Page 28 - SABBATH

turned back from us. And it shall come about in that day," declares Yahweh, "that the
heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be
appalled, and the prophets will be astounded... Your ways and your deeds have
brought these things to you. This is your evil. How bitter! How it has touched your
heart... Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is devastated; suddenly
my tents are devastated, My curtains in an instant. How long must I see the
standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For My people are foolish, they know
me not; they are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are shrewd
to do evil, but to do good they do not know." I looked on the earth, and behold, it was
formless and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the
mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I
looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I
looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were pulled
down before Yahweh, before His fierce anger.

It is evident from the context of this passage that we are reading about the judgment
of Yahweh falling upon those who are disobedient. In the midst of this passage we have a
description of the results of His judgment. The earth is made formless and void, and light
is removed from it. The fruitful land is made a wasteland.
Is there any doubt that what we read in the second verse of Genesis is describing a
similar state of judgment? The phrase “without form and void” occurs in exact repetition
in both of these verses. This understanding of the earth lying in a state of judgment is lost
to much of Christianity due to the lack of understanding of the translators, and the
traditions of the day. Most of the popular translations represent the opening verses of
Genesis in the following way. (Note the highlighting)

Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless
and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep...
(NAS)

This erroneous translation makes it sound as if God created the earth as a wasteland,
when in fact He did not. Yahweh did not create the earth to be formless and void and
covered with darkness. It became this way after rebellion occurred and His judgment fell.
The word the translators have erroneously interpreted as and is the Hebrew word wa.
This word is used as a conjunction, and in many other places the translators have rendered
it as but. We see this demonstrated in the very next chapter of Genesis.

Genesis 2:6
But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
(NAS)

The word rendered but in this verse is the same word wa that the translators rendered
as and in Genesis 1:2. Again, as we look at the word rendered was in Genesis 1:2, we see
that it is equally rendered as became in many other instances. The word in the Hebrew is
described in the following manner in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary.