In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 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. Genesis 1:1-2

Thus begins the granddaddy of all creation stories. Even though Adam was not an eyewitness of events prior to his creation, God must have revealed them to him. The account has been passed on through oral tradition; around the world, every people group which has maintained its oral traditions has a creation story that sounds a lot like this, because this is the account from which all others spring.

In the creation story known to the Cree people of Canada, the Creator first created spiritual beings. Then something happened that was too awful to talk about: many of those first spirit beings rebelled against the Creator. This led to the creation of the physical world and of humans. The Bible only gives hints of what happened before the physical creation, but there is enough to gather as much as the Cree tradition says.

Is there any evidence of the rebellion of angels in the Genesis creation story? As we follow the Bible from beginning to end we see that waters and darkness have a sinister connotation. There are constant references to the conflict between light and darkness and between the seas and the dry land. “Without form and void”, tohu and bohu in Hebrew, can also be translated confusion and destruction.

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. Verses 3-5

The light that appeared on the first day had no physical source, it was rather a spiritual light to drive back the darkness.

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 God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. Verses 6-8

The second day God created lifted the mist and fog that shrouded the earth and gave the name of heaven, or sky, to the clear expanse above the earth.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. Verses 9-10

The third day God pushed back the waters and made dry land to appear. Now the earth was prepared for the creation of all kinds of living things.

The themes of light to dispel the darkness and of land as a place of safety recur again and again in the Bible. In the day of Noah all living things on the earth were destroyed by water. It is possible that hills and mountains appeared in cataclysmic upheavals at the end of the flood to help drain the water. Then life began again.

When the children of Israel left Egypt, God drove back the water of the Red Sea so they could cross on dry land. Then He let the waters swallow up the Egyptian army. Many years later God again parted the waters when Joshua led the people into the promised land.

God promised a land to Abraham and his seed forever. This was literally fulfilled when the Israelites took possession of the land of Canaan and established the earthly kingdom of God. Yet the book of Hebrews says of Abraham that “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:10) In other words, the ultimate fulfilment of that search for land, a safe place to dwell, is found in the church of God, built on Jesus Christ, the solid rock that can never be moved.

The waters figuratively refer to the great mass of people who do not know God, but are continually tossed to and fro like waves of the sea. Jacob referred to his oldest son as “unstable as water” (Genesis 49:4). The seas are also the home of dragons and sea monsters.

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Revelation 17:15

When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 2 Samuel 22:5

Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. Psalm 65:7

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Jude 1:13

For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Ephesians 4:14

Chapter 13 of the book of Revelation speaks of a beast that arises out of the sea, typifying the gross paganism of ancient Rome. But then there is a monster that arises out of the dry land, that is a counterfeit of Christianity and mimics true faith to deceive many, yet is animated by the same power as the first beast.

to be continued