I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
The verse pictures the undoing of the ordered, inhabited world, with the earth emptied, laid waste and desolate, and the heavens dark with no light. Its phrase without form and void means the earth is brought back, at least in part, to its original condition of chaos, confusion and darkness as in the beginning. The verses that follow fill out the picture: mountains tremble, no people remain, birds have fled, fruitful land has become wilderness, and cities are broken down. This desolation depicts the destruction coming upon the whole land in the great day of the Lord, the time of coming trouble, distress and upheaval when human pride is brought low and God's judgments fall.
God's people will be saved out of that distress, for the saints are preserved through the upheavals, and when Christ appears the righteous dead are raised and the living saints are changed and taken together to meet the Lord, leaving the earth desolate behind them. The verse thus describes the earth as it remains after the end-time judgments when the wicked are destroyed, a broken and emptied wilderness with its familiar order and life gone. That desolate earth will be Satan's home during the thousand years, where he and his angels are confined, and where he confronts the effects of his rebellion and the curse he caused.
The verse pictures the undoing of the ordered, inhabited world, with the earth emptied, laid waste and desolate, and the heavens dark with no light. Its phrase without form and void means the earth is brought back, at least in part, to its original condition of chaos, confusion and darkness as in the beginning. The verses that follow fill out the picture: mountains tremble, no people remain, birds have fled, fruitful land has become wilderness, and cities are broken down. This desolation depicts the destruction coming upon the whole land in the great day of the Lord, the time of coming trouble, distress and upheaval when human pride is brought low and God's judgments fall.
God's people will be saved out of that distress, for the saints are preserved through the upheavals, and when Christ appears the righteous dead are raised and the living saints are changed and taken together to meet the Lord, leaving the earth desolate behind them. The verse thus describes the earth as it remains after the end-time judgments when the wicked are destroyed, a broken and emptied wilderness with its familiar order and life gone. That desolate earth will be Satan's home during the thousand years, where he and his angels are confined, and where he confronts the effects of his rebellion and the curse he caused.