Wednesday AM Bible Study; July 2, 2025 – Genesis 1:2-3
Theme: Genesis 1:2-3 shows us that God is a Creator who is actively involved with His creation, who is relational in His essential nature, and who communicates His will meaningfully through speech.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the audio version of this Bible Study.
Click HERE for the livestream archive of this Bible Study.
In our introduction to the Book of Genesis, we began by taking things slowly. We only looked at the very first verse and spent careful time with it. This was because it is a key verse in understanding and accepting the whole Bible. In that first verse—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”—we’re given a fundamental affirmation. If we believe and embrace that first verse, we’ll have very little difficulty believing everything else that the Bible tells us.
And so, after having set forth that all-important, all-encompassing affirmation, the Bible then goes on to tell us—in Genesis 1:2-31—more of the details of what God did with that Creation to give it form, symmetry, order, and essential goodness. Properly understood, the verses after verse 1 aren’t describing God’s act of ‘creation’; since we’re told that God created the heavens and the earth in verse 1. Rather, what follows is best understood as describing how God made that which He created into an inhabitable place for the living things He made to dwell in it—and especially for humankind (which is the crowning work of His creation). As Isaiah 45:18 tells us;
For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:18).
Now; the words of Genesis 1:2-31 are among the most profound and beautiful ever recorded; and they describe things that could only be known to us through the gracious revelation of God. They are very much worth reading and enjoying. And what’s more, they’re very much worth studying in order to learn of the marvelous order and arrangement of God’s Creation. But in our study today, we’ll only concentrate on Genesis 1:2-3. We will pick up the pace as we move along; but we sincerely need to give special attention to these two verses. They tell us that;
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. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light (Genesis 1:2-3).
Just as the first verse of the Bible gives us an important affirmation that helps us to understand the ‘when’, the ‘who’, the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of all that has been made, these next two verses tell us some crucial things about the God who made them. This causes Him to stand out as distinct from the versions of a creator that come from human mythology, false religion, and philosophical speculation. These two verses show us that He is a Creator who is actively involved with His creation, who is relational in His essential nature, and who communicates His will meaningfully through speech.
* * * * * * * * * *
First, consider that, in these two verses, we’re told that our God is …
1. A CREATOR WHO IS ACTIVE AND INVOLVED WITH HIS CREATION.
Genesis 1:2 says, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” This raises an important and much-debated question: Was Creation created as formless and void by God at first, or did it become this way after He created it because of some subsequent event apart from Him? Among faithful Bible believers, there are basically two schools of thought on this question.
One school of thought is what is often referred to as the Gap Theory. The advocates of this theory teach that there is a ‘gap’ of indeterminable time between verses one and two. They propose that there was a cataclysmic event (which is not described to us in Genesis) that supposedly caused the already-created and formed earth to become “without form and void”. This viewpoint looks to the passage we had already mentioned—Isaiah 45:18, which tells us that God “formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain [or “a waste”], Who formed it to be inhabited”—and argues that if God didn’t “form” it as an uninhabitable place, then it must have “become” uninhabitable by something other than God.
This school of thought also draws from other passages such as Jeremiah 4:23, which says,
I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void;
And the heavens, they had no light (Jeremiah 4:23);
and Isaiah 13:11, which says,
“I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity” (Isaiah 13:11);
and sees these as indications that the creation became ‘formless and void’ as an act of judgment because of some grievous sin that was committed. Many see the fall of Satan (as described in Ezekiel 28:11-19) as the cause for this.
Another school of thought, however, holds to what we might call the Sequential Theory of Genesis 1:1-2. Its advocates teach that there exists no “gap” between the events of verses 1 and 2; and that nothing in the context of these passages requires that we see anything in it but a natural, orderly sequence of events. It holds that the earth, when God first made it, was made formless and void; and that He only later gave it form. It looks to the grammar of the Hebrew text (pointing to what’s called the waw consecutive at the beginning of verse 2; which can be translated “and”) as evidence that a natural, normal sequence of events is being described from verse 1 to verse 2. As Dr. Henry Morris describes it; the “deep” that is mentioned in verse 2,
… was formless, exactly as intimated in Genesis 1:2. Elements of matter and molecules of water were present, but not yet energized. The force of gravity was not yet functioning to draw such particles together into a coherent mass with a definite form. Neither were the electromagnetic forces yet in operation and everything was in darkness. The physical universe had come into existence, but everything was still and dark—no form, no motion, no light. 1
According to this view, the words “formless and void” simply give a description of its initial stage; and that from the raw material this initial stage provided, God brought form and content to it all in the six days that are described in Genesis 1. As 2 Peter 3:5 puts it;
… by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water … (2 Peter 3:5).
Whichever view one takes—and both are held by reliable Bible teachers—it’s important to note that the purpose of this verse is not to tell us how it was that the earth became formless and void; but to simply state that it was formless and void before God brought order and form to it. (Note that the Hebrew word translated “was” in verse two does not mean that it “became” formless and void, but simply that its condition was formless and void.) The point of verse 2 is that God the Creator acted upon His creation to give it order. The description of the condition of the earth in verse 2 gives context to the active involvement of God that is described to us in verses 3-31—culminating in God looking upon it all and seeing that it was “very good” (v. 31).
Genesis 1:2-3, then, doesn’t allow for the idea of a deistic concept of God (that is, a Creator who simply created the universe and left it to run on its own); or of a God who is so transcendent as to be unreachable to His creation in any meaningful way. Instead, we find that the God of the Bible is a Creator who—though separate and distinct from His creation—is nevertheless in intimate and active contact with it. He is not far away; but is instead very near, involved, and—as it were—”hands-on” in His contact with it. He sustains His creation even now; so that we may say with the psalmist;
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
Sing praises on the harp to our God,
Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
He gives to the beast its food,
And to the young ravens that cry (Psalm 147:7-9).
Second, consider that, in these two verses, we’re shown that our God is …
2. A CREATOR WHO IS RELATIONAL WITHIN HIS ESSENTIAL NATURE.
The second half of verse two not only shows us more of God’s intimate involvement with His creation, but also of His plurality of being. We saw just a hint of this in verse one; when we noted that the word for God that is used is Elohim—which, though clearly intended to communicate a single God, is plural in nature. We’ll see an even more remarkable hint of this in verse 26—when, at the creation of humankind, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”—a form of expression that suggests a plurality in the being of the one true God.
Notice in verse 2 that we’re told, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (which also, by the way, further affirms His intimate contact with His creation). In Isaiah 40:13-14—in the context of God’s work of Creation—we’re shown that the ‘Spirit’ in Genesis 1:2 is a distinct Person with the authority of full deity. It asks;
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14);
And “the Lord” a short time later speaks of the Spirit as a distinct Person from Himself; saying, “And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever …’” (Genesis 6:3).
Later in the New Testament, we’re taught that the Lord Jesus—the Son of God—was, in His preincarnate state of being, a Co-Creator with the Father. Colossians 1:16-17 tells us;
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Colossians 1:16-17).
The full doctrine of the triune being of God—that is, that God is one God who exists in three distinct Persons—isn’t presented to us in these first few verses. But they do anticipate and support the New Testament’s doctrine of the Trinity. They give us the implication that the creator God exists in a plurality of divine Persons. Genesis—at the very beginning of the book—shows us that before creation ever was, a plurality of Persons already existed … and indeed always was. They enjoyed an eternal relationship of love together—which gives substance to the phrase in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love”. When God made human beings, it wasn’t because He lacked an entity to love; but rather was because He wished to graciously share with other finite creatures the love that He already perfectly enjoyed in the Plurality of His Triune Being.
And finally, notice that in these two verses, we’re shown that our God is …
3. A CREATOR WHO COMMUNICATES HIS WILL THROUGH SPEECH.
In verse three, we read, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Genesis 1:3 gives us the first record in all the Bible of God speaking. It sets the pattern for all that will follow in the rest of Chapter 1; because we go on to see that God brought into form all the heavens and the earth by “speaking” (see v. 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). As Psalm 33:4-9 says,
For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast (Psalm 33:4-9).
As Hebrews 11:2 tells us,
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:2).
The importance of this to us can’t be overstated. It establishes to us that we serve a God who is not silent, but who speaks and who has the ability to reveal truth about Himself to His creatures. Many non-Christian viewpoints and philosophic systems operate on the presupposition that the God of the Bible does not exist and has not spoken authoritatively. They often assert that even if the God of the Bible existed as Creator, we wouldn’t be able to know it because He would be so transcendent that He cannot communicate meaningfully to human beings; and that we poor creatures could not perceive His communications to us if He did; and that, therefore, no reliable, authoritative revelation from God is available to us. These first two verses affirm to us, however, that God can and has spoken meaningfully into His created realm; because it was by God “speaking” that all things are formed and brought into order—including ourselves. We can infer from this that God’s ability to speak includes His ability to reveal all the truth to people that is necessary for their salvation. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:6;
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
* * * * * * * * * *
And so; as Genesis 1:2-3 shows us—right at the very beginning of the Bible—that God is a Creator who is actively involved in His creation (and therefore able to care for us), who is relational in His essential nature (and therefore able to have a relationship with us), and who communicates and enacts His will through speech (and therefore is able to communicate to us who He is and what His will is for us). We as His creatures can genuinely trust, talk to, hear from, understand, grow in the knowledge of, believe in, and be saved by, obey, and have a meaningful relationship of love with God the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
________________________________________
1Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), p. 51.
AE