Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.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.And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
7 sermons cite this verse
… you need to think about Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters or hovered over the face of the waters. So by his Spirit he adorned the heavens. His hand pierced the fleeing serpent, a reference to constellations of the stars in the heavens. Indeed, these are the mere edges of his ways. And how small a whisper we hear of him by the thunder of his power, who can understand? I like that. I have underlined that phrase in my Bible. These are the mere edges of his ways. What Job is saying is, with all this wonder and adornment and decoration in our biosphere and atmosphere and the celestial heavens beyond with all of that. It's just a glimpse of his power. Just a glimpse. It's just a little, we're only getting a little bit of information about God. This is what David said in Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. …
… Now the earth was wasted and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning. One day. Then God said, let there be an expanse between the waters, a canopy and let it separate water from water. So God made the canopy, and He separated the waters under the canopy from the waters that were above the canopy. And it was so. God called this canopy the heavens. And there was evening and there was morning a second day. Then God said, And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathered waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants bearing seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with the seed in it, each according to its kind. …
… We're in Genesis, the first book, chapter 1, the first chapter, in verse 2. Early in Scripture, 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. This early depiction of our planet was not a friendly one. In my imagination, I can see spewing lava in random comets and colliding waves. No life, no light, no pleasant sound, just chaos. yet in that moment of primal frenzy we see the first the inaugural appearance of the holy spirit hovering can you say that word with me hovering over the face of the water still in genesis chapter 1 in verse 2 i would expect a different verb i would expect the spirit speaking directing commanding but hovering was the choice of the holy spirit what does this mean the word hover appears only one other time in scripture and that's in the book of deuteronomy and it was used to describe the protective presence of god over the nation of israel And God is compared to an eagle. …
… He 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. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light. By the way, this is fun. The light that God created over the physical universe predates the creation of the sun. Why? Why? God is light. awesome, remarkable considering the awe of God we're going to go through some things you guys okay, you ready for this? Job chapter 28 you can't talk about the awe of God without going to the book of Job and for good reason you know, poor Job you know, we say poor Job and none of us would want to go through what he went through but we want to be as close to God as he was but without paying the price of course God used the man Job because he could he was usable to teach Satan a lesson every time I think about the book of Job I have to ask myself how willing am I to be a true witness for God in anything If God were to ask us this morning, do you love me? …
… In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. So thus begins creation as God speaks, and he forms light and darkness. And then the sun and moon and stars, the skies, the land, water, fish, birds, animals. And then after all that, jump to verse 26. We read, then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Now turn over to Genesis chapter 2. So starting in verse 5, we see a parallel account of how God created man. …
… that's translated without form back in Genesis chapter one, verse two, or empty. So Moses is saying to God's people in the first verses of Genesis, the same God who, in the very beginning, this God who took what was like a dark, empty wilderness, and he said, I'm bringing it light. That same God is now encircling you. He's caring for you. He's keeping you as the apple of his eye as you walk through the waste, this formless, empty wilderness. He's with you, for you, leading you somewhere. So now we're starting to see, wait a minute, there's some parallels here between the land God is creating and preparing in Genesis 1, and now the land God is promising to bring his people to in the end of Deuteronomy, which then leads us now. So now turn to Genesis chapter 2 and look with me starting in verse 10 as we start to see the Garden of Eden described with more description than chapter 1 gives us. So this land that God is making, he says, a river flowed out of Eden. And you might just make a note, Eden, that word means delight or pleasure. Like this is a land full of delight and pleasures. So this garden of delight, a river's flowing out of it to water the garden, and there it divides and becomes four rivers. So it branches out into four rivers that are like the boundary around Eden. The name of the first river is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where …
… When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. and there was evening and there was morning the first day and God said let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters so God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome and it was so God called the dome sky and there was evening and there was morning the second day and God said let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear and it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good. …