Those who say they don’t get their doctrine out of the Hebrew scriptures, I wonder where they get their beliefs about creation and a host of other Bible subjects???? Many fail to realize that the Psalms are not just songs chanted by the faithful Jews at the tabernacle, later the temple, and, later yet, in the synagogues. The Psalms contain much doctrinal teaching. If you have a Bible with marginal references, you will notice that the apostles, as well as Jesus, often cite the Psalms in teaching New Covenant doctrine.
One “eye-opener” Psalm that clearly indicates that there was a RE-creation of this earth and that there was a previous creation to the one we are now a part of is the 104th Psalm, verses 24 through 35: “O Lord, how manifold are your works (God didn’t just get into the creating business a few thousand years ago)! In wisdom have you made them all: the earth is full of your riches” (verse 24). And let me pause right there and get my reader to think for a moment – one of my favorite exercises now, THINKING! Those who say God created the universe 6000 years ago, or thereabouts. What do you think God was doing 7000 years ago, or 10,000 years ago, or a trillion trillion years ago. After all He IS eternal. Go back in time as far as human mind can contemplate, even zillions of years ago. God was there! What do you think this great creator God, this super-productive thinker was doing. Do you really think He was just sitting on a bare throne in the voids of empty space twiddling His giant thumbs, scratching His chin, engulfed in mind-boggling divine boredom??!! And then, finally, just 6000 short years ago, He thought, “I’ve got it! I’ll create something. Look at all this empty space I’ve got. I need to put something in it.”
Well, enough of that musing. Let’s continue with verse 25 of Psalm 104. “So is this great and wide sea (full of God’s riches – continuing the thought of verse 24), wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.” Now how could this Psalmist know that the oceans were teeming with countless life forms and species?? “There go the ships, there is that leviathan (any large sea creature – whales, giant squid, etc.), whom you have made to play therein. (Ever notice the cavorting of whales, porpoises, etc. This Psalmist probably never had. He speaks under divine inspiration). These wait all upon you; that you may give them their meat in due season. That you give them they gather. you open your hand, they are filled with good. You hide your face, they are troubled: you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. You send forth your Spirit, they are created (actually re-created), and you renew the face of the earth” (verse 26 through 30). Did you get those last two sentences? It speaks of a creation – a creation without human beings – that God, for whatever reason – killed off. There then is a RENEWING of the face of the earth. Genesis 1 speaks of this renewing in the first two verses, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (verse 1). And not the slightest indication is given as to just when God did this. Was it a few thousand years ago? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? We just don’t know. Continuing with verse 2, “And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Jewish scholars at the beginning of the 2nd Century wrote the Targum of Onkelos, the earliest of the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament, and translated Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was laid waste.”
Dr. Arthur Custance, after consulting over 300 commentaries on Genesis, concluded the best translation of Genesis 1:2 to be “But the earth had become a ruin, and a desolation.”
“And the earth was without form and void” is a translation of the Hebrew words tohu and bohu, meaning chaotic and confused. In all likelihood, this refers to the time of Satan’s rebellion when he was cast out of heaven to this earth! (See Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:11-18). Something to think about.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley