"Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, and how faint is the word we hear!" (Job 26:14, NAB)
Ancient Inhabited Earth Spoiled Then Renewed
In the beginning, God created the Earth to be inhabited. Isaiah 45:18 makes this very clear and shows that God also moulded it into the shape he wanted. After the original creation, this planet was not a ruin, but it later became ruined because of a catastrophe. Sometimes, an English word chosen by translators blunts the full significance of Scripture. In those cases, it is easier to understand exactly what the Lord intended to convey by looking up the meaning of key Hebrew words. Examine this scripture closely. In the King James Version of the Bible, we find Isaiah saying,
For thus saith the LORD that created (bara, created a new thing) the heavens; God himself that formed (yatsar, moulded into a form, as a potter does) the earth and made (asah, fashioned, prepared) it; he hath established (kun, formed) it, he created (bara) it not in vain (tohu, ruin), he formed (yatsar, moulded into a form) it to be inhabited.
As Genesis starts out, "IN the beginning God created (bara) the heaven (literally, heavens) and the earth." This was a long long time ago. The Earth itself is very old. Then sometime later, but before Adam was created, "earth was (hajah, had become) "without form (tohu, ruin), and void (bohu, empty); and darkness was upon the face of the deep." This catastrophe was the result of divine judgment upon Satan and his angelic followers, the demons.
At that point, all landmasses must have been underwater. No wonder seashells are scattered worldwide. The Concordant version translates the second verse in the Bible so it's meaning is apparent: "Yet the earth became a chaos and vacant, and darkness was on the surface of the submerged chaos." Even today, if the land was smooth, it would be drowned in a sea two miles deep.
Divine Judgment Against Satan's Planet Satan's planet Rahab, once located between Mars and Jupiter, was destroyed by divine judgment. Evidently, a stray rock split Rahab into the shards we now call the Asteroid Belt. Before Adam was created, at least one piece of Rahab struck the Earth and split the Sea. So that you can be sure that this is true, I will try to tell the story, as much as possible, with direct quotes from various translations of Scripture in my collection, picking those that make the meaning the clearest. Job 26:11-14 in the Jerusalem Bible gives us some valuable information about Satan's planet:
The pillars of the heavens tremble, awe-struck at his (the Lord's) threats. By his power, he has whipped up the Sea (on Earth), by his skill, he has crushed Rahab (Satan's planet). His breath has made the heavens luminous (the blackness of space lit up by the impact explosion), his hand transfixed the Fleeing Serpent (Satan). This is only a fraction of what he has done and all we catch of it is the feeblest echo.
Since we only hear the feeblest echo of what has happened to the ancient worlds, we must pay very close attention to what information we are given. Isaiah 51:9,10 in the Lamsa Bible says,
Awake, awake (this type of thing will happen again at the end of our age), put on strength, O arm of the LORD (the pre-incarnate Christ); awake as in the ancient days, as in the generations of old. Surely it was thou that didst decree a severe sentence (that resulted in the destruction of Rahab) that didst slay (chalal, bore, wound) the dragon (Satan). It was thou that didst dry the sea (on Earth), the waters of the great deep.
Psalm 89:9-14 (KJV) gives us another echo of what has happened:
Thou rulest the raging of the sea (on Earth): when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces (in the heavens), as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies (Satan and his fallen angels) with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them...Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.
By this act of judgment, the Lord "has made peace in his heavens...Behold, even the moon cannot be justified (it contains pieces of Rahab and Earth); yea, the stars are not pure in his sight" (Job 25:2-5, Lamsa Bible). In the middle of the Tribulation, the wicked angels will be driven out of the heavens. At the end of our age, a similar judgment will precede true peace on Earth, and Christ will begin his reign as "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" by purging his kingdom of the wicked.
That the splitting of Satan's planet and the dividing of Earth's sea are related events can be seen in Job 26:7-13:
He (the Lord) stretcheth out the north over the empty place (the far north is empty of stars), and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end (the waters will break through briefly on the day of darkness at the end of this age). The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea (on Earth) with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud (Hebrew, rahab). By his spirit he that garnished (shiphrah, made bright) the heavens; his hand hath formed (chuwl, twisted with a whirlwind, or pierced) the crooked (bariyach, fugitive, fleeing) serpent.
The translators must not have understood that the Hebrew word Rahab was the name of Satan's planet. In the Septuagint, the Greek scriptures used in Jesus' day, Job 26:5-27:1 gives us this parable,
Shall giants (Green's Interlinear, 'departed spirits') be born from under the water and the inhabitants thereof? Hell is naked before him...The pillars of heaven are prostrate and astonished at his rebuke. He has calmed the sea with his might, and by his wisdom the whale (Hebrew: rahab) has been overthrown. And the barriers (pillars) of heaven fear him, and by a command he has slain the apostate dragon. Behold, these are parts of his ways...Job...said in his parable.
The Order of Events
The order of events seems to have been Rahab crushed, Satan pierced, our sea cleft, and the Moon established. Isaiah 51:9-16 in the New English Bible presents the first three to us in this order. It says,
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O arm of the LORD (the pre-incarnate Christ, the 'LORD of Hosts'), awake as you did long ago, in days gone by, Was it not you who (1) hacked the Rahab in pieces and (2) ran the dragon through? Was it not you who (3) dried up the sea, the waters of the great abyss...the LORD of Hosts is my name. I cleft the sea and its waves roared, that I might fix (nata, fasten, set) the heavens in place and form (yacad, settle, establish the foundations of) the earth.
The heavens were fixed in place at this time, including the Sun, Moon and planets as viewed from Earth. Our Heaven is now, according to Paul, the third heaven (II Corinthians 12:2). The form of the Earth here includes bringing dry land up out of the primordial waters.
The means by which this was accomplished was simple. I believe that an asteroid, a broken piece of Satan's planet Rahab, struck the Earth, caused thick darkness and scooped the Moon out of what is now our Pacific Basin. The waters drained quickly into the chasm, eroding great canyons in what had been the soft seabed in their mad rush and exposing new land masses to the drying wind. In the New American Bible, Genesis 1:9 says,
'Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so the dry land may appear.' And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.
Other scriptures that show what happened to the sea are found in Job 38:4-15 and Psalms 104:4-9:
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?...or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars (planets seen in the morning sky) sang together, and all the sons of God (inhabitants of the morning stars) shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it has issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place (the Pacific Basin).(KJV)
You make the winds your messengers, and flaming fire your ministers. You fixed the earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever; With the ocean, as with a garment, you covered it; above the mountains the waters stood. At your rebuke they fled, at the sound of your thunder (the impact explosion) they took to flight; As the mountains rose, they (the waters) went down the valleys to the place (the Pacific Basin) you had fixed for them (NAB).
The impact explosion caused mountains to be punched up in various places on this globe. Also, where I live, inland near the west coast, some mountains look exactly as though an enormous conglomeration of loose soil and rock was dumped, along with great broken striated slabs, from the sky. The ridges and peaks look sharp as if the material rained down from above. Huge rounded rock forms also lay everywhere like muddy blobs thrown out of the pervasive sea by the explosion. Many obviously split upon impact, with severed pieces in close proximity. Some snake in a line across the flat land and up the side of a hill as if dropped at the same time as a percussion wave lost strength.
In the Amplified version of Isaiah 51:15,16, the Lord tells us,
I am the Lord your God, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, and by rebuke restrains it...I have...covered you in the shadow of My hand, that I may fix the new heavens as a tabernacle, and lay the foundations of a new earth.
New heavens and new Earth mean the renovation of pre-existing things. This will also be necessary after Christ returns, and for the same reason, a stone will come zinging out of the heavens and smash into the Earth. The source of both stones is the split planet Rahab. A stone hit before the first Adam arrived. Another will hit before the "second Adam" comes back. The reference to the new heavens "as a tabernacle" is significant. I can't go into it here, but the secret God hid in the Tabernacle shows us where our Heaven is located. I have explained this in detail in my book, "Heaven Found, A Butter and Honey Star."
I believe that extra space between Mars and Jupiter that separates the terrestrial from the giant planets was formed when Rahab was broken into pieces. This space is filled with debris. Because of the low mass, our astronomers have now figured out that many asteroids must be piles of loosely held together rubble.
Mars is scarred badly on one side, probably from the pelting she took when Rahab blew apart. It seems likely that most of her water and atmosphere were blown away at this time also.
The splitting of Satan's planet is also associated with Earth being hammered into shape. Isaiah 42:5 in the Jerusalem Bible speaks of "Yahweh, who created (bara) the heavens and spread them out, who hammered into shape the earth."
When the asteroid strikes Babylon at the end of this age, it is called a hammer. Jeremiah 50:22-25 (KJV) says,
A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
Bringing dry land up out of the waters preceded the appearance of the moon because the darkness had to be dispelled before the moon could be seen. God's "Let there be light" was necessary. Psalm 136:6-9 (KJV) mentions "him that stretched out the earth above the waters...That made (asah, fashioned, prepared) great lights...The sun to rule by day...The moon and stars to rule by night."
It looks like the material comprising the moon was thrown up when the asteroid impacted Earth. Psalm 74:12-17 (KJV) says,
God...Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters....The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared (kuwn, stood perpendicular, heaped up, established) the light (maor, light giver, the moon) and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders (gebuwlah, regions) of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter (by tilting Earth's axis with the asteroid impact).
The Confraternity version of this Psalm has, "...you brought dry land out of the primeval waters...you fashioned the moon and the sun. You fixed all the limits of the land; summer and winter you made."
Isaiah 42:5 shows that something came out of the Earth. Isaiah said,
Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it (i.e., the Moon).
It is no surprise to me that scientists have now found water on the moon. A frozen pond eight miles deep nestles deep inside a crater at the south pole. This discovery was made by the Clementine moon-mapping project. The spacecraft used radar to examine the depths of the deep craters.
Do we have any clue that could indicate when this catastrophe took place? Just maybe we do. Job 26:5,6,11-13 in the NASB says,
The departed spirits tremble Under the waters and their inhabitants. Naked is Sheol before Him And Abaddon has no covering...He obscures the face of the full moon, And spreads His cloud over it ...The pillars of heaven tremble, and are amazed at His rebuke. He quieted the sea with His power, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab. By His breath the heavens are cleared. His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.
When Adam was created, it was the time of the new moon, for the day God rested was Tishri 1 on the Jewish Calendar. Therefore, since the catastrophe was at the time of the full moon, it might have been about two weeks before Adam's creation. In Genesis 1:2 (Concordant version), we see that as restoration began, the earth had become "a chaos and vacant and darkness was on the surface of the submerged chaos."
Genesis 1:2 in the New American Bible says that "a mighty wind swept over the waters." As God's restoration project began on Earth, it was still dark, extremely windy and the seas had not yet completed their mad dash for the Pacific Basin as the mountains rose. It was the third day when God said,
Let the waters under the heaven(s) be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas (KJV).
Therefore, this catastrophe might not have taken place very long before the restoration week of Genesis. The date on the Jewish Calendar could have been about Elul 14 (i.e., early September, 4043 B.C.).
Cherubim and the Flaming Sword
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© 1996, 1997 Marilyn J. Agee
Updated 8-3-97