Genesis 1:2 – The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
CREATION’S DESCRIPTION
There is an abundance of descriptive words in the second verse of Genesis, Chapter One. In addition, there are at least three things not present in verse two that we might think should be there. Let’s look at what is absent?
An absence of landscape
First, there is the absence of landscape. “The earth was without form…” The whole earth was covered in water at this point in time. A world entirely covered with water means no landscape, only a watery surface stretching all the way to the horizon. With the absence of land, without form is a phrase that clearly describes the earth then.
An absence of life
“The earth was without form and void.” The next descriptive word is void. What does void mean? The word is a reference to something being empty. The world was empty—empty of life. Imagine yourself on a small boat somewhere far from land, so far from land in fact that all you see in any direction is water. Looking at the watery surface around you, imagine there being no life of any kind above or below the watery surface. —Technically, not even you would be there, but I’m just illustrating my point so work with me here. ? Not only is there an absence of human life, there is no life of any kind! Completely empty. Totally void. That’s how Genesis 1:2 describes the earth at that time. What else is missing? Something else is definitely missing that should be there.
An absence of light
“And darkness was over the face of the deep.” The next word is darkness, which is simply an absence of light. As described in the Scriptures, early earth was a dark place. Totally void of light. Had you and I been there, we would not have been able to see our hands in front of our faces. We would not have seen each other! It was pitch black. Complete and utter darkness. Did you notice there’s nothing in this verse about darkness being created? Darkness does not have to be created. Again, darkness is simply an absence of light. There is no light, therefore, it is dark! Picture being inside a closed bank vault. If someone turns off the lights for only a second, the inside of the vault becomes pitch black! When the lights are turned back on, the darkness instantly dissolves. Darkness is the absence of light, and light absorbs the darkness. Darkness and light can never truly co-exist. (Light vs. darkness is a fascinating concept which should be explored, but perhaps another time…)
To wrap up our quick study of verse two, let’s break down its final few statements.
“And darkness was over the face of the deep.” What does over the face of the deep mean? The word deep, as used here, is a large and “deep” body of water, like an ocean. Notice what God is doing in this verse.
“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” In Genesis 1:2, the words deep and waters have similar meanings in Hebrew (Genesis’ original language). Of course, they are two different words in English. But again, both can have the same meaning.
“The Spirit of God was hovering over…” The “Spirit of God” is the third member of the Trinity. He is God the Holy Spirit. He is described as hovering over the waters, which implies being in charge. He is in control—the source of what is happening!
We’ve been talking about things missing in verse two (landscape, life and light), but in our next blog, we’ll discover things present in verse three. We’ll see what was needed in verse two be provided in verse three.