And therefore the Lord is called the "Redeemer," the "Former from the womb," the "Maker," and also the "Creator;" as in the same Prophet:—
I am Jehovah your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King (xliii. 15).
In David:—
The people that is created shall praise Jah (Ps. cii. 18).
Again:
Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the faces of the ground (Ps. civ. 30).
That "heaven" signifies the internal man; and "earth" the external man before regeneration, may be seen from what follows.
17. Verse 2. And the earth was a void and emptiness, and darkness was upon the faces of the deep (abyssi); and the Spirit of God was brooding upon the faces of the waters. Before his regeneration, man is called the "earth void and empty," and also the "ground" wherein nothing of good and truth has been sown; "void" denotes where there is nothing of good, and "empty" where there is nothing of truth. Hence comes "thick darkness," that is, stupidity, and an ignorance of all things belonging to faith in the Lord, and consequently of all things belonging to spiritual and heavenly life. Such a man is thus described by the Lord through Jeremiah:—
My people is stupid, they have not known Me; they are foolish sons, and are not intelligent; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and lo a void and emptiness, and the heavens, and they had no light (iv. 22, 23).
18. The "faces of the deep" are the cupidities of the unregenerate man, and the falsities thence originating, of which he wholly consists, and in which he is totally immersed. In this state, having no light, he is like a "deep," or something obscure and confused. Such persons are also called "deeps," and "depths of the sea," in many parts of the Word, which are "dried up," or " wasted," before man is regenerated. As in Isaiah:—
