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convincing argument to hand in the usage of these words in the inspired Scriptures
themselves. The only One Who can supply us with first-hand information about the
process of creation is God Himself, therefore one word spoken by Him must outweigh all
else that ever has been or can be said on the subject.
"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 (tohu), He formed it to
be inhabited" (Isa. 45: 18).
The two words tohu and bohu come together in Isa. 34: Let us acquaint ourselves
with the context. In verse 2 we have the words, "Indignation", "fury", "destroyed",
"slaughter", and verse 4 takes us to the day of which Peter speaks in his second epistle
(II Pet. 3: 10, 12):
"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. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it
shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment"
(Isa. 34: 4-6).
This is not creation but dissolution. This is the result of curse and judgment, "For it is
the day of the Lord's vengeance" (verse 8). This land is to "lie waste" (Isa. 34: 10)
and be uninhabited or traversed by man until the age ends, and to describe this utter
desolation the prophet has recourse to the words of Gen. 1: 2, tohu and bohu:
"He shall stretch out upon it the lines of confusion (tohu) and the stones of emptiness
(bohu)" (Isa. 34: 11).
We have confirmation of this meaning in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah:
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and
they had no light" (just as darkness was on the face of the deep) . . . . . "there was no man
. . . . . 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).
Here, once again, we have anger and its result. If Isa. 34: said the land was to
"lie waste" Jer. 4: says "The whole land shall be desolate" (Jer. 4: 27).
However interested he may have been in this study of tohu and bohu, the reader may
be wondering where the "time" element comes in. To this we now address ourselves. In
Eph. 1: 4 we read: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world." This word "foundation", katabole, must not be confused with the "foundation"
of Eph. 2: 20 which is themelion. Kata means "down" and ballo means "to throw".
"Katabolism" is used to this day in Biology to define the breaking up process of
metabolism or the processes, in living beings, of assimilation and decomposition. The
verb kataballo is used by Paul in a context that leaves no room for doubt: "Persecuted,
but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (II Cor. 4: 9). This meaning is
confirmed by John in the Revelation: "The accuser of our brethren is cast down"