Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The opening chapter of Genesis is rich with meaning. From these very first sentences we sense a atmosphere of reverence. Though God’s breath is present, this timeless moment could leave us breathless.
How unfortunate that the shrill sounds of angry controversy ring so loudly in the sacred halls of this important passage of scripture. The consequences of each interpretation reverberate to the very foundations of the doctrines and purposes of those that hold them dear. How unsurprising that many have chosen to close the doors on these first chapters, preferring to leave the hall entirely than to be caught in the crossfire of the battle, or be forced to draw lines themselves and enter the fray.
The collateral damage of these passionate arguments is those who would want to enter these halls delicately and view the art within cautiously, thoughtfully, and appreciatively are lost to these beautiful verses. There is a deep and magnificent theology here. Great things could be learned if one could be given the space and time to sit and listen to the music of the master, simply enjoying the fullness of the entire piece, and allowing its forms to form them as they grow in their understanding of composer, conductor, and musician.
If you find yourself to be one of those on the outside of the din, avoiding these pages for fear of the crowded opinions, I encourage you to try again. Consider this an invitation to explore again what meaning can be found in the Creation story, outside of any requirement to take a side. Let us set aside the angry warnings of dire consequences, the frameworks applied from without, the years of extra baggage that have attached themselves to these chapters, and listen for the ancient voices that would speak to us of Creator God and his Creation.
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We are a very material minded culture. It is such a part of our paradigm that we would rarely even think to question it. Questions of existence or creation inevitably begin as conversations of natural material existence. We know a chair exists because we see and touch it. However, if we consider further, even the English language allows for other understandings of creation and existence. A relationship can exist. It can be created. It can be formed. It can change. Though there is no physical substance that can be understood empirically that we would call a relationship, the relationship exists just the same. A company can exist. It takes time to build a company. When does the company exist? Does it exist in the permit? The building? Is it online? Is it between the customers? Has it been created once the first transaction has been made, or once all the initial debts incurred in its inception have been paid? Any or all of these elements could be considered the beginning of the creation or the legitimate existence of the company.
I have been involved in a church plant here in Edmonton for about three years now. Funny, because even as I wrote the last sentence, I had to pause. Has it been three years since the beginning, since Kate and I and the rest of the original team first moved to Edmonton, or did it start a couple months later, when we moved into our first house and had our first official “church meeting”? Or was the beginning a few months after that, when our sponsoring body recognized us publicly as a church, or a few months after that, when we were incorporated as a legal entity? Every time we are asked to share the history of this church, the story we tell is different. Sometimes we call it a community house instead of a church. Sometimes we’re a little over a year old. Sometimes we start five or six years ago when Kate and I first began imagining what this community in Edmonton could be like. Within a year, we’ll buy our first church building. Years in the future, someone may start the story of our community with that building, and all of what we are living now will be a nearly forgotten introductory footnote.
One need not ever pick up a tool to create something. Existence does not require physical form. Beginnings may change depending on who tells a story, and what they intend to tell.
All of this affects our understanding of the first two verses of Genesis, and everything that comes after them.
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For my entire life I have been taught to approach Genesis and the Creation story as the origin of the material universe. Through this lens, I have been forced to consider every word and how it must relate to my scientific understanding of everything I see around me. If I must see Genesis as “true”, then I must be willing to defend how the words of this description of origins defines or explains the laws of physical science and the living world. If these natural origins or functions will not literally bend to the words of this book, I must find ways to bend this book around these natural origins or functions. The difficulty with this approach comes when the text is revealed as being just a little too flexible. Is it right for us to stretch these words so tightly around our science? What does it mean that a very creative mind seems to so deftly and magically wrap any new theory into these simple and ancient few words?
But what if there were another “beginning” other than the beginning of the material world? Another “create” other than the creation of matter?
Like a snapping rubber band, when I ask these questions everything in this text falls right back into place. Layers of paint fall from the masterpiece beneath. The canvas takes its natural form, and speaks more clearly than I have ever heard it before.
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THE BEGINNING
Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Immediately I see the new beginning, not of material substance, but of the creation. It’s the beginning of the creation process. The material substance is already there. The New Testament books of Colossians, Hebrews, and John, written hundreds of years later have taught us that God created the world ex nihilo, from nothing. But this teaching is not the story of Genesis. Nowhere in these chapters does it insist that God’s creative act begins with something created from nothing. Of course, the assumption is made that some time before this beginning, the substance from which the Creator will form the world was also made by him. But this beginning is later. We do not know how much later, and we need not ask. The text does not consider this important to its message. The substance of creation is already present with the Creator, and that is all we need to know.
This understanding of the word “beginning” is consistent with the original Hebrew. The beginning need not be the absolute beginning of all time, but the commencement of the event. Just as the audience, instruments, and musicians (and sheet music) all exist before an orchestra begins to play, and weeks or years of preparation may have preceded the performance; it is not until the conductor’s wand first falls after the expectant hush that the concert has “begun”.
THE VOID
In what state does the substance of creation exist? It is formless. It is void. Some have suggested that God would not create something in such a state, and have therefore suggested a period of time between the first and second sentence. But the language of the passage does not allow this. The beginning is the commencement of all that follows. It is an introduction to the story we are about to read. The answer to what the text means when it describes the natural world as void exists in the context of the chapter and the cultural context from which the book emerged.
In my bedroom is a chest that Kate affectionately refers to as the “void”. I am a bit of a collector. I’m not too bad, I think. I have it under control. But I just have a lot of trouble throwing away magazines. Sometimes I just like a single article, and I’ll rip that out and hold onto it for a while. If someone gives me a business card, I just can’t bring myself to toss it. I start a lot of books that I don’t finish, and sometimes they begin cluttering up my side of the bed, each one with a bookmark that shows my good intentions. With each of these and countless other little gathered things, Kate has filled the void. This is her way of allowing me my little quirk without feeling as though she needs to find a proper filing system for five hundred random and completely unrelated little things. We have an understanding. If something is in our room, small, mine, and gathering dust, it goes in the void.
To a person from the Ancient Near East, the time and culture of Genesis, we could not have given this chest a better name. Though we unquestioningly assign existence and nonexistence to the material world, not every culture does the same. To this ancient person, if something does not have a function or a purpose, it does not exist. If they were to go to a desert, a garbage dumpster, or even a pick-your-part, they would see a formless void. Not until a greasy car restorer, dumpster diver, or casino operator arrives to redeem or use the physical pieces in these empty spaces would any of the material substance be seen as existing.
CREATION GENESIS DESCRIBES THE CREATION OF FUNCTION, NOT MATTER.
God speaks, and from his words he gives direction to the natural world. Time, energy and matter are given their proper place and design under the authority and for the intentions of Sovereign God.
So, in Genesis’ first account of creation, God creates from material substance, but material substance that does not yet have function. From the void, we see God by his word determine purpose for his creation. In this we see the beginning of the major theme of all of Genesis. From waste and formlessness, chaos or despair, God by his word defines and creates purpose.
The purpose for his creation becomes clear on day seven, after six days of directing the entire natural world according to his design.
(next - Six days of Creation)
(after that - Day Seven - God Takes His Rest)
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