The Emmaus Walk Presents:

"Genesis's The Seed of Woman: God's Redeemer to Come,"

By Ronald D. Ginther

Is this the restored earth, rather than a newly created Earth? God created the heavens and the earth--verse one in Genesis. Verse two is not so pretty a picture: "And the earth was without form and void." In other words, the earth was a mess. Now why would the Creator create a mess first? It already said in Genesis 1:1 that He created the heavens and the earth. Were the heavens created a mess too? Hardly! They were perfect. Now why wasn't the earth created perfect? Why was it without form and void? It is absolutely uncharacteristic of God for Him to create a perfect heaven and then go and create a mess He called earth. It is sin that later came and made the world a mess--but that wasn't the first mess--it was the second mess! God cleaned up the second mess when He sent His Son into the world--and we have not yet seen the full effect of that clean-up, have we? It is coming, but we await the glad day when Christ will come and sit on His throne in Jerusalem and establish justice and righteousness in the world. As for the first mess--in verse two of the first chapter of Genesis--we see what He did in the process many people call the "Creation Story." That is not accurate. It is the "Restoration Story." How so? Please keep reading.

Note: This article is two parts, and will be given questions and a bibliography at the end of Part II. A special link to the British Library's Gutenberg Bible is offered below--Editor/Founder, The Emmaus Walk

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (KJV) Verse 1 sets the stage for every aspect, person and thing of the Redemptive Plan of God before there was any sin whatsoever in existence, either in heaven or in earth. God created the heavens. What were they like? Were they anything what we know today? Heavens--not one, but a plural number. God is light, as scripture says many times. He created heavens full of light like unto himself, there is no doubt. They held no darkness. Yes, we on this fallen earth see darkness now in the heaven above, but that is not what it was like in the beginning. There was only light, light, light, of a splendor and glory inconceivable to human beings, particularly us fallen human beings. God created heavens (spheres and places and bodies of light). He created no such thing as darkness. How can that be proven? Well, scripture proves it.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters." It is highly unlikely, unlikely for the Omnipotent Creator God with a Master Plan, to create without any idea what he was going to make and start with formless earth and "void", with not only that, but "darkness" lying upon the surface of the waters. What were the waters doing there, by the way, once he had created the earth? Something has gone drastically wrong. God does not start with no experience and no plan. He had already created the heavens and the earth. He did not have to begin again in verse two, to repeat anything or polish up what he had already done. Heaven had been created. And earth had been created. God creates perfectly (though some would believe that God is an evolutionary God and makes perfect by gradation, by degrees, which is not a tenable view, since verse two destroys that view; and, yes, Christians are perfected from one degree of glory to the next, but Christ is our Perfection, we never, never can perfect ourselves by getting "straight" before God, for as our fleshly, carnal natures are submitted to the Cross, they die and His perfection occupies more of us than was possible before--submission, then, to God's way, God's word, and Spirit, submission to the Cross of Christ brings the Perfect Christ into us, the glory that is ours by grace and faith in Him. We find no difference in Old and New Covenants; it was grace in the Coming Christ and Lamb of God that saved and perfected Abraham, and grace won by the Christ who had already come, given Himself as a sacrifice for sin on the Cross, and risen in victory from the grave, with all power , over sin, death, and hell, that perfected Paul). Both heaven and earth, as first created, were utterly perfect. Yet in verse two we see the earth in total disarray. Can God speak forth disarray into existence? Were the Greeks right that creation started with Chaos? Think about it. The only reasonable conclusion is: something drastically wrong has occurred. What? Scripture tells us exactly: "darkness was upon the face of the deep"--verse two. How can this be proven, that darkness is the agent of the destruction of God's perfectly created earth?

As the Bible shows God dealing with mankind and individuals, it is made plain that God acts in ways consistent with his own nature or character and also his own Word, and in verse three, responding to the chaotic state of earth, created light: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." That was his first response. But backing up to verse two, how can we know for certain that God did not cause what we see--the formless, void earth, water lying upon it, and darkness lying upon the surface of the "deep"? Well, "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Spirit of God viewed this situation with, as events prove out, a Plan and the Power to implement that Plan. That Plan entailed drastic reformation of the physical, chaotic earth. The Spirit of God was light in a very dark place, and it says "darkness was upon the face of the deep." God had created in verse one all that there was, and that did not include "darkness," or darkness would have been named. But in verse two darkness is named, as a thing that "was." It existed, but was not created by God. How could that be? Scripture reveals what it is. As with any suspenseful story worth its salt, we are told just enough to give us clues as to what it is: (1) it was not created by God; (2) it was not created by God in the beginning with the heavens and earth; (3) it showed up on earth, but an earth evidently destroyed by some unknown disaster that rendered it waste, or void, and drowned in water; (4) God opposed it, since God is light; (5) God, His Spirit, actively engaged darkness and its hold on earth by recreating light for the darkened, darkness-ruled earth. (6) God showed He was more powerful than darkness, by breaking its hold on earth first through the return of light. These are just a few clues given in verses one, two, and three. But the question must now be: what does this have to do with God's Redemption Plan, and God's Messiah in particular? Verse four and five tell us.

God approved his wonderful work, he "saw the light, that it was good."--verse four. But he wasn't through. He "divided the light from the darkness." Darkness is a compromiser, a mingler, a joiner. We know that is what God would not allow. The first thing he did after creating the light was to make sure it remained apart, distinct, separate from the darkness lying upon the deep of the water-destroyed earth. Then, the second thing he did was set the darkness itself within bounds and the light within bounds. Light, thus, was protected, and darkness was, not protected but restrained. Verse four and verse five: "...and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." Light was protected and its integrity as light maintained in this division and naming of light as Day. Darkness, in contrast, was divided from the light and named Night. It was, moreover, restrained in the process, and not only restrained but made a special instrumentality, which will bear out as such in God's Redemption Plan for Earth (you see, there is first the physical restoration, but next will follow the spiritual restoration). How do we know that darkness was made instrumental to God's purposes? Again, scripture tells us.

Verse four, in closing, tells us the immediate effect of God's fiat: "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Where there had been no evening and morning, where all was mixed up, a darkness lying upon a destroyed, deluged earth, now there was a working system of light and darkness, Day and Night. Night was now a servant! Light had invaded, and held its place, and would hold it until the end of time. Darkness was vanquished, at least until its appointed time to appear upon the earth as Evening, or Night. Its total rule was broken forever on the earth, by God's almighty power. Moreover, a system was installed insuring a pattern of light and dark, evening and morning, Day and Night. Darkness, restrained within bounds, was made subject to this system, obeying it whether it "liked it or not." Only for certain allotted hours was darkness able to reassert itself upon the earth. It was a limited dominion, as scripture show, subject to the power and plan of God. But, specifically, how was it made even more instrumental?

It should be noted that a God who could exert such overwhelming control over darkness could have eliminated it altogether by creating sufficient light to bathe the earth continuously just as light streaming continuously from the radiance of the glory of God bathed heaven.

God could have created sufficient light to make Day constant and universal, but he chose not to do so. He left some darkness, reducing it by half at least. He had plans for the remainder. He made it serve his system that he imposed upon the darkened, deluged earth of verse two. Why? Scripture, as Genesis bears out chapter three, will tell us. Before we turn to his making use of darkness in a special way, redemptively (used in regard to the process and the final result, not in regard to the evil that arose from the choices of free moral agents and a certain tempter), we see in verses six and seven that God created a "firmament" or atmosphere, dividing the waters that enchained the world, and made a lower waters and an upper waters through this division.

This makes little sense, perhaps, to human conception, but this is what God did. An atmosphere, clearly, was necessary to a restored earth--that we can see. Also, it demonstrated God's power over the waters as well. Where before they enchained the world, now they were broken in power and divided by a layer of atmosphere, or "firmament". This firmament God called "heaven."

Meanwhile, the system of Day and Night still operated upon the earth and its new firmament, while the waters now were divided, with the lower waters lying, presmably, upon the earth, and the others lying above the firmament. As for the earth, with perhaps half the waters, if not gone, at least diminished in depth considerably. For, verse nine, "God said, Let the waters under the heaven (firmament: atmosphere) be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." God not only subdued the waters, but separated them, and then went on to further containment and use of them. Now waters were a form of destruction and disaster (and, clearly, evil). Yet God demonstrated in these verses just how he could make them useful (and even productive) servants. From uncontrolled monster-forces he turned the waters into obedient servants, just as he made the darkness, in part and in whole, subservient to Him in preceding verses.

Day One (with subsequent Night One) has come has come and gone, and after the passing of the evening (or Night) Day Two (verse eight) has come. What has he done? He has divided the waters into two parts, separated by a firmament or heaven. He has also by this caused the dry land to appear by gathering the waters remaining on the earth into one place. Verse ten: he calls the gathered waters in one place "Seas." They are gathered into one place, separated from the dry land, and named. No longer can the waters rage and range freely over the earth (truly a picture of unrestrained evil!). They are restrained, separated, divided, named, and made servants of God.

With darkness under God's control and rule, and the waters under His control and rule, all working within his imposed system, what does God next proceed to do? Scripture tells us.

Verse 11 on to 31 of chapter one tell us about the animals upon the dry land and in the seas that God created. He also creates birds to use the firmament or heaven. Each type of creature was made according to a kind, "after its kind," differentiated or rendered distinct from other species or kinds. There was to be no comingling or joining or cross-breeding--it was not so created. And he remains true to his whole working order imposed upon earth by creating a dominant, ruling species called Adam, or mankind. Verse 26 shows us God declaring his intent and plan: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." This kingly, or sovereign species was Adam, or man. God "created man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."--verse 27. All this he accomplished by the sixth Day. On the Seventh God rested--chaper two, verse one. And everyone lived happily ever after on the restored and beautiful earth? Not at all! For thing, it wasn't a completely restored earth. How do we know that? Scriptures have already shown us that darkness is still present, though subservient. Waters are also present, though subservient. Scripture never says that this was the perfection God intended at the first. It was "good," as God said, but truly heaven and earth, which he created in the beginning, were perfect, not merely good. Now they were not perfect, or in perfect order, for darkness and waters existed where they had been intended initially. Yes, it is good how God subdued and arranged them, but they still existed. Not all was perfect in this new order, far from it! But it was "good," and within this system God was now able to place a unique species called Adam or mankind as the sovereign over the earth God had restored in part for him to reign over. With mankind, Adam, in place to reign over the earth and keep it in subjection, scripture says it was "very good."--verse 31, chapter one.

Again, with mankind, Adamic male and female, installed as royal monarchs over the wonderful earth and all its created things, God could rest, and he did so on the Seventh Day.--verse one, chapter two. God, evenso, put mankind in a particular place, this first male and female he created. It was a garden in in the east of Eden (it was not called Eden, which may have been a name for a region of the dry land, earth).--verse eight. Four rivers flowed from one great river from Eden to water the garden. But more important than their names or the minerals associated with them was God taking man and putting him in the garden to tend it.--verse fifteen. In this garden paradise God had already planted "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."--verse nine. In this partially restored earth, in a special garden set upon a region called Eden, watered by four streams so that it was lush and abundant in growth, God set his royal species, Adam (male, to begin with). He gave him one duty: gardening, or tending the garden (every garden needs daily tending, as every gardener worth his salt knows full well!). He also gave him one simle, clear commandment: "Of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."--verses sixteen and seventeen.

Now we already have been shown by scriptures that the earth is partially restored, not to perfection but goodness. It is also in "good-working order," with a system of Day and Night, mornng and evening, and dry land and contained, bounded Seas, with a firmament, or atmosphere covering it. There are, moreover, stars, Sun, and moon, to rule over Night and Day. What is most important is that God has created all this, not for itself, but for a choice to be made within his Redemption Master Plan. The choice is posed, not to the lower subservient species of beasts, fowls, or sea creatures, but to the ruling species, the one made in God's image, the one called Adam. Adam has been commanded not to eat of one tree on pain of something called death. Will he obey as the darkness obeyed, or the waters obeyed? Had they any choice? No, obviously not. Adam, obviously, did have power to choose as God created him. We know this because he exercised that power and he did choose. Only, unfortunately for him and us his descendants, he chose not to eat of the tree of life, which was the best thing God offered him and which was not forbidden, but chose instead to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God forewarned him about and which appeared to be good but brought death. How much clearer could the choice have been? The answer must be: no whit clearer!