But we should never allow the things we do not understand to things we do not understand to obscure for us the areas of truth obscure for us the areas of truth where God has provided clear where God has provided clear
understanding.
understanding.
In each of these cases, God’s judgment produces a condition described as a wilderness (tohu).
If we combine all these passages quoted above,
we arrive at one conclusion that applies to them all:
They describe the result of a judgment of God. This could be applied as much to Genesis 1:2 as to the other passages.
We can also look at a number of instances in Isaiah that depict God’s judgment on the whole earth: “Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste, distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants” (Isaiah 24:1).
As part of this total judgment, Isaiah goes on to say: “The city of confusion [tohu] is broken down”
(verse 10). This depicts a city in a state of desolation as a result of God’s judgment.
Again, Isaiah 40:23 depicts God’s judgment on earth’s rulers: “He brings the princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless [tohu].”
In Isaiah 41:29 God describes the worshipers of idols: “Indeed they are all worthless; their works are nothing; their molded images are wind and confusion [tohu].”
In every case, confusion is the outcome of God’s wrath and judgment.
The most decisive statement of all is Isaiah 45:18:
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 [tohu], who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
The product of God’s creation was not tohu—that is, in a confused, disorderly condition.
Let us now put this passage of Scripture side by side with that which describes God’s creation.
Genesis 1:2 says that the earth was tohu. Isaiah 45:18 says that God did not create it tohu. The implication is clear: The earth as described in Genesis 1:2 is not in the condition in which it was originally created. God did not create an earth that was tohu and bohu, but He created it to be inhabited.
His aim was to make a blessed, pleasant, wonderful place for His creatures to dwell in.
The fact that the earth became tohu and bohu indicates that a judgment of God had passed over it between its creation as recorded in Genesis 1:1 and the scene depicted in Genesis 1:2. In our next chapter, we will analyze the biblical record of a rebellion of angels that provoked God’s judgment.
This could well have taken place in the period between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.
Confronted with this picture of tohu and bohu, we might ask: Could this perhaps in some way be connected with what scientists have come to interpret as the “Big Bang”? This would view it not primarily as an act of creation, but as an act of judgment.
I certainly do not claim to have answered all the questions that arise about creation. In fact, there is no limit to such questions. But we should never allow the things we do not understand to obscure for us the areas of truth where God has provided clear understanding.
In closing this chapter, let me share with you something I have proved over the years. God does not necessarily commit Himself to scratch every intellect that itches, but He will always respond to a sincere and hungering heart.
We will now go on to examine the confrontation between God and Lucifer that brought judgment upon God’s original creation.
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L UCIFER
C HALLENGES G OD
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Luke 10:18 esus is here describing for His disciples a scene He had witnessed in heaven many centuries before His incarnation as the Son of Mary. He was warning them of the danger of pride. The scene He described was God’s judgment on a created archangel named Lucifer.
J J
Lucifer had occupied a position of unique honor in heaven. God had said to him:
“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire,
turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.”
Ezekiel 28:12-15 This account raises two possible questions. First, from what area of heaven was Lucifer cast out?
Second, to what area was he cast down?
Personally, I do not believe that Lucifer had access to the third heaven or could ever have conceived his rebellion there. My impression of the third heaven is that it is a place of such total holiness that no kind of sin could ever begin to exist there. But that is just a personal impression!
I have not found any passage in Scripture that describes the specific location to which Lucifer and his angels were banished, but apparently they set up their rival kingdom in another area of the heavenlies, probably somewhere in the mid-heaven.
As I pointed out in chapter 1, in Scripture at least three different areas are called “heaven.” First the visible heaven above us. Next comes the mid-heaven described in Revelation 8:13; 14:6; and 19:17. Finally, the third heaven is the highest of all and is the sacred place of God’s dwelling, the place that Solomon refers to in 2 Chronicles 2:6 as the
“heaven of heavens”: “But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?”
In Ezekiel 28:14, Lucifer is described as the
“anointed cherub who covers.” It seems that
Lucifer had covered with his wings the place of the manifestation of God’s glory in His heavenly temple, just as the cherubs in the tabernacle of Moses covered the mercy seat and the place where the visible glory of God appeared. This is described in Exodus 37:9:
The cherubim spread out their wings above, and covered the mercy seat with their wings.
They faced one another; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
Lucifer was perfect in beauty, but he was a created being. Pride motivated him to challenge God and to claim a place of equality with God. Apparently Lucifer had authority over a company of angels, and he had succeeded in alienating some of those under him from their loyalty to God. He led them to join him in his rebellion against God. In response, God cast Lucifer and his partners in rebellion from His presence.
To describe Lucifer’s activity in turning some angels against God, Scripture uses the word trading, which could also apply to persistent plotting:
“By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned.... You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading.”
Ezekiel 28:16, 18, emphasis added This word trading is also applied to someone who goes about as a talebearer or a slanderer. In other words, it could describe someone who peddles both goods and gossip. In various other books of the Bible
—e. g., Leviticus, Proverbs, Jeremiah—this word is translated as either a “talebearer” or a “slanderer.”
For example, Leviticus 19:16 says: “You shall not
go about as a talebearer among your people.”
In Proverbs 20:19, this practice of being a talebearer is closely linked with one who flatters with his lips. We are warned against both kinds of persons: “He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.” Apparently, this exactly describes what Lucifer did. He went among the created angelic beings, promoting and organizing rebellion against God. I personally picture Lucifer as saying to the angels under him such things as, “God does not really appreciate you. You have a position that is far below your potential and far below what you should have. If I were to take over, I would understand your merits and your value and I would promote you. I would give you a much more responsible position in the government of the universe.”