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Author
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Topic: Dark and Light
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epouraniois
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Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
In ch 1 the word “foundation” is “katabole”, and in ch 2, “foundation” is “themelios”. We don't have to know Greek to see that these two words are very different. When using Katabole, Paul uses it as a verb. He uses it of himself, an earthen vessel, “cast down”, but not destroyed. We get the medical word, katabolism. We eat, anabolism, and we have the katabolism, where the food is being broken down in a process. So, we are chosen in Him before the “overthrow” [katabole] of the world. Before the world was cast down. But why would we look at the world like this? Lets look and see.
Gen 1:2 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.
We need to look at the small word “was”. One is standard set type, and the other is in italics. The one in italics has been added; it was not in the original. In Hebrew, there is no word “to be”, that is to say, the verb is implied thru context, and never written. Here is the same word in Gen 2:7: translated properly “became”:
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man “became” a living soul.
Gen 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it “shall come to pass”, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
The same word is not translated was, became, or is, but “it shall come to pass”. It is always consistantly the verb “to become”. So, in Gen 1:2, we have, the earth “became”, or was “to become”, or “it came to pass” that the earth was with out form and void. Simularly, Lot’s wife “became” a pillar of salt, she wasn’t born like that. It is not that God created the earth without form and void, but that it became that way, but something took place to bring this about.
Now, there is a principle, guiding us with regards to how we approach God’s Word. This is essential, we must use the words of God in the way that God has used them.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost [Spirit] teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So, we should see if, and where, God has used the words in Gen 1:2 in other places and glean His Wisdom in rightly dividing His Word of Truth. It is up to us to consider this. It is given to us the eyes and the ears to see and hear by, in which we may approach Him. Before we leave the NT, Paul gives us a hint regarding Gen 1:2:
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is in this very context that Paul uses the word Katabole in v9, speaking about us in the flesh:
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
The point is that our darkness is moral, and it is in this spiritual context that light was commanded to shine out of the darkness in Gen 1:4. In trying to keep these studies
concise and manageable, you should always lookup these words to insure I am not in err, do not to trust my words, but the Word of God. So, Paul is alluding to the something that happened in which the earth became without form and void in Gen1:2. Without form and void in the Hebrew is “tohu va bohu. The question becomes, what did happen. Lets look at how Moses uses this word.
Deu 32:10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
So, we can see that God created the earth not in “vain” [tohu]; which is an adverb. The earth should have remained in it's original form which was not tohu, but must have became that way, as in Gen v2: “waste” ; [tohu], we just read that God created the earth to be inhabited. God established the earth in this way when He first formed it. God did not create it waste, but it became waste. There was a fall, apparently, as the word is used in context with judgements. Lets look at the word as supplied in these next verses to see how the Lord makes use of it:
Isa 24:1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:10 The city of confusion [without form] is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
In looking at the context of this particular word, it must be determined in your own mind, of how it is being used. Is this creation or judgment? Did God intend it to be without form and void, or did it become this way thru sin, and failure, and judgment?
Isa 34:1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
Isa 34:2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
We are given “indignation”, “fury”, “utterly destroyed”, and “slaughter” all in one verse. This cannot speak of creation, but destruction and judgment.
Isa 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
Peter would tell us this same thing, nevertheless we, brethren, look forwards to a New Heaven and a New Earth. Now we have a pattern. So, we have a first heavens and earth, then something happened, a dissolution, a re-construction, and finally in Revelation a New Heaven and New Earth.
Isa 34:8 For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
And in v 11 we have the same words, “tohu” & “bohu”; without form and void. Four unclean birds are spoken of here.
Isa 34:11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
Jer 4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
This is not creation is it? And again in v23 we see the results, and it is the same words as Gen 1:2. The Gentiles is on the way to the lion, and the lion is raised up; and the cities are laid waste. Look into the following past event:
Jer 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
This has described for us an event which has already occurred. Back in Genesis 1:2, we read of the same event. This has not happened in our recorded history. We are being told of the previous earth age, the time that then was. We see they had cities and so forth. And yet, there was no man. Not in the since we have of a flesh man, that is. This was the time that then was. When I look at these verses, in the context of the spiritual and the physical; it reminds me deeply of these verse:
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecc 1:10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Ecc 1:11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
We should see that when the words “without form and void” are used by God, He is speaking of judgement. The next question is what happened to make this judgement necessary. It wasn’t the fall of man, for man wasn’t there in the first earth age. We do, however, have several places where we are told that the fall was by pride, that the fall was by the angels, and that satan is a fallen being. In Heb 2, where unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, but men:
That is a funny thing to say. We would have no idea that the world had ever been put under subjection by the angels had we not read it for ourselves, but we do read that he will not do it again in the world to come.
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And here, we have an indication of a truth only found in rightly dividing the word of God. We will connect angels and man a bit later, but we shall have this in mind that God’s children were made partakers of the flesh, and also did Christ come in like manner. That in man, or some of mankind at least, were chosen from before the foundation, or overthrow, the world that then was; to be fellow partakers of the promise of inheritance thru The Christ, being the Passover, the Beginning, the movement whereby we may occupy those super Heavenly Places where powers and principalities have their residences. You can understand how satan would look upon these promised as enemies, and he did; and this is his endeavor. He tried, and this pride is his fall, but not his only, as many had followed him. And in this age he tried again, in the garden of Eden, and with Adamic seed lines, and with the children of Israel, and directly with his effort to temp Christ. We are warned in Eph we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with spiritual wickedness in “high places”.
Now, we find ourselves looking at all the various subjects of the Bible as extraneous from redemption, as this place is likened to a tabernacle. All of the time spent on the building of this tabernacle is a representation for our understanding, that what happens inside this tabernacle is of the utmost importance. All else falls by the wayside, and is built to further our understanding of His purposed redemption, whereby we are received up into His glory to take our rightful position. Yet, for now, for a time, we are made a little lower than the angels.
You may say, wait a minute, this is the “gap” theory, and you would be correct that we are looking into a gap. We must note that in each gap, there is left something to be filled. It is these areas which are referred to as a mystery. Now instead of calling man a fullness, we call it a filling. There is a difference to be sure. It is a bit less than fullness. Adam was never intended to be Christ, but merely a shadow of Christ, likewise Aaron was never meant to be “the” high priest, but merely a type, a figure, as a shadow, and a frail one at that. Christ is not a Priest after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchezedik. The mystery is, what fills the gap?
We see paradise lost in Gen / restored in Rev; creation in Gen & a new heaven & new earth in Rev, darkness on the face of the deep at the beginning and no more sea in Rev, the coming in of sin and death, and the going out of sin and death, we have a curse coming in, & in Rev no more curse, so when we see the word “beginning” in Revelation; we only see it 4 times. And when we see it used, it is in each case used of a type of Christ, and never used with the idea of “time”. This word was only used as a foreshadowing of a place which is yet to come. Now, stability is found not in creature strength, but in the strength of our Redeemer. Found in God’s purpose and plan for the ages. Not by might, nor by power, but by spirit, thus sayith the Lord.
It is only when we reach the place where we know God has used the material of this world to bring us to our lowly state, where we are weak and frail, and lonely, and wandering and lost, that we can look up to Him and realize that thru Him we are made glorious, and indefectible, undestroyable and all victorious.
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