“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was tohu va’vohu – without form and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep…” (Gen. 1:1-2). The sages comment that knowing that God created the heavens and the earth makes us realize that by themselves earthly things are without purpose and substance, since life in the natural world is havel havalim (הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים), “vanity of vanities,” apart from the design (form) and the substance of God. Faith in the upper “world” of God, that is, the heavenly realm, therefore evokes a sense of discontent and longing within the soul, and the temporal world and its pleasures will seem distracting and empty. This lack of form and emptiness was part of the original design of creation, however, since it was after God had created the universe that “he saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Just as we cannot see light but by means of it we see other things, so with Yeshua, the Light of Life, the Form and Substance of God… By His illumination we are able to see the spiritual reality of God’s Presence and invincible love… Yeshua is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). He is the Fountain of Life: by his light we see light (Psalm 36:9). Amen, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
…
Note that some teachers claim that there was a “gap” in time between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2 in which the devil rebelled and a cosmic war between good and evil occurred that resulted in the fall of Satan. According to this view, God “started over” by saying yehi ohr, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). There is no textual evidence for such a gap, however, and indeed there are reasons to reject this view as mistaken. First, the Ten Commandments state that God created all that existed – including time, space, angels – in six days (Exod. 20:11; John 1:3). Second, the devil could not have fallen before the creation since he was created “an anointed covering cherub” while in the original paradise (see Ezek. 28:13-15). Third, the taunt of the fall of the King of Babylon prefigured the fall of Satan, where the pride of the evil one was exposed: “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’ (Isa. 14:13-14). Notice that the desired ascent was above the stars, above the clouds, etc., all of which were created when God made the expanse (Gen. 1:14-18). Finally, the Scriptures state that there was no sin or death until man brought them into the world (Rom. 5:12), and, since Torah tells us everything was very good at the end of the creation week (Gen. 1:31), Satan must have fallen after Adam was created.
…