He described it as a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. Sounds like a scene from a Sci-Fi movie. Some say it is a description of complete disorder or a picture of absolute chaos, which is true but it is not from a horror movie. This is Eugene Peterson’s contemporary translation of Genesis 1:2 in the Message Bible. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. Like the hands of a potter with a formless lump of clay on a pottery wheel, the Spirit of God hovered over it and created the universe. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters (Gen 1:1, 2 NASV). The story begins even before verse one when there was nothing but God. So, with no pre-existing materials, out of nothing, Ex nihilo, God began the process of creating the heavens and the earth.
Statistics show that one in every ten people feel worthless and hopeless. WebMD reports this is a leading cause of suicide. When a person descends to this level, they believe their life is in such disorder and chaos no one or nothing can help them. If they read verse two, a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness they would think, “Yeah that describes me.” Christians can fail to the extent they think they have messed up so bad that even God can’t help this time. I’ve watched people lose everything—job, marriage, family, home, friends, health, self-respect, etc. They believe life has become meaningless because they have nothing left. Yet, these two verses along with the first words of the next verse, Then God said . . ., speaks volumes to anyone whose life is in a chaotic mess with nothing left and no one to help. The lesson: God can bring something out of nothing and can create a universe out of a formless and void dark soup of nothingness.
It would require pages just to list the chaotic situations found in scripture and how God brought order and restoration. One example of desperation happened when the Assyrian King Sennacherib invaded the tiny nation of Judah and sent a threatening note to King Hezekiah reminding him of what they had done to the nations around Judah and he should surrender. Twenty years earlier Sennacherib had devastated the northern nation of Israel and its capital Samaria taking the citizens into captivity. Even secular accounts show the Assyrians were the cruelest warriors in history. Now, Jerusalem with an estimated population of 25,000 was surrounded by more than 200,000 Assyrian troops. Definitely this presents a scene of chaos and hopelessness. Hezekiah knew only one possibility of hope. He took the letter to the temple laid it before God and prayed. That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (2Ki 19:35, 36 NIV). Order was restored to Judah.
Think about a few other chaotic situations: Nehemiah sees the demolished wall of Jerusalem; five thousand hungry men with only five loaves and two fish; imagine the disciples the night after the crucifixion; Joseph arrives in Egypt led by a chain around his neck and sold as a slave; David hiding from King Saul and the list goes on and on. Yet, note that in each situation, God restored order. The most chaotic life I’ve encountered was Sherry who I briefly mentioned several years ago. I first met her when she came forward for prayer. As I prayed, I told her that God loved her. She stopped me, looked me straight in the eye with the coldest stare and said, “Nobody loves me or has ever loved me.” She was forty at the time and had been on the streets since the age of fourteen. She earned money as a prostitute and fell into drug addiction for the next twenty-six years. I confess I had little hope for her. It took two years of loving ministry from an older couple. The last time I saw her, God had turned her life around and she was free from drugs, smiling, and working as a waitress. One of many I could share.
The primary definition for the word cosmos means an orderly harmonious systematic universe. It is the opposite of chaos. Cosmos can also describe a life or a home that is complete, orderly, and harmonious. You might be reading this and describe your life as formless and void, and dark. You have lost everything and feel hopeless. If God took a formless, void, dark soup of nothingness and created the heavens and the earth—the cosmos, how much more can He bring order to your life and home? Let the Holy Spirit hover over you and bring cosmos out of your chaos (Gen 1v2).
Sustaining Word for the Week: God wants to bring cosmos to all your chaos.