Genesis

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 NKJ

In Genesis 1:1, where God chose to begin His revelation to mankind, is the grand first scene in a magnificent epic story of God’s love for man. Majestic, understated, this first verse shouts the omnipotence of God. The first revelation is this: there is a God Elohim, who is supreme, who is able and did create the heavens and the earth which did not exist prior to the beginning of time from what appears to be nothing.

What He First Reveals

As a matter of first priority, God reveals to us He is the Creator of man, our world and everything in our world. Why did God begin here? Creating is an integral part of His nature and man yearns to know its history and Maker. Here, the all-knowing God first answers one of man’s most basic and unavoidable questions, and here, God lovingly begins a relationship with man, meeting man’s deepest needs. As we find later in Chapter One, we are created in His image so this has implications for our daily lives.

What He Does Not Reveal

Creation was perfect and complete, sufficient to sustain man, ordered by the laws of mathematics and science. We know this due to centuries of the collective study of our universe by mankind. But, God does not reveal these details, the science or the math, and here begins the ever present requirement to believe, to have a faith in the Creator that He could and did do all that is revealed to us here. There has to be a Creator, since there is no denying the fact of creation – we exist, the heavens exist, and the earth exists.

What did He use, if anything? The text does not say. If it was something that already existed, who created the something He would have used? This line of thought gets us eventually to the conclusion that our Maker at some point created something from nothing. Is it possible that a Creator so able created everything as we know it, from nothing? My brothers and sisters, I exist, and you do too.

The lack of detail here speaks and is worthy of attention. An English teacher once directed my class to write a paper of sufficient length. My classmates and I struggled with what we perceived as lack of direction. But a sufficient amount is a perfect amount. God’s revelation of creation with all its lack of detail is sufficient. God has a plan for us, His created, and He tells us all we need to know to live successfully in the world according to His plan . I do need to know there is a God powerful enough, with such capacity that He created the world where I live.

And because He was able to do this, everything as we know it exists. If you choose not to believe, then how do you explain what exists? Whatever alternate theory you choose to explain the how and what of creation, something preceded the elements of that theory, all pointing to the truth – God exists.

Man has tried since the beginning of time to explain Himself and the world around Him. As each new scientific detail is determined, we learn of a level of order in all created things that is intricate and incomprehensible in its sophistication. This inexplicable detail in all created things and the degree of order in their workings draws us to the unavoidable conclusion that the Creator is higher, more magnificent and more able than man has yet to fathom. Is it possible that a Creator so able created everything as we know it, from nothing, and this creation is so well ordered that it has existed until now, without the created knowing how it works? We came to exist and still exist. And, how wonderful, as man seeks and gains knowledge to learn as each new discovery unfolds how beautiful God’s design of everything in our world truly is.

Here, in verse 1, we must trust. It is here, in verse 1, if we truly grasp its implication in all of its understated glory, that we begin a right relationship with God, on our knees, giving thanks and praise for His incomprehensible ability and love for us.

By faith we understand that the universe was
created by the word of God, so that what is seen
was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:3 ESV

2. The Earth is Void and Dark

The earth was without form , and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep . And the Spirit of God
was hovering over the face of the waters.
(Genesis 1:2) ESV

Verse 2 tells us that sometime before verse 3, when God takes the next step to complete His creation, the earth was in a desolate state, and darkness was on the face of the deep. The Hebrew word for deep , tehom means abyss, a deep pit. An abyss, or deep pit is also found in Revelation 20:2, when Satan is bound for 1,000 years in an abyss .
God does not reveal to us here whether the condition of the earth in verse 2 was just a pause in the sequence of creation, or if the earth underwent a transformation to cause it to decline into chaos. He does reveal that in His creation there is an abyss, a deep bottomless pit, and that at least for some period in time Satan will be confined to such a deep bottomless pit. He also reveals that while His creation was in this state of desolation and darkness, His Spirit was hovering over the face of the water. Closely watching His creation in this state, He then moves to shape chaos into something ordered and good.

In only two verses God invites us to a life of faith. These two verses, serving as a literary device, take us to the brink of an abyss. If we believe God is the creator of the universe and in faith we cross the abyss, we move on to the beauty and splendor of God’s creation and purposes for man , and here we find meaning and purpose in all things.