If you ask what is the first thing God created, the usual response is "light." But what is interesting is that even before God begins creating with his Word there is already substance, water that is. The phrase "the deep" (Tehom, Strongs #8415), always refers to water in the Bible, either the ocean or subterranean reservoirs. The following verse confirms this, as it says God's Spirit moved "upon the face of the waters." So even before God began the creation cycle, there was already water existing from.... somewhere? This should not be interpreted as our earthly water, but symbolic of the unstructured ocean of chaos the universe was. When God began the creation cycle with light, he did not create from nothing, but from preexisting substance.
Even the light which came on the first day would be emitted from God himself, not created out of nothing. The creation described in John 1:4 says "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." When God said "let there be light" he was releasing his own light into the world, not creating new light. We know this because light is created on day 1 but the sun and moon are created on day 4. So it is not a natural material light being created, but God shining his own light into the dark universe and its sea of chaos to bring order.
Genesis 1:1-4 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Most of God's creation has to do more with dividing and ordering as opposed to creating out of nothing. First, God "divided" the light from darkness. Second, God separated the waters above from the waters below. Thirdly he called the waters to gather into one place so that dry land would appear, separating the two. Fourth, in verse 14, God creates the heavenly lights to "divide the day from the night." Rather than creating something out of nothing, God creates order from chaos, bringing in boundaries, divisions, and separating elements.
Genesis is not the only creation story with preexisting waters. Neighboring nations had a similar understanding and plenty of ancient religions and mythologies used the same model of a cosmic ocean. Moses, the author of Genesis, was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" and so would have had access to the heritage of the world's best knowledge. God would have inspired Moses by highlighting the portions of that knowledge which were true.
The Egyptians recognized a god "Nun," of the primordial ocean which came before any other gods. The Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish, also tells of the ocean of chaos, named "Tiamat," having its substance used for creation. The chaos monster Tiamat is "divided" by the gods and its body used to create the universe. The Bible has its own being, Leviathan, associated with the sea, with which God has done battle: Psalms 74:14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
This creature is also a primordial being because Job 40:19 says Leviathan was the "first" thing created by God. Since the great ocean was already existing before creation, it makes sense that God creates Leviathan first to oversee it, and this being later rebelled against God and went rogue.
As created beings with definite beginnings we have trouble imagining God's state of having always existed, not having ever "came into existence" at a certain time. We accept this however, both because God says it and also because it is the only possibility there is. Yet if we can accept that God existed with no beginning, why do we have trouble believing an ocean of unformed chaos and swirling material could also have always existed alongside God? For God to create using words, there first had to exist something which could respond to and obey those words. If God simply spoke to empty space, there would exist nothing to hear and obey his words which ordered and gave life to creation. So beneath Him in eternity was an ocean, but one which bothered Him because He could not see His reflection in it. An ocean of darkness without his image or divine order. The unformed subsatnce of the earth also existed but was submerged "formless and void" with darkness covering the surface of the waters before God began the creation process by speaking "let there be light."
2 Peter 3:5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
Saltwater vs Fresh
Since creation began with the ocean of chaos, we should look at why biblically saltwater is cursed compared to fresh "living" water.
James 3:10-11 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My -brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
The Bible uses the term "living water" to describe freshwater. These rivers were the source of life to ancient nations, which were always based across freshwater rivers; Egypt itself was a long strip-shaped nation for the reason that it could directly follow the Nile river.
Saltwater on the other hand, is always associated with the demonic realm. Not only biblically but also in the modern world where the ocean is a dumping ground for all sorts of toxic waste around the world, since nations only control the portion near their borders and the rest is not policed nearly as strictly.
In Daniel's vision, the sea of chaos is where the demonic beasts empowering the heathen nations emerge from:
Daniel 7:2-3 "Daniel declared: "In my vision in the night I looked, and suddenly the four winds of heaven were churning up the great sea. Then four great beasts came up out of the sea, each one different from the others"
Revelation 13 mentions the primary beast, the antichrist, as coming up out of the sea.
Revelation 17:1 Mentions the great harlot mystery Babylon as a woman "sitting on many waters."
The Philistines, Israel's primary archnemesis, were a marine kingdom, taking the strip of land near the sea and thus being able to access iron technology before the Israelites.
If you look at a map for survey responses on values, people on the coasts always support vile liberal agendas and are only concerned with keeping up with the spirit of the age. Being in the marine spirits territory they are like empty vessels ready to accept whatever ideas the demonic gives them. People in the center of a country tend to be more religious and faithful to wholesome traditional values.
Genesis 2:10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
Ezekiel 47:9-11 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes..... But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.
Here we see the freshwater source God created which proceeds from Eden, to give life to the earth, which opposes the ocean of chaos and controlled by Leviathan which rejects God's order.
We should remember, Genesis does not describe the creation of the physical universe but the creation of his order within our heart and spirit. Let's look at the language the prophet Jeremiah uses to describe Israel's being astray from God:
Jeremiah 4:23 I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light.
Jeremiah was not prophesying at the beginning of creation but around 600B.C., a time in which earth has already been inhabited for millennia with humans spread across earth and powerful kingdoms. Yet Jeremiah uses the language of Genesis, that the earth has become without form and void. The earth did not disappear during this time. The language was always spiritual. "Without form and void" refers to the emptiness in the human soul without God's light and order. By rejecting God and doing their own thing, Israel had returned to this pre-creation state of spiritual darkness and chaos.
The Sea No More
Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
After telling of the new heaven and new earth, the above verse abruptly mentions that there will be "no more sea" in the new creation. It is a quite large detail that is just tagged on to the verse without further explanation. After all, the earth is mostly ocean with dry land being the minority of its surface area. Does God plan to create new territory for humans on the new earth in the basins where the oceans were drained? Or is the "new earth" and entirely new planet with totally different geography? More likely by "no more sea," the author really means no more of anything that is "formless and void" and without God's order. No more of the situation as in Jeremiah, where the state of the nation's soul had reverted to the primordial chaos before they had met God.
Parallel with Noah's Waters
In Genesis it says the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. This is shown by the dove from Noah going over the waters.
Genesis 8:6-9 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him
Here we see the "darkness over the face of the deep" symbolized by the black raven flying to and fro across it. In the book of Job, satan's path, like that of the raven, is described as going "to and fro" across the earth.
Job 1:7 The LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
God banishes satan from heaven, which is shown by the raven which is cast out and does not return to the ark.
"Oreb," Strong's #6158 (raven, named from it's dark color).
"Arab," Strong's #6150 (evening darkness, root word for Raven)
Since the Hebrew name for raven derives from the word for evening darkness, it can be said darkness was released over the face of the deep.
So Genesis 1:2 and the pre-creation waters really covers the same story as the middle of Noah's flood, where the waters are just beginning to recede.
Genesis 1:9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
(This corresponds to where the water recedes and dry land appears for Noah).
God later promises to Noah that seed time and harvest will remain. This is like the next verse in chapter 1 where God creates trees and herbs.
Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
This corresponds to the olive tree the dove found, showing the return of vegetation. Noah's vineyard. Also the promise that "seedtime and harvest.... will not cease."
Genesis 8:15-17 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."
What is in your hand?
God asks Moses, "what is in your hand."
Exodus 4:2-3 And the LORD said unto [Moses], "What is that in thine hand?" And he said, "A rod." And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it."
God first looked to see what Moses already had, then added his power to what was in Moses hand, creating the miracle of the serpent. Moses used this same rod to perform other (water-related) miracles, such as turning the water to blood, crossing the Red Sea, and bringing out water from the rock.
God created Adam from dust and then Eve from Adam's rib:
Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2:21-22 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
In both Adam and Eve's creation, each was first created out of some starting material and not from "nothing."
John 9:6-7 [Jesus] spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man's eyes. Then He told him, "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.
When creating new eyes for the man who was born blind, Jesus used the formative material for Adam, the dust of the earth, and applied it on the man first. Rather than creating ex-nihilo, God much prefers to create from some lowly starting material.
The woman who fed Elijah in 1 Kings 17 started with what little was already in her jar before God continuously multiplied it.
Feeding of 5000 was not from nothing but was from the boy's lunch:
John 6:9-14 ""There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
You would think that with just one kid-size lunch, Jesus may have said it was not worth it and have just done the miracle from nothing. But God always wants to start with something, not matter how common or small that thing is.
"God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called."
God's pattern is not to create something from nothing, but to transform something common into something in his order and to reproduce it. We should not disqualify ourselves from God's service, thinking of lack of talents or lack of resources. Rather, approach God with what little you have, present it for his purpose, and watch the transformation!