Beginning today with the question, was hell created by God or by man? Before answering I will tell all – this is one of the most foundational understandings in realizing the character of God. The question stipulates that hell exists, and is a place where man is separated from God in a state of constant torment by total confusions and disorder.
Today’s discussion continues from our having gained the understanding that heaven is, as we are told in Genesis 1:8, the firmament where the waters are separated. The waters being the word (counsel) of God delivered to man on the earth, and from rightly dividing the word the waters above are separated from the waters below. This dividing signifies the waters above as the counsel of God and the waters below are the corrupted ideas and opinions (creations) of man. God’s counsel is what produces understanding and an order yielding peace. Abandoning this wisdom and replacing it with the waters below produces the opposite conditions of confusion, the inevitable disorder, and their only possible state of torment.
This is what we are told in Genesis of the earth becoming without form, and void. As we’ve discussed many times, the Hebrew words are hayah tohuw bohuw, and the phrase only occurs three times in the Word of God. In both of the other cases it tells of the condition produced as result of being led by men void of God’s wisdom.
In Jeremiah 4:23 tohuw bohuw are translated exactly the same as in Genesis 1, “without form, and void,” as the LORD describes the fallen condition of His people resulting from their having become foolish. In reading the passage we see we are also told of this being the alarm sounded by the trumpet, and later of it being as the birth pains of a woman who is bringing forth her first born child. We see all the cities have been emptied and thereby we know this as the women in the wilderness we read of in Revelation 12, which we have thoroughly discusses. We also see the idea of leaving the city of corruption, which we have also greatly elaborated on in many recent posts.
Jeremiah 4
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [become ignorant] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
30 And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you cloth yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rent your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.
31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
The third use of the phrase is as we know found in Isaiah 34:11 where the words are instead translated as “confusion” and “emptiness.” The chapter begins with the LORD speaking to all the earth, and telling of all its nobles and high places being as the hosts of heaven rolled up as scroll [places were God’s light was supposed to reside shining His glory on earth as just governing,] and all being found in a state confusion and emptiness. This is the condition of the earth without God’s counsel, thereby producing a world in/of torment.
Isaiah 34
1 Come near, you nations, to hear; and hearken, you people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven [rightly dividing the waters:] behold, it shall come down upon Idumea [those who have sold the birthright for mere morsels,] and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch [their corrupted waters,] and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit it has gathered them.
17 And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
The word tohuw bohuw describe the hell man creates by his vain hand in the earth, and into which first comes God’s Spirit to move upon the face of the deep. These are waters that exist in the earth but have been forced into the deep by compounding layers of progressive ignorance by neglect. It is where the Spirit goes, into this deep bringing (raising) up the Word (waters) of God’s and light in again seen in a world now only knowing darkness.
The word translated “deep” in Genesis 1:2 is the Hebrew word thowm, meaning abyss.
Here is the definition from the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Strong’s #8415: thowm (pronounced teh-home’) or thom {teh-home’}; (usually feminine) from #1949 [huwm; to make an uproar or greatly agitate;] an abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water-supply):–deep (place), depth.
Thowm is next used in Genesis 7:11 to tell of the great “deep” that was broken up and from which came the flood, along with the window in heaven being opened, in the deluge.
Before looking at a few other descriptions of this deep as the place from where God both stores and releases His hidden treasures, to create the new world as He overflows the man caused confusion and chaos with His understanding and peace found in His waters, we need to again read and see it in 2 Peter 3.
2 Peter 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the LORD and Savior:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Friends, men incrementally abandoning God’s wisdom cause the darkness in the earth; in doing man creates his own confusion, chaos and a never-ending cycle of self-inflicted torment (hell.) The LORD brings this to light now to both tell us He has started us (man) on this course back to Him, but also as a warning that we can’t build the city thinking it will last if we leave Him out. Man is the one that must open the door if the city is to stand.
Let’s proceed by looking at the word thowm used in Isaiah 51:10 to tell of the way the LORD makes for us, His ransomed, to pass over. It tells of this being the way of our returning to Zion, the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem of the LORD. We know from the previous post that Isaiah 52 being by calling us to awake. It is telling of us awakening to the voice of the LORD, as Isaiah 51 tells of the LORD awakening as in the days of old, to redeem His ransomed possessions (us.)
Isaiah 51
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who are you, that you shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD your God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, You are my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus saith your LORD the LORD, and your God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
Job 38 is the LORD speaking of this boundary He has set, where the proud of the earth shall proceed no further. The word thowm is used first in verse 16 where He asks who has walked in search of these “depths,” as He also speaks of what springs from the sea. The language is referring of the waves that break of the shore as those things brought up from the depths are there revealed. Earlier in verse 11 it alludes to these shores being where the proud are by design stopped.
Thown is later used in verse 30 to tell of the waters hid as a stone, and of the face of the deep being frozen. These are spoken of in the context of the waters that are released and cause things in the earth to spring to life by satisfying a desolate ground.
The stone the waters are hidden with is Christ as in the stone/Rock in the wilderness from where the waters gushed forth.
1 Corinthians 10
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Job 38
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you knows? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it [its protective wrapping,]
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.
19 Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
20 That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?
22 Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28 Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 Canst you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Canst you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst you guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? canst you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34 Canst you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Canst you send lightning, that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
(None shall leave my table hungry.)
Psalm 127
1 Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
