Since day one God has been dividing the light from the darkness. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). For all those who would stop reading here by arguing that all Christians believe the earth is only 6000 years old and that belief is unrealistic when science claims otherwise, there is something called the Gap Theory by which many of us believe the earth could be billions of years old, as believed through Bible study.
Without going into too much detail, that Gap Theory basically states that God, or Elohim in Hebrew, a masculine plural noun in Genesis 1:1 meaning the Supreme God (Strong’s Hebrew 430), He created earth for the angels to inhabit. Some time after the creation of earth Lucifer said,“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” in Isaiah 14:13-15. Sometime after that statement the attempted overthrow of Heaven took place, changing the form of earth as it is in Genesis 1:2, after God turned the world into a fireball to create hell for satan and his fallen angels. God flooded the earth to cool it after forming hell.
Genesis 1:2, 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. (NKJV)
Looking at the Hebrew text and studying the words, a person can begin to understand a deeper meaning here than one that may have been learned while being told Bible stories. The earth, this is the land of the earth. The word was does not simply mean as it was in the past at this point in its history, but is a verb that comes from the Hebrew root word hayah (Strong’s Hebrew 1961) meaning to fall out, come to pass, become, be. Without form, or formless, Is a desolation, desert, a worthless thing, in vain. A void, this is an emptiness, an undistinguishable ruin, something that can be compared to the wilderness where satan tempted Jesus, something that once was great but is now nothing like it once was in the past. Darkness, this does not simply mean what many people perceive It to mean, but it is dark, darkness, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow and wickedness. This darkness was over, above, upon and against the face, or the surface, of the deep, the abyss.
The word deep comes from the Hebrew word tehom (Strong’s Hebrew 8415) and occurs 36 times In the Bible. The second time tehom occurs in Genesis 7:11, In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (NKJV)
And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:12 NKJV)
Back to Genesis 1:2, And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (NKJV) The Spirit is the Hebrew word Ruach (Strong’s Hebrew 7307) and means Wind or Breath, amongst other meanings. Of God, here again God is the word Elohim, the same word in Genesis 1:1, a masculine plural noun meaning the Supreme God. Hovering means to brood, to be relaxed. What exactly does to brood mean? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, brood as a verb means to think, specifically to think silently for a long time about things that make you sad, worried or angry. Interestingly enough, one of the other meanings of the word Ruach, or the Spirit, is anger.
Genesis 7:11 marks the beginning of the flood on Noah’s day, which Jesus talks about in Matthew 24:38, “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving people n marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,” Jesus continues in Matthew 24:39, “and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (NKJV) Matthew 24:38-39 is a direct reference to the second half of Genesis 7:11, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (NKJV) Earthquakes occurred at the same time water poured down from Heaven. The deep is the abyss where water on earth Is stored underground.
Heaven opening up can also be a blessing and not in the form of judgement, as in Psalm 78:23. Even though, in Exodus 16, the Israelites were complaining in the wilderness and were going against God by rebelling and testing Him in their hearts by asking for food they desired, food they had in Egypt, God still blessed them with manna and pheasant meat. Interestingly, they were in the Wilderness of Sin.
Exodus 16:1-3, And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which, is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt .
Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out Into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (NKJV)
Even though the whole congregation complained and accused in one accord, the whole congregation was blessed, none were left out, just as the whole congregation on Noah’s day was blessed. Even though Noah had a very small congregation, his family was still blessed while judgement was falling from Heaven on the rest of the world. Noah, just like the children of Israel in the wilderness, deserved to be destroyed because of his sinful nature, But Noah found grace In the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:8 NKJV)
Another who found favor in the eyes of God was Lot. His family was blessed while judgement was falling on other parts of the world. Lot and Noah were both preachers in the towns in which they lived. Lot said in Genesis 19:19, “Indeed now, your servant has found favor In your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.” (NKJV)
The phrase in your sight, the word sight comes from the Hebrew word ayin (Strong’s Hebrew 5869) and means an eye, a fountain. Both Noah and Lot were overcomers. In the face of adversity, surrounded by evil that was facing soon coming judgement, Noah and Lot still preached the truth. Though the evil around them threatened to devour good like a roaring lion, God offered each person and their family a safe escape from judgement, along with specific instructions on how to escape to safety, lest some evil overtake them and they die.
Noah was told exactly how to build the ark, which was a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah. Lot was given specific instructions on how to escape the judgement falling from Heaven. Lot and his daughters escaped while Lot’s wife did not follow the instructions and was turned into a pillar of salt. Genesis 19: 20-26, Lot said, “See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he [an angel of the Lord] said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoke. Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar [little or insignificant]. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew [devastated] those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (NKJV)
While Noah was given an ark to bring his family to safety, Lot was given a city called Zoar, which means Little or Insignificant. Lot’s wife not escaping to safety while Lot did escape to safety is a foreshadowing of what Jesus talked about in Matthew 24:40-51, “Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour [day] our Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man Is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then Is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season [at the right time]? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (NKJV)
Revelation 21:5-8, Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It Is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things [I shall give him these things], and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (NKJV)
Sorcerers, or pharmakos in Greek, does not simply mean what many people think it means. The word only appears 3 times in the Bible, all in the Book of Revelation (9:21, 21:8, 22:15). It Is the word from which we get the word pharmacists and It means drug dealers.
Revelation 9:13-21, Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horseman was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power was in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by the plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries [DRUGS] or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (NKJV)
I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. (Revelation 21:6 NKJV) This verse in Revelation was foreshadowed by Jesus as He talked with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4:10, Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who It is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. (NKJV)
Jesus had just asked the Samaritan woman woman for a drink of water previously in John 4:5-9, So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. (NKJV)
