Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) 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.”
As I mentioned earlier, verse one in the above quoted passage of scripture speaks of the events of God’s creation of the spiritual heavens and also His creation of both the spiritual and physical earth. For it was at that time that God laid the foundations of the earth and then proceeded to form the earth (Job 38:4). In other words, the earth had already been created long before God ever said “Let there be light”, as recorded in verse three of Genesis chapter one. Verse two in this passage describes the condition of the physical earth before God began the next phase of creation, as recorded in the book of Genesis. There are two aspects that we see from this passage. Firstly we see the earth described as being without form and void. The reason that the scripture describes the earth in that condition was because it was covered with water and none of the earth’s features were yet visible. Again, as we mentioned earlier, God placed the earth into this state until the proper time arrived for the physical earth to be revealed. Secondly we see that the earth was covered in a mantle of water which is why the scripture informs us that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. There are numerous scriptures that confirm the truth to us that when God originally created the physical earth, that He covered it with water, for example “You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains.” (Psalm 104:5-6). And then thirdly we see that darkness encompassed what was a watery earth at that time.
Genesis 1:3-5 “Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (4) And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
And so, finally the proper time arrived for God to reveal the physical earth that He had created for men to dwell in. The above quoted passage of scripture describes the first step that God took in the Genesis account of creation. There was only one thing that God created on the first day, which was light, for darkness was already present. The light mentioned in this passage was not the light of the sun however, for as revealed to us in the book of Genesis, God only created the sun on the fourth day. Rather this was a heavenly light that dispersed the darkness that had covered the physical earth ever since the time that God originally created it. The apostle Paul described a micro version of this light when he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus, for he tells us that a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone around him and his companions (Acts 9:3). So how did God divide the light from the darkness? He did so by creating an earth that rotates on its axis, while the light that God shone on the earth was directional from heaven. And so, as the earth rotated on its axis it experienced both light and darkness i.e. day and night, just as it does today from the light of the sun. This light source remained in place for the first three creation days, when it was replaced with the light source of the sun on day four of the creation account. So what period of time elapsed between day one of creation until day four, for this heavenly light would have remained in place during that period? As we will see in the following sections, on day two of creation God created the universe and on day four He created the sun. Scientists have been able to estimate that the universe began roughly 14 billion years ago and that the sun began roughly 4.5 billion years ago. So that means that the heavenly light that God created on day one, would have remained in place for approximately 10 billion years.
Michael E.B. Maher
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