After Moses states the wonderful fact that “In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth,” without stating when it was, only
that it was “in the beginning,” he proceeds to give a brief account
of the state of things after this _first fact_, and before the work
of the six days. He says: “The earth was without form, and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep.” This state of things was
preceded by the creation of the heaven and the earth. The next thing in
the successive acts was to operate on material created, brought into
existence; to form or fashion it. What was the first thing? “The Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters.” This was not bringing into
existence, but operating on that which was in existence. “And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it
was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called
the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and
the morning were the first day.” Here we have the work of the first
day. What was done on that day was not the same, no matter how we
describe it, as the first act. It was forming, shaping, operating on
material previously brought into existence.
Moses proceeds, “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made
the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And he
called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the
second day.” Here we have the work of the second day, like that of
the first day, forming, fashioning and bringing order out of chaos.
This “firmament,” that God made, and “called Heaven,” is not the same
as mentioned in the first verse, but is included in the words: “The
heavens and the earth.” This is the work of arrangement, ordering, etc.
Then follow the gathering together the waters into one place, and the
bringing to view the dry land, the naming of the dry land, Earth, and
the gathering together of the waters of the seas; the ordering of the
grass, the herb, the fruit-tree upon the earth. This was the work of
the third day. Then comes the ordering the heavenly bodies, the great
lights for day and night, the dividing the light from the darkness,
etc., the work of the fourth day. All this is fashioning, forming,
arranging, ordering, and not creating from nothing. Then follows the
ordering of the waters, to bring forth the fishes, the fowl, and all
the inhabitants of the seas on the fifth day. This is followed by the
ordering the earth to bring forth the cattle, the creeping thing, and
all the lower orders of the inhabitants of the earth, and concludes the
work of the sixth day by the creation of man, or _forming_ him in the
image of God.
We have both the words “made,” and “created,” used and applied to
this work of the six days, where it is manifestly used in the sense
of shaping, forming, fashioning, ordering, arranging, and not in the
sense of the word “created” in the first sentence in the Bible, where
it manifestly means _creating from nothing or bringing into existence_.
This wonderful act of the Infinite One, of bringing into existence the
heaven and the earth—this stupendous universe—may have been performed
an indefinite period of time before the commencement of the work of
the six days described by Moses. In this view there is no danger. It
makes the work of the Creator none the less wonderful, glorious and
overwhelming. It matters not how long before the work of the six days
it was that “God created the heaven and the earth,” or brought the
universe into existence. Nor need we be startled at this. The work of
the six days, as described by Moses, is wonderful beyond all human
imagination. We can comprehend but little of it. We may well exclaim,
as Paul did, in view of a different matter: “O the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind
of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? For of him, and through
him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.”