter did, “what shall this man do?”, he too is reminded of the need to keep to the things revealed concerning himself and to find his employment and delight not in adding to the unrevealed things of God, but in seeking a full and clear understanding of what is written. 

     The present creation, the sphere of man’s sin and redemption, is the first great stone in the foundation of the purpose of the ages as pertains to man.  This, therefore, will occupy our attention in the next article of this series.