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what might a 'formless and empty' world look like in today's challenges, and how might divine action address it?

Adds the setting and its conversation across both testaments.

Genesis 1:2

“The earth was waste and void; and darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

This verse describes the state of the world before creation truly began, setting the scene for God's subsequent acts of bringing order, light, and life. It's part of a foundational story about the origins of the cosmos and humanity, written to an ancient Israelite audience.

What forms of 'waste and void' in our world and within ourselves do we tend to ignore, and what does it take to acknowledge them?

Then — the setting

Genesis 1:2 is a foundational text written in ancient Israel, likely during or after the Babylonian exile (6th-5th centuries BCE). It addressed a people who had experienced profound chaos and displacement. In contrast to prevailing Near Eastern creation myths that depicted a chaotic struggle between gods, this account presents a single God effortlessly bringing order out of an initial 'waste and void' (Hebrew: 'tohu va-vohu'). This would have offered a powerful message of hope and God's sovereignty over disorder.

Across the Testaments

The Old Testament, specifically Genesis 1, sets the stage with God bringing order out of a primordial 'formless and empty' chaos through speech and presence ('Spirit hovering'). The New Testament picks up this theme, but often shifts the focus from cosmic creation to spiritual re-creation. For instance, in John 1:1-5, Jesus, the Word, is presented as actively involved in creation, bringing life and light into darkness. The concept of God's Spirit bringing new life from spiritual 'void' is prominent in passages like Romans 8, where the Spirit gives life to mortal bodies and renews creation, echoing the life-giving power of the Spirit in Genesis 1.

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Isaiah 45:18
States that God did not create the earth to be waste and void, but formed it to be inhabited, offering a theological reflection on Genesis 1.
Job 26:7
Describes God stretching out the north over empty space and hanging the earth on nothing, reflecting a different ancient Israelite poetic view of cosmic order.
2 Corinthians 4:6
Connects God's original command for light to shine out of darkness with the light of the knowledge of God shining in human hearts.

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