The Waters Genesis 1: 1-2

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE WATERS

Gen 1:1-2

1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.

NIV

It is always interesting to start in the beginning before we were here when God was the only person, or being, or majestic living entity. He was already God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, although we are not told that expressly. However, because of all the rest of God’s own words as he inspired men to write, we know the three-on-one was there in the beginning. But what does this do for us? How does this information about God creating the heavens and the earth have meaning for our lives? Certainly, had God not decided to create the heavens and the earth, there would be no place for us to live, or in fact, any reason for us to exist. Because God has always been, always living as this majestic eternal being or entity, being completely self-sufficient, perfect in every way, needing nothing but himself, there had to be a reason that he determined to create the heavens and the earth. Why would he do that? Could he have been lonely in some sense? Could he have wanted to do something, so that he could have someone to have a relationship with, be able to talk with, discuss his thoughts with, someone that was perfect, like himself, even someone who was an eternal being, who would always be available to have fellowship with? Maybe we are getting way ahead of God’s creation story as he told it to Moses, but we think that we are the very reason God decided to create the heavens and the earth. We are his final act of creation, the man that was created perfect, in the very image of God. Of course, we know the rest of the story and how our perfection was distorted, because man was created in the image of God and therefore has that perfect freedom to make choices according to his own determination, or what we call free will. Again, we are getting way ahead, yet this was the whole reason God, who is absolutely beyond magnificent in every way, decided to create the heavens and the earth. Then we are told while the earth was not yet anything, that is was formless, and empty, which means it simply did not exist yet, it was not there, and nothing was there, except the waters. Was the water always there? The other thing we are told is that darkness is over the waters. Did God not need light? We know he created light, but that was for us. Although we are told that God is light, it would seem there is nothing but darkness. Interestingly, the Hebrew word used here for darkness has the direct meaning of dark, but figuratively it is used for misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, and wickedness. Metaphorically, we could see all that to exist in the absence of God in our lives, when we lived in that darkness. This is why we are so glad God created the heavens and the earth so that we could find him, meanwhile, we know the Spirit hovered over the waters. We will find out more about the waters.