there.  The whole is a picture in miniature of what the earth became in

Genesis 1:2.

Isaiah's usage of tohu and bohu is convincing, but `in the mouth of two

or three witnesses every word shall be established', and accordingly we find

the prophet Jeremiah using tohu and bohu in a similar context.

In the structure of Jeremiah 4, verses 5 -7 are in correspondence with

verses 19 -31:

`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' (Jer. 4:7).

`Destruction upon destruction is cried'.

`I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the

heavens, and they had no light ... lo, there was no man ... lo, the

fruitful place was a wilderness ... `.

`... broken down ... by His fierce anger' (Jer. 4:20 -26).

Here then are the three inspired occurrences of the two words tohu and

bohu, Genesis 1:2, Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23.  If Genesis 1:2 does not

refer to a day of `vengeance' or `fierce anger' should we not have to

acknowledge that both Isaiah and Jeremiah by the use of these peculiar words,

have misled us?  And if once that be our conclusion, inspiration is

invalidated, and it does not matter much what Genesis 1:2 means, for our

trust is shaken, and Moses is evidently wrong: this, however, cannot be.  All

Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah

speak with one voice, because inspired by one Spirit.

Nothing is said in Genesis 1:2, concerning the cause of this primeval

judgment, any more than any statement is offered to explain the presence of

the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but there are evidences that can be

gathered from various parts of Scripture to make it clear that there was a

fall among the angels, that Satan is a fallen being, and that the catastrophe

of Genesis 1:2 is associated with that fall.

Into the `gap' thus formed, the present six -day creation is placed as

a temporary `fulness' (`replenish the earth' Genesis 1:28), carrying the

Redemptive purpose on to the threshold of Eternity.  It is here also that

`age -times' begin.

See Angels, Fallen1;

`The things which are seen are temporal' (2 Cor. 4:18).

`For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that

are in earth, visible and invisible' (Col. 1:16).

`And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God

said, Let there be light: and there was light' (Gen. 1:2,3).