Before we dive in, though, I think it might be helpful for us to do some heavy lifting regarding authorship and context.
Genesis is obviously the first book in the Bible. But it’s also the first book of the Pentateuch, the first five books in the Bible. These five beautifully woven books were intended to be read and treated as one grand work designed to teach Israel about its history and help it with its future.
The book of Genesis, along with the rest of the Pentateuch, was written by Moses. Nowhere in this book do we have Moses raise his hand, identifying himself as the author. However, the Bible consistently assumes that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch.
“[14] Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” — Exodus 17:14
“[24] When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end…” — Deuteronomy 31:24
“[31] just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.” — Joshua 8:31
“[6] But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. But each one shall die for his own sin.” — 2 Kings 14:6
“[5] For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” — Romans 10:5
“[15] Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.” — 2 Corinthians 3:15
“[45] Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. [46] For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” — John 5:45-47
If you’re not familiar, Moses was the one God called to set his people free from slavery in Egypt and to lead God’s people through the wilderness into the promised land in Canaan. However, Moses never reached the promised land, meaning Genesis was written while God’s people wandered through the wilderness.
The Pentateuch was God's preparation for his people to enter the promised land by providing them with a history and a future. God’s people had been suppressed by the Egyptians, who worshipped other gods for 430 years. Thebook of Genesis teaches God’s people the truth about God and creation. There is no multiple gods. There is no sun god, a sky god, or a god of the underworld. There is one God who is the creator of all things. And this is how he has operated throughout history. As God’s people wandered through the wilderness, preparing to enter the land promised to them, Genesis provided them with a past “rooted in the very land that they were about to enter,” and the rest of the Pentateuch supplied detailed instructions for how to faithfully live once they entered this land.
Today, we will unpack the first two verses of the 1,533 verses in the book of Genesis.
Let’s dive in.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.”
THE BIBLE IS ABOUT GOD
Before we unpack the nuts and bolts of these two verses, we must understand that the Bible begins with God and ends with God. Therefore, the Bible is about God. From Genesis to Revelation, it is about him— “In the beginning, God created…”
It’s easy sometimes to read the Bible with a me-centered lens, asking questions like, “What does this say about me?” “What is this saying to me?” “What does this mean for me?” But, before we ever get to those questions, we must first ask, “What does this say about God?”
God is the main character of the Bible, not you, me, Moses, Abraham, David, Peter, or Paul. Therefore, opening the Bible with any other framework would mean we’re missing the main point. Before the Bible directs our gaze inward, it directs our gaze upward. And as our gaze is directed upward, we learn that God, the creator of all things, was present and active before anything was made.
GOD IS ETERNAL
The term “beginning” implies the beginning of time. So, at the beginning of time itself, God was there. This teaches us that the creator of all things, God, is eternal. From “everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2), God was there. As Kent Hughes eloquently puts it, “Whichever way we look— to the vanishing points of the beginning or the end— God is there, having always been there.”
Is this a truth about God that we often consider? That God has eternally existed at all times. Before the foundation of the world was laid, God was there. And he wasn’t just there inactively existing. The book of Ephesians tells us that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.” So, before time existed, God was there. And before time existed, God had already crafted his perfect will of redemption through the death of his Son on the cross. And before time existed, God had a plan for your life.
GOD IS THE CREATOR
God is eternal; he has no beginning or end. This eternal God is the source of all things. The eternal God who existed outside of time created all things— “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
You know what’s fascinating? That word “created” is only accredited to God in the Bible. Man may build, but God creates. Man may craft, but God creates. Man may construct, but God creates. To be the creator of something implies you’re the source of something. He is the creator, and we are created! He is the source of all things; we are not!
God had no preexisting material to create anything, yet he created everything out of nothing. This is what theologians call the doctrine of ex nihilo. Hebrews 11:3 says that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Before anything existed, God was there, and he called into existence things that did not exist (Rom 4:17). He spoke light out of darkness (2 Cor. 4:6). The eternal God, who existed before time, created all things out of nothing.
The words “heavens” and “earth” are opposites intended to highlight totality. They’re intended to communicate all of creation, all of the cosmos. Nothing exists that has not been brought to existence apart from God. He is the source of all of life. I was having a conversation with a young man on Friday at the barbershop. He wants to design spaceships one day. I asked him to tell me an interesting fact about space.
Here’s the fact he enlightened me with: Do you know that while traveling at the speed of light (which is a speed only massless items can travel at; it’s the cosmic speed limit), it would take us roughly 25,000 years to get to the closest known galaxy? For context, it would take 2.1 minutes to get to Venus, which is 23,612,105 miles.
This vast universe is what we are describing when we say “heavens.” From the farthest galaxy to the closest stream, from the biggest star to the smallest atom, all things get their breath from God.
God is eternal—not bound by time. God is the creator—the source of all things. God is transcendent—he is above and beyond all things. The highest heaven cannot contain God (1 Kings 8:27). He exists in a league of his own; his existence doesn’t depend upon anything outside himself. He is the one seated on high (Ps. 113:5). He is the one who looks far down on the heavens and the earth (Ps. 113:6). He is the sovereign God and King, the divine ruler and creator of all, the one from whom all creation gets its life.
ORDER OUT OF CHAOS
Verse 2 then says, “…The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep…”
“Without form and void” was a rhythmic phrase in Hebrew (tohu vavohu) intended to highlight creation's disordered and empty nature. It was an empty wasteland that was uninhabitable. It’s the antithesis of what the Earth is now. The earth that is now full of life and light was once formless and lifeless.
I think the commentator Umberto Cassuto describes it well when he equates the earth to a lump of clay before the potter sculpts it into something beautiful. He says, “Just as the potter, when he wishes to fashion a beautiful vessel, takes first of all a lump of clay, and places it upon his wheel in order to mould it according to his wish, so the Creator first prepared for Himself the raw material … with a view to giving it afterwards order and life.… It is this terrestrial state that is called tohu and bohu.”
Another commentator pointed out how these words are used elsewhere in Scripture (Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23) to describe a barren and empty wasteland, an uninhabitable land like the wilderness.
- “…Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.” — Isaiah 34:11
- “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.” — Jeremiah 4:23
The imagery of deep waters further describes a world unsuitable for human life. The “face of the deep” doesn’t necessarily communicate the ocean as we know it. But it signifies deep, vast, and chaotic waters.
So, Moses intentionally chose language to signify an uninhabitable land—a chaotic, formless, and dark land. And as the earth was chaotic, formless, and dark, God’s Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters. This is similar language used in Deuteronomy 32:11 to describe an eagle hovering over her nest to protect her young— “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.”
So, as chaos was present, God was there. The Spirit of God brought order out of chaos, form out of formlessness, light out of darkness.
Did Moses understand the Trinity at this point? Likely not. But is this verse one of the first glimpses into God's triune nature? I think it absolutely is! Although it's not clear here in Genesis 1, we’re already catching glimpses into God's triune nature.
This is the same Spirit who hovered over the Virgin Mary as she conceived the Savior of the world. This is the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus after he was baptized in the Jordan River. This is the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead. This is the same Spirit who fell on the early church at Pentecost. This is the same Spirit who is testifying to the Son right now. This is the same Spirit who resides within our hearts right now as Christians.
We serve a mighty and powerful God who is always working. No amount of chaos or barrenness can thwart his good plan. God can bring order out of chaos, form out of formlessness, and light out of darkness. I believe the language Moses chooses to use here would have captured his readers' attention by drawing their minds to the wilderness in which they found themselves.
Can you imagine what this phrase must have done to the heart and mind of those who first read this in the wilderness?
Year after year, as Israel wandered through the desert in hopes of God leading them into the promised land, they were reminded that the God they were following was the God who formed the formless, who shaped the shapeless, and who turned a wasteland into a garden. In the same way God prepared the earth for human habitation, he was preparing to lead them out of a desert and into a specially prepared homeland. In the wilderness, they were a lump of clay that was being prepared to be moulded. The God who possesses the power over life and death can turn deserts into gardens.
A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS
As we will learn in Genesis 2-3, sin entered the picture, and sin brought death and chaos into the world. Sin brought forth a greater wilderness, a darker darkness. But the Bible also teaches that, before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to make things right through the death of his Son on the cross. He had a plan to make us into a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and have us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
All who place their faith in Jesus become a new creation. Perhaps you’re burdened with the fruit of your own sin today. Perhaps your life is in chaos because of it. Maybe you feel like you’re wandering through the wilderness with no hope of a garden. I’m here to tell you that the God who created the heavens and the earth can also make you new. In the beginning was God, and in the end God will be… and you can dwell with him in perfect harmony for all eternity.