In The Beginning

A while back I decided to start reading the Bible from the beginning. Genesis 1. I grew up and spent nearly 45 years believing what I was told by other people about "this or that" in the Bible, but I had never read it for myself. I always believed that God created the heavens and the earth. I actually did not know that there REALLY are people who believe in a "Big Bang Theory". I thought it was a joke that there are people who believe we evolved from monkeys. I'm not trying to poke fun...I simply did not know that these were thoughts that are really out there.

Anyway, I am going to share my journey through the Bible. I was led to believe that I couldn't read the Bible for myself. Why? Well, that's what I set out to find out for myself. I decided to take what I call a "stranded on a desert island" approach to the Bible. Sort of. I can't get off of the island until I have finished reading the Bible.

Everyone has their opinions and thoughts. I try to have questions. I think questions are good. In fact, I believe that specifically here in the United States, we have been encouraged NOT to have questions. But I'll probably get more into what Chad and I believe are the "how's and why's" gradually, later. So, I will try to approach this with questions and allow the Bible to answer those questions, when possible. Join me, or don't, but I do ask that everyone be kind and respectful. We are all here for a purpose. That is important.

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

So, the earth was without form.
What does that mean?
According to the concordance in Blue Letter Bible, "without form" means that it is "from an unused root meaning to lie waste" and void means that it was empty. Okay, simple enough.
When did it form and what shape did it take?
We were all taught, in our Indoctrination Camps (school) that we live on a spinning ball. So far, I am not seeing that.

Psalms 8:3 says:
When I consider YOUR heavens, the work of YOUR fingers, the moon and the stars, which YOU have ordained.

Psalm 33:6 says:
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and ALL the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

That is pretty amazing! I never thought of our Creator as having FINGERS! When I look up at the moon, I just see...well, THE MOON. But it has a PURPOSE! It was CREATED by God SPEAKING and then using His FINGERS!

Psalm 102:25 tells us:
Of Old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

There it is again! God made the heavens with His hands! He laid the foundation of the earth!
What is a foundation? Well, when a house is built, it is on a foundation.

Foundation: ORIGIN
late Middle English: from Old French fondation, from Latin fundatio(n-), from fundare ‘to lay a base for’

Also: the lowest load-bearing part of a building, typically below ground level.

Hebrews 1:10 also tells me:
And: You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

So, that helps me understand how the earth was established. (Still not seeing a spinning, rotating ball...)

Now we have this issue of darkness.
What is this darkness?
Again, according to the concordance on Blue Letter Bible, this is "darkness":
חֹשֶׁךְ chôshek, kho-shek'; from H2821; the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness:—dark(-ness), night, obscurity.

Seems like initially, it was a pretty bleak place.

So, the Spirit of God hovered over ONLY WATER first. There was no land yet. There was only darkness, the deep and water.
By the way, who/what is the Spirit of God?
Well, as I'm just learning these things for myself, what I can discern for now pertaining to this verse is this:
"The Spirit of God by which all the universe is animated, filled with life and governed."
Also, BLB says this about the Spirit, which seems to be simple: wind, breath, mind, spirit.

I was also taught that Jesus (Yeshua) existed from the beginning. We see this in John 1:1-2:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

So, we have God, the Spirit of God and the Word. Everything was spoken into existence, as we will continue to see and then it would seem it was formed by God's hands and fingers.

So far, very cool!

Well, that's all I'm going to go over for this post. It is only 2 verses, but it seems like a lot to chew on for now.
Have a blessed morning!
Michelle