Whatever the ultimate purpose of creation may prove to be, it is certain that it will not be attained without much sorrow and great sacrifice; "the Fuller" will be at work, and between the opening announcement of Creation in Genesis 1:1 and the bringing in of the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21:1, 2 Pet. 3:13) will roll the eons or the ages with their burden of sin and of redeeming love. When the new heaven and earth was seen by John in the Apocalypse, he adds the words "and there was no more sea". That is a most evident reference back to Genesis 1:2, where darkness and the deep are there revealed.
"And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Gen. 1:2).
Thus the condition that is described in Genesis 1:2 is included with the other "no mores" of Revelation 21:1,4 and 22:3.
When we read in Genesis that man "became" a living soul, we immediately gather that he was not a living soul before he breathed the breath of life. When we read that Lot's wife "became" a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26), we understand that this was consequent upon her looking back. When Cain said, "And
it shall come to pass" (Gen. 4:14) we understand his fears concerning what would happen after others had heard of his deed. So, when we read, "the earth was without form and void", and realize that the same verb that is here translated "was", is translated "became" or "come to pass" in these other passages in Genesis, we realize that here in Genesis 1:2, we are looking at the record of the first great gap in the outworking of the Divine purpose, and must read:
"And the earth BECAME without form and void".
The translation "was" in Genesis 1:2, however, is perfectly good, for in our usage we often mean "became" when "was" is written. A speaker at a meeting of the Victoria Institute used the following illustration. If writing on two occasions concerning a friend we should say (1) "He was a man", and (2) "He was very ill", everyone would understand that in the second case, this friend had "become" ill, and so "was" ill at the time spoken of, but it would be impossible to think that anyone would understand by the word "he was ill" that he had been created, or born in that state. Darkness both in the O.T. and in the N.T. is associated with death, judgment and evil, and Paul's use of Genesis 1:2,3 in the words, "God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness" (2
Cor. 4:6) most surely indicates that in his estimation, the darkness of Genesis 1:2 is a fit symbol of the spiritual darkness of the unregenerate mind.
Two words, however, are found in Genesis 1:2, which are so used in subsequent Scriptures as to compel every one that realizes what a great place "usage" has in interpretation, to acknowledge that nothing but catastrophic judgment can be intended by this verse. The two words that describe the condition of the earth, in verse two are the Hebrew words tohu
and bohu, "without form and void". Tohu occurs twenty tames in the O.T. and
bohu twice elsewhere. The only occurrence of tohu by itself in the writings of Moses is Deuteronomy 32:10, where it refers to "the waste howling wilderness". The use which Isaiah makes of this word is highly suggestive and full of instruction.
Isaiah twenty-four. This chapter opens with a judgment that is reminiscent of Genesis 1:2. "Behold the Lord maketh the earth
empty, and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof . . . the land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled" (Isa. 24:1,3).
When Isaiah would once again refer to this state of affairs, he sums it up in the epithet, "the city of confusion
(tohu)" Isaiah 24:10, and there can be no doubt but that the desolation here spoken of is the result of judgment. Another example of its usage is found in Isaiah 45:18, "For thus with the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He bath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited". Here the A.V. treats the word
tohu as an adverb "in vain" which the R.V. corrects, reading "a waste". Whatever rendering we may adopt, one thing is certain. Isaiah 45:18 declares in the name of Him Who created the heavens, who formed the earth and made it, that He did not create it
TOHU it therefore must have become so. Even more convincing are the two passages other than Gen. 1:2, where
bohu is employed, for in both instances the word is combined with
tohu. The first passage is Isaiah 34:11. The context is one of catastrophic judgment and upheaval. The presence of such terms as "indignation", "fury", "utterly destroy", "sword" and "vengeance" in the first eight verses are sufficient to prove this, and one verse is so definitely prophetic of the upheaval at the time of the end, as to leave no option in the mind.
"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree" (Isaiah 34:4).
This passage is almost identical with the language employed by Peter when he speaks of the signs that shall precede the coming of the day of God and the setting up of the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13).
The words tohu and bohu occur in Isaiah 34:11, to which all these symbols of judgment point:
"He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion (tohu) and the stones of emptiness
(bohu)",
nor is it without significance that unclean birds like the cormorant and the bittern possess this devoted land, that nettles and
brambles appear in the fortresses, and that dragons,
wild beasts, screech owls and satyrs gather there. The whole is a picture in ''
miniature of what the earth became in Genesis 1:2.
Isaiah's usage of tohu and bohu is convincing, but "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established", and accordingly we find the prophet Jeremiah using
tohu and bohu in a similar context.
In the structure of Jeremiah four, verses 5-7 are in correspondence with verses 19-31:
"The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land
desolate; and thy cities shall be laid
waste, without an inhabitant" (Jer. 4:7).
"Destruction upon destruction is cried".
"I beheld the earth, and to it was without form, and
void; and the heavens, and they had no light . . . lo, there was no man
. . . lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness . . : "
" . broken down . . . by His fierce anger" (Jer. 4:20-26).
Here then are the three inspired occurrences of the two words
tohu and bohu, Genesis 1:2, Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23. If Genesis 1:2 does not refer to a day of "vengeance" or "fierce anger" should we not have to acknowledge that both Isaiah and Jeremiah by the use of these peculiar words, have misled us? And if once that be our conclusion, inspiration is invalidated, and it does not matter much what Genesis 1:2 means, for our trust is shaken, and Moses is evidently wrong: this, however, cannot be. All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah speak with one voice, because inspired by one Spirit.
Nothing is said in Genesis 1:2, concerning the cause of this primeval judgment, any more than any statement is offered to
j explain the presence of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but
there are evidences that can be gathered from various parts of
Scripture to make it clear that there was a fall among the
angels, that Satan is a fallen being, and that the catastrophe of
Genesis 1:2 is associated with that fall.
Into the "gap" thus formed, the present six-day creation is placed as a temporary "fullness" ("replenish the earth" Genesis 1:28), carrying the Redemptive purpose on to the threshold of Eternity. It is here also that "age-times" begin.
