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Graphically it may be considered thus:--
Genesis 1: 1.
Genesis 1: 2 to Revelation 20:
Revelation 21:
The creation of the six days.
Creation.
The new heavens
Sin and death enter. Sin and death destroyed.
and new earth.
Past.
The ages span this section.
Future.
The creation referred to in Gen. 1: 1 must not be taken necessarily as referring to the
creation of the six days that follow.
To those who find suggestions in the numerical phenomena of Scripture it may be
interesting to note that the words, "The heavens and the earth," occur in the Hebrew
Bible fourteen times. Thirteen times with eth, a particle that lends emphasis, and once
without. Thirteen indicates rebellion while fourteen is suggestive of perfection.
Perfection is further stamped upon this first verse by the fact that the Hebrews words
used are 7 in number, containing 14 syllables (2*7) and 28 letters (4*7).
The creation "in the beginning" and the creation "in six days" are divided off from
each other by the chaos and darkness of the second verse. As the words in verse 2 stand
in the A.V., "The earth was without form and void," they seem to support the false idea
known as the Nebular Theory, which supposes the gradual evolution of the earth from a
gaseous chaotic mass. The words, "without form and void," are in the Hebrew
tohu va bohu. In Isa. 45: 18 we read of the earth, "He created it not tohu." The word
"was" in Gen. 1: 2 is translated "became" in Gen. 2: 7, "Man became a living soul"--
he was not such before, and in 4: 3, "It came to pass" is the reading. Gen. 1: 2, if
rendered "The earth became without form and void," brings the verse into line with
Isa. 45: 18 and gives the sense of the passage. There is an indication of judgment in the
words, "without form, void and darkness." Notice the way Jeremiah uses the expression
in a context of judgment.
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they
had no light . . . . . I beheld, and, lo, there was no man . . . . . 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: 23-26).
Isa. 24: 10 speaks of the city of "confusion" (tohu), and in verses 1, 3, and 19 are
such parallel expressions as:--
"The Lord maketh the earth empty, He maketh it waste, the land shall be utterly
emptied and utterly spoiled, the earth is utterly broken down, clean dissolved and moved
exceedingly."
The reason is given in verses 20, 21:--
"The transgressions thereof shall be heavy upon it . . . . . The Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth."