God moves from chaos and emptiness to a blessed, complete creation (Genesis 1)
Genesis 1:2 describes what the earth was like after God’s initial creative work. “Without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”. That sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? The Hebrew of the first section is very poetic; “without form and void” in Hebrew is “bohu and tohu”. The earth was a dark place, an empty place.
Yet even in v2 we see that God was there. “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. The Spirit of God is not mentioned much in the Old Testament. Think of the Spirit as God’s way of acting in the world. This verse is telling us that God was present, actively involved in creation, even when things were dark and empty. The commentator Derek Kidner points out that the word for “hovered” is used elsewhere of a bird hovering over its chicks to protect them. God is active here. We should be waiting eagerly to see what God does next.
What follows is a poetic account of God creating the earth. There is a very careful structure here. It is done in six days, followed by a day of rest. We see repeating phrases and patterns. Each day is marked with the line, “and there was evening, and there was morning, the (something) day”. God often stops and notes that something was good, and at the end he notes that the whole creation was very good.
The commentator Allen Ross notes a very interesting connection here. The earth was described in v2 as “without form and void”, or perhaps more plainly, “formless and empty” as the NIV puts it. The first three days are God dealing with the “formless” part; this is where God forms light, the sky, and the sea and dry land. The next three days are God dealing with the “empty” part; once the earth had form, God filled it with plants, animals and people.
Look at v31, at God’s assessment of His creation after it was completed. “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Very good. If God says something is very good, it truly is. It was exactly as God wanted it to be. Perfect in every way. So God rested on the seventh day. Not because God was tired, for God doesn’t get tired. But because God was finished. The job was complete. That day of rest was marked as “holy” or special, a pattern of six days work and one day’s rest that was set up for the world after that point.
Do you see the flow of what God has done here? God has moved the earth from being formless and empty and dark to being perfectly formed, beautifully filled, and full of light. This is what God does. This is what God is like. We are used to seeing decay, and ageing, and death. Yet God can make all things new. This movement in Genesis 1 is a small version of God’s work in the whole Bible account. It starts with creation, moving from what was dark and formless and empty. And it ends with the new creation, where God has made everything new.
It’s a great picture of salvation as well, as pointed out in places like Colossians 1, which points out that the whole creation was made through Jesus and for Jesus. That the risen Jesus is the king of all that exists. Think about what God does when He saves people through Jesus. He takes them from a life that could be described as formless and empty, a life that is dark and apart from God. And he offers to not only pay for their sin through Jesus’ death, but to give them peace and rest. No more anxiety and struggle, but the offer of a world where sin is no more and tears are wiped away. A world of beauty and perfection like Genesis 1 describes is what is waiting for all who trust in Jesus. God was like this in Genesis 1, and He is still like this.