Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

(Ver 1.4)  This is Part 4 in the series of Bible lessons on Genesis chapter 1.  We have talked about a lot of different subjects so far and I have introduced you to a new controversial debate that is raging between many Bible teachers.  Some have said that the earth is relatively young and only 6000 years old and other Bible teachers like myself see it to be much older.  Techinically speaking nowhere in the Bible does God give us the exact age of the earth or the universe so it would be foolish for any man to try to date it so precisely.  That is why I do not give you any dates, but I only say it is very old based upon the Bible.  If you have not read this series from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1” first.  Today I’m going to focus on the part of the words in verse 2 where God says “And darkness was upon the face of the deep…“.   Genesis 1:2 continues with some revealing words, the implication is made that the earth is totally and completely covered by water and in complete darkness.  This would imply that there was no dry ground anywhere and that the depth of the water that covered the ground was so deep that light could not penetrate to reach it.  This information would further the concept definition that the world was an uninhabitable place.   It sounds a lot like the movie “Waterworld” without any people, animals or even fish.   Let’s examine this information baed upon what science tells us about light penetration in ocean water because I think this is fascinating to see what God is saying to us.  After the first 3 feet of ocean water 50 percent of the light is absorbed by the water.  That is not much depth is it?  But it get’s even better.  Sunlight is a compound source that when separated using a prism like device we can demonstrate that it is comprised of multiple colors.  These can be viewed as red light, blue light, yellow light, green light, etc.   Red light is completely absorbed in the ocean water in the first meter.  Therefore red light is absent after the first 3.3 feet.  The color with the deepest penetration is blue light and it will travel only to a depth of around 330 feet which is much deeper than the color of red.  However after 330 feet there is no available light to see and we now have a state of darkness.  Therefore the ocean dept that covered the earth in Genesis 1:2 must have been at the minimum of 330 feet to produce the complete darkness on the face of the deep.

I beleive this would be a good time to restate the information given to us in Genesis 1:1.  Genesis 1:1 taught us that God created the heavens (implied sun, moon, planets, stars, etc) and then the earth.  I based this conclusion on associated scripture context and the lack of direct creative accounts given to us anywhere else in the chapter.  We must learn to see what the Bible actually says, but we also must be able to learn from what the Bible does not say concurrently.  Both are potential sources of factual informaiton that are relevant to us having correct understanding.  We know from scientific observation that the earth revolves around the sun in a designed concept that we call our “solar system”.  A system is a set of individual compents  that comprise a greater something that works togeither to produce a postive outcome or purpose.  For example, a sound system is comprised of speakers, a receiver, an amplifier and possibly other components that work together to produce musical sound or voice amplification.  Take one or more of the individual components away and the complete system fails to function correctly.  This is the concept being taught to us by God in Genesis 1:1.  The existence of the sun is a central required component for the earth’s viable existence.  Since God does not directly tell us when the sun was created in chapter 1 we must conclude it was created in verse 1 by an implied reference and scientific system completeness if for no other reasons.  I know that many people will try to say that the sun was created on Day 4 but that is techinically NOT what it says and only what you thought it said.  We will talk more about that part of the subject when we get to those verses.  Just try to see where I am coming from for now and then later try to see how I got there after you have all of the information that I can give you.   From my understanding of scriptures and science there is an absolute requirement for the sun’s existence in verse 2 of Genesis 1 but the fact that the light does not reach the surface of the planet makes the reality more complex on why this is happening.  The lack of light on the surface of the planet could be for multiple different reasons.  I have heard many people theorize about a pre-Noah canopy of clouds that prevented the direct light from the sun from fully reaching the surface.  But even on a cloudy day we can still have significant light to see by.   No, I have conlcuded that it was the combined effect of both the cloud layers and the depth of the waters that covered the earth that were the contributing factors for there being no light that was reaching the earth’s surface.

Here is another interesting concept that is very important to understand when discussing Genesis 1 creation.  If the sun does not exist in verse 1, then no other part of the chapter makes direct logical sense.  You see without the direct presence of the sun, there exists no concept of how to measure time or how to define day or night.  Did you ever think of that?  The creation account as you will soon see going forward is divided into 6 days of God’s labor and they are described to be evening and morning day 1, 2, 3, and etc.   Without the sun, there is no evening and neither is there any morning.  There is no concept of what a day is if the sun does not exist.  This is exactly what I was teaching you about our solar system and the loss of one key compent.  When you take the sun away from being created in Genesis 1:1 the rest of what we thought we knew in Genesis 1 begins to fail and fall apart.  We have no basis for the truth to define what a day is if the sun does not exist.  I hope you are at least thinking and trying to understand what I just said.

The last part of the verse says “and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Again, this information is confirming that the entire world is covered with the deep liquid substance of water. Obviously this was a universal or global flood of the entire planet earth. If we recall from verse 1, it said in the beginning God created “earth”. The use of the word “Earth” implies by direct definition that there was dry ground that was inhabitable. You might ask me how I came to that definition of the Hebrew word translated as “earth” and I will have to tell you that it was defined to us by God in verse 10, but since we have not gotten to that verse yet, you will either have to trust me or stop and go study verse 10 out of sequence and then come back to verse 2 and apply God’s definition to verse 1. This brings up an interesting point again about how to study the Bible using the Bible. This is an example of why it is essential to not study ANY one verse in isolation. You must take the Hebrew word translated as “earth” and then go see how God defines it and uses it in context. This Hebrew Word (Strong’s number H776) is used 15 times in the first chapter of Genesis. Please go to them all and show me where they do not refer to dry inhabitable ground. In most of the verses it is more than obvious that this is the clear meaning. Therefore to exclude the first verse and say it is not referring to dry ground is inconsistent idiocy.  It is an absolute necessity to be consistent in your interpretation of every word of God!

So we again see by the definition and the usage of the word “earth” in chapter 1, that something happened to cause the current state of water that destroyed it in verse 2.  What happened in Genesis 1:2?  The Bible doesn’t really tell us very many specifics, but God does give us some very relevant and important clues about this event.  Finding the clues and then putting all of them together correctly is always the biggest challenge to correct Bible interpretation.  We need to go search our Bibles for where God speaks of creation and floods in the same reference.  We can do this by simply a word search.

I found a very major clue to what happened to the earth in Genesis 1:2 given to us in 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 4 thru 6.  In verse 4 of 2 Peter 3, God specifically mentions “the beginning of creation” to help define the associated importance of the next two verses, 5 and 6 being directly associated with Genesis 1:1.  Verse 4 points us to Genesis 1:1 in two ways.  First, there is the obivous phrase of “the beginning of creation” referenence and that leaves no doubt in my mind that this is a reference to the first verse in Genesis and no other verse in the Bible will fit.   Then second, there is the implied antithesis reference of Peter talking about the coming of the Lord at the end of the age.  Both of these references help to point us back to the 1st verse and chapter of Genesis as I have taught you about Jesus being the Alpha and Omega God who created.  This information in verse 4 connects the next two verses in 2 Peter back to Genesis 1 by context association and by the continuation of the same thought statement.  Let’s go and read all of the verses in the correct sequence:

2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

I’ve already talked about verse 4 so I will not repeat myself.  Verses 5 and 6 speak directly and specifically about the earth being covered with water and this matches the information exactly that we saw in Genesis 1:2.  In verse 6 God makes this very radical statement, “The World That Then Was…”.  If you read this and are just a little bit smart, you will quickly realize that God is speaking of a different world other than the current one that “Now Is”.  You see it says this world that was before our current world perished completely.  What world can that possibly be talking about?   The Greek word translated as “perished” is defined as the complete and utter destruction of a world with no survivors.  Go look up the word for yourself, if you don’t believe me.  The Greek word is G622 and it is a very interesting study being comprised of two root words that leave no doubt in my mind that this event being described represents a transition from previous life to complete and utter death.  In other words you never use this word unless there existed a life and now that life no longer exists.

Obviously many people who believe in a young earth theory try to explain away these scripture references by saying they are talking only about Noah’s flood and not the Genesis 1:2 flood.  But, you see that interpretation, contradicts with what this scripture in 2nd Peter says and makes God to be a liar.   First, learn this simple fact that Noah’s flood was not at creation but occurs well over a 1000 years later following the creation event.  How can you associate Noah directly with creation?  Was Noah there with Adam?  I really do not think so and that is the primary problem with a Noah application.  Then take note of this very important fact that in Noah’s flood the world that “Then Was” is still the same world that “Now Is” and in the flood of Noah everything did not completely perish.  There were many survivors of the Noah’s flood including the animals, the birds, the fish the plants, the trees and even 8 human people.  After Noah’s flood the same descendants of Adam that inhabited the planet as before the flood, still inhabited the planet after the flood.  The ancesteral lineage of Jesus in Luke 3 proves this by going from Mary all the way back to Adam.  This proves that we are still in the same world system that was created by God in Genesis 1.  This is a very important revelation to see and understand for it helps to explain a lot more things in the Bible than you can imagine right now.

There are certainly many other scriptures in the Bible we could bring in right here that shed more light on the “world that was”, but for now I’ll leave it at that.  Just recognize and acknowledge this verse in Genesis 1:2 that we are studying today is talking about a universal flood that destroyed everything that was on the planet.  I think I will end the lesson on that note and thank you for your time in studying the Bible with me.   Please feel free to leave me a comment if you know of any scriptures that are relevant to what I was teaching about today.  Please do not leave me a comment with your opinion, for like I said before I’m not interested in your opinions.  Only God’s Word will prevail over the opinions of men.  God Bless.

If you would like to continue to the next lesson in this series on Genesis 1 please go to “Part 5“.