Void! meet God
We commence a series on biblical divine encounters: the scenarios, actions, consequences and what we can learn from them. All encounters will be based on what the bible says and inferences from the author. Divine encounters are mostly situations where God or angels meet select women and men. However, some human – human meetings are so spectacular that they can also be regarded as divine, for example, an encounter between Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus was so important, according to events discussed in the book of Esther, because it prevented the assassination of the Jewish nation.
The first encounter we will discuss in detail is the first one mentioned in the bible.
“That (Christ) was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world… But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” NKJV John 1
The Bible begins with the very first divine encounter:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” Genesis 1:1-3
The earth is described as void and without form until God stepped in to beautify (...Because when he was done, He called everything He made on earth ‘Beautiful’).
An analogy of Man
Genesis 1 presents a direct analogy to the life of a (wo)man, although we all are created by God, life is without form and void until God’s spirit steps in. But how can God create something that is imperfect: formless and void? Drawing on another analogy to illustrate this: think of the process of building a house and transforming it into a purposeful and livable home, there is the initial development of a structure which is called the house. On completion of construction, the house is barely livable even though specific spaces may have been carved out, it is also dirty with remnants of building materials lying everywhere – in other words formless, because a habitable place has not taken shape. Although filled with dirt and numerous other objects such as construction materials, the house is empty of items required to make it suitable for its required purpose (for example a residence), we can compare this to being void.
We have established that it is possible for a (often beautiful) structure to exist yet be without form and void – not being equipped for purposeful use.
When God stepped into the situation (Genesis 1 vs. 3), He spoke the word and said, “Let there be Light”. There is no coincidence that “word” and “light” are also used to describe Christ in the new testament. The light that God spoke into being was transformational, it was required for the beautification of the world – for plants to grow, man & animals to see, that light was required to create life on the earth.
The most important encounter anyone can have is one with God through his word. Yes, there are many who have not met God and live lives filled with items and beautiful from outside, yet we see that these do not preclude those lives from being formless and void. Christ is the light required to transform an ordinary existence into something beautiful and fit to fulfill God’s purpose. As it was in the beginning, so it now is, God can transform the most formless void into a beautiful world.
