God was talking to Job and asking him where he was when the events of the original creation took place. When God created the heavens and the earth the angels sang together what appears to be a joyous song. Job 38:7 says, “…when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” This is one of the verses that support the idea that Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” is followed by some tragic event that left the earth in the state that’s described in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep.” Pink describes this scene. He writes, “As we have already observed, the original condition of this primary creation was vastly different from the state in which we view it in the next verse. Coming fresh from the hands of their Creator, the heaven and the earth must have presented a scene of unequaled freshness and beauty. No groans of suffering were heard to mar the harmony of the song of “the morning stars” as they sang together (Job 38:7). No worm of corruption was there to defile the perfections of the Creator’s handiwork. No iniquitous rebel was there to challenge the supremacy of God. And no death shades were there to spread the spirit of gloom. God reigned supreme, without a rival, and everything was very good.”[1] But then, something bad happened: Sin entered into the creation as Satan rebelled and took a third of the “sons of God” with him. This left the earth “without form and void” and darkness over the face of the deep.
Pink and other proponents of the so called “gap” theory (one commentator calls it the “gap fact”), compare this situation with the situation that followed the recreation of the earth climaxing with the creation of Adam and Eve in the image of God. The description of the Garden of Eden and the wonders of God’s creation are reported as “good” with each day’s creation. Then with the creation of mankind it’s called “very” good. Every kind of fruit was available for man’s food. God fellowshipped intimately with man and would walk with them in the cool of the day. The weather was perfect! Life expectancy was eternal as far as you could tell. The tree of life was in the garden from which one would eat and live forever. Some will even argue that man had communion with the animals as well just like in some of the fairy tales of today. The point is that everything was perfect and then in Genesis 3, the leader of the fallen angels, enticed Adam and Eve and something bad happened. Sin came into the world again and the tree of life was kept from Adam and Eve because now everything would be difficult. Childbearing will be extremely difficult for the women and working the land would be nothing but “work, work, work!) and the results would not always be good. And of course, life expectancy began to decline for all living things.
But then in verse 3, the spirit of God moved over the face of the darkness and God said “let there be light.” I’ve been thinking about how the Old Testament is really about Jesus and the redemption of man from being “without form and void.” God called forth light out of the darkness to bring about order from the chaos and began the process of creating all “good” things. This is what Jesus does in the empty and chaotic lives of non-believers. Anyway, that’s the way it was for me! Jesus is indeed “the light of the world” that dispenses the darkness in our lives.
[1] Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 14.