What Happened on the Cross. Nick Peros
tells us he clothed the heavens with darkness: “I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering” (NIV). To clothe the heavens with darkness means the darkness was applied to the heavens after they were created. This verse also continues to tell us God made sackcloth the covering of the heavens. Sackcloth is always used throughout the Bible to represent suffering and hardship, so when we are told God clothed the heavens with darkness, and then equating that with giving the heavens a covering of sackcloth, it clearly denotes the heavens, the universe, is suffering under God’s wrath. This suffering of the universe is further evidenced in the following verses from Romans 8:19–22:
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (NIV)
This passage in Romans tells us creation itself is currently subject to suffering and is in bondage to decay, waiting eagerly for its liberation. This is the same suffering and bondage of creation as seen in Genesis 1:2, as evidenced by the darkness engulfing the earth, which is the same darkness that also engulfs the entire universe. That entire darkness—the darkness engulfing the earth in Genesis 1:2, and the darkness filling the entire universe—was the result of God’s curse upon the earth and upon the entire creation.
Isaiah 45:18 affirms God did not create either the earth or the universe in that cursed condition, rather, they became that way after they were created. This is clearly affirmed across many translations. Here are three different translations of Isaiah 45:18 to illustrate this; regardless of the translation, they all tell us the same thing:
For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited. (NIV)
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is the God who formed the earth and made it, he established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited). (NASB)
For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. (NLT)
Across various translations, Isaiah 45:18 clearly tells us God did not create the earth as an empty wasteland of chaos. He did not create it to be uninhabitable. God created the earth, in Genesis 1:1, as perfect and as habitable for man. The earth became a cursed and empty wasteland afterward. This truth is also affirmed by the description of the earth in Jeremiah 4:23–27, where the formless emptiness of the earth is connected directly to the wrath of God.
Psalm 97 and Psalm 18—God Surrounded by Darkness
In Psalm 97, we are told the following:
The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
his lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth. (Ps 97:1–5 NIV)
These verses tell us “clouds and thick darkness” surround God. Doesn’t this tell us darkness is a natural part of God’s very own presence, where he is surrounded by “thick darkness?” Isn’t this is a description of God reigning, a description of his glory and therefore something over which the earth should be glad? Does this not then mean that darkness is good? In fact it does not. As we continue to read, the thick darkness which is surrounding God in these verses is completely tied to his wrath and to the destruction of his enemies, as we are told in verses 3–4:
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
his lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The darkness described in Psalm 97 is related inextricably to the wrath which God pours out upon his foes, a wrath which sees the very earth tremble, and the mountains melt. The darkness of Psalm 97 is inextricably tied in with the wrath, or judgment, of God. We see the same thing in Psalm 18:7–15:
The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.” (NIV)
We are told here that God makes “darkness his covering, his canopy around him” (v. 11). Once again, if darkness is the result of the wrath or curse of God, then how can God make darkness “his covering?” Does this not mean that darkness is part of the very presence of God himself? No, it does not, for as we continue to read, we are told once again that, in this context of Psalms 18, God “thundered from heaven” and that he “shot his arrows and scattered the enemy.” Therefore, as with Psalm 97, the darkness described here as covering the LORD is inextricably connected with God visiting judgment upon the enemy by way of the outpouring of his wrath.
We see then, without exception, throughout the Bible darkness is always and only the result of God’s wrath, the result of his curse and of his judgment. As a result, we know this is therefore also certainly true of the darkness that covers the earth in Genesis 1:2. The very fact the earth in Genesis 1:2 was covered in darkness is witness to the fact the earth was cursed.
The Curse of the Global Ocean
In addition to the darkness that is covering the earth in Genesis 1:2, there are two other elements present upon the earth—one of which is the global ocean that completely covers the earth. In the Bible, the sea always represents the judgment of God. One of the primary reasons oceans are a curse upon the earth is they make all the areas they cover completely uninhabitable to man. Also, throughout the Bible, God uses seas and oceans to visit judgment upon peoples as well as upon the earth.
This, of course, is most clearly seen in Genesis 6–7, where God destroyed Earth by means of the flood. The flood, the global ocean, was God’s judgment upon the earth. Also, the beast in Revelation 13 arises from the sea, which is to say it rises from a place of judgment (Rev 13:1). Pharaoh’s entire army was obliterated by the Red Sea, the judgment of God upon Egypt (Exod 15:4).
Furthermore,