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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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The Three Realms of God’s Creation
Genesis 1
Introduction
On this podcast, we like to explore the strange things tucked away in Scripture. There are so many obscure and unfamiliar passages in your Bible that don’t often get studied, so that’s what we like to shine a light on with this show.
But there’s actually something pretty weird stuff that isn’t tucked away; it’s right there in the opening verses of Genesis. I mean we all know the
first two verses of the Bible:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Right. Everybody knows that. Before there was light, before there was land, before there were dinosaurs, before there was anything else—apparently there was Kevin Costner because we had a Waterworld. It said the planet was totally covered with water. And from there, the Lord started working on creating the attributes of the earth, the beings who would populate that earth, and the astronomical features of our entire universe.
At least, that’s what it sounds like God is doing. But then you also have verses like these:
(Verses 6-7)
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
Well, hold on a second? What is the expanse? What are the waters? Why did some waters stay down here on earth while other waters went up to heaven?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Genesis 1, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
a hint of something deeper
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the three realms of God’s creation.
This was inspired by an email from Alana, one of our resident super weirdos who sent in a message about Genesis 1 on January 1 of last year. Literally a year and a half ago. And she said:
“I'm curious on your thoughts. God separated the waters above from the waters below.”
I didn’t have an answer back then. I think I have one today. And in fact, it’s probably going to take a few weeks to unpack this answer. So if you’re new to the podcast: this is a great place to jump in because we’re kind of starting a new series for the next couple of months on the three tiers of the spiritual realm. But I will say, this first episode is going to be the most abstract—the most big-picture—and we’ll really drill down and make it more concrete in the episodes ahead. Today is very much just introducing the concept for us.
But first, let’s talk about finger quotes. My 7-year old son has discovered finger quotes. That’s the thing you do when you make little quotation marks with your fingers while you’re talking, and you do that whenever what you say verbally isn’t what you mean literally. You actually mean something else. So you put little finger quotes around it to signify that you don’t actually mean the literal word that you’re saying.
So my 7-year-old son has picked up on the concept of finger quotes somewhere. And he even knows the tone of voice to use when you do them. The problem is, he doesn’t quite understand how to properly insert them in a sentence. He just likes to drop finger quotes in on random words. So we’ll be sitting at the dinner table and he’ll say something like, “Can you pass me a (finger quote) napkin, Daddy?” And I’ll be like: “I’m confused. Do you actually want a napkin? I can tell you need a napkin. But are you asking for a napkin or are you asking for something else?”
And he’ll try again: “Can you hand me a napkin, (finger quotes) Daddy?” Well now I’m even more confused. Are you implying I’m not really your dad? What’s going on here?
And the reason I bring this up is because the Bible has a lot of finger quotes in it. The Bible will sometimes say one thing, but it’s actually a code word for something else. Now unfortunately, the biblical Greek and Hebrew had very few punctuation marks; it did not have quotation marks. In fact, the original Hebrew that the bible was written in had no punctuation, no capital letters, and not even any vowels. It was so old, they literally hadn’t even invented vowels yet. The capitalization and punctuation marks you see in your bible today are actually editorializing by the Bible translators. Doesn’t mean they’re wrong- I think they’re usually right- but it’s something to keep in mind as you read your Bible because they can occasionally be misleading.
So I say all that to say this: there are times that your Bible- without warning- slips into code word language. And it can catch you off-guard because there are no punctuation marks, no italics, and no finger quotes to help you figure out when it’s doing this. And sometimes the Bible says one thing literally, but it means something else spiritually or prophetically—and that doesn’t mean that the literal meaning isn’t also true. Both can be true; it can be true literally, but it can also be true in a deeper sense, because your Bible is full of code words and symbols for deeper truths. One verse or one chapter can have multiple levels of meaning and application.
I’ll give a clear example of this before we jump into Genesis 1. Earlier this year I was speaking about Psalm 22, and how this psalm was describing prophetically of Jesus on the cross, even though it was written a thousand years earlier by King David. He said
In Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And then in verses 6-8
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him…”
So David was going through something in his life. What it was, I have no idea. He went through a lot of tough things in his life. But whatever David was dealing with at this time, it caused him to cry out to God for help with these words.
But interestingly, these words from the psalm are the same words of Jesus on the cross, and even the same words others are saying about him in the Gospels.
Also check out verse 16 where it says
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
So as you can see, Psalm 22 is describing the torment of Jesus on the cross. Now, it doesn’t mean that David wasn’t feeling similar emotions as well. Whatever David was dealing with, I’m sure his hands and feet weren’t literally pierced. But amazingly, they were for Jesus a thousand years later. These words were true for David, but even more true for Jesus in a prophetic sense.
And this is how you can tell when the Bible is slipping into this “code word” format. There are some lines in Psalm 22 that might pertain more to David’s situation. And there are some lines in Psalm 22 that might pertain more to Jesus. And there are some lines that pertain perfectly to both.
The Bible is full of moments like this, where the text has one meaning, but it has an even deeper spiritual meaning. The Jews called this a remez, which means “a hint of something deeper.” They called the first meaning—the literal direct meaning—the peshat. And then the second level was the remez: “an allegorical significance; a hint of something deeper.”
Code Words in Genesis
So I’m saying all this to introduce this idea as we observe the verses in Genesis, because I believe there are a lot of code words in the Creation story in these opening chapters of the Bible. Yes, they are about literal things that happened as God created the world. God did create the physical world and universe that we live in. But also, I believe that these words describe how God ordered the spiritual realm that takes place around us.
We actually looked at this a little bit in 2025. One of my most popular episodes last year was called, “Beasts of the Field” and other Biblical Vocabulary for Demons. We observed how the word “beasts” or the phrase “beasts of the field” is often a code word for demonic entities, such as in Genesis 3:1. Not every time. But many times. And if you don’t know how to detect biblical code words, then this will usually go right over your head.
So I want to explore some more biblical code words today in the first 10 verses of Genesis. As I hinted earlier, this might sound a little theoretical or subjective this time as I introduce the idea. But if you bear with me over the next few weeks, I’ll be showing you how consistently the Bible uses this terminology. And once I do, I think it will bring you a fresh new reading of Genesis 1—and not only that, but of the whole Bible.
So let’s look at the creation story today. And don’t worry: if you are a Young Earth Creationist or an Old Earth Creationist or even a theistic evolutionist, I am not really challenging your view today. I am not saying you are wrong or that you’ve been reading the Bible wrong all this time. I mean, I even have my own opinions about all that, and what I’m sharing today is not changing any of them. Genesis 1 is sill about how God created the heavens and the earth. However, there’s something deeper going on in these verses.
So once again: Genesis 1:2
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
The first thing we’re told after God created everything is that the earth was without form and void. This is the Hebrew tohu va bohu. It means unformed, empty, chaos. Chaos is a key word to describe it.
In fact, the latest version of the NRSV translation (the NRSVue) says it this way: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep…”
Jewish author Dinah Dye describes it this way in her book The Greatest Exodus: The Hebrew is tohu v’vohu, and it describes a state of non-existence or disorder. We glimpse a world immersed in a watery grave — no boundaries, no structure, no life. In this shadowy, unpredictable abyss, a hostile force battles divine order. This enemy that looms ready to kill, steal, and destroy? Chaos.
So we see that as the earth began, it was covered with waters of chaos. Chaos means unordered. Water right here is a code word for unformed matter. In other words, it was all the “stuff” God would use to create everything to come. You could call it matter, but I prefer the word “stuff” because it’s so abstract.
Here’s a couple ways that I think could be helpful to think about this. Imagine a tub of legos. All the pieces, all the colors, nothing built, all the different types and sizes of Legos all mixed in together in a big ole tub. It’s material. It’s potential. But you haven’t done anything with it yet. When God first made the world, it was like that. All the material was there. But it wasn’t yet fashioned into anything.
Here’s another way to think of it: Think of how everything in the universe is made up of atoms. (A-T-O-M-S.) The tiny little microscopic infinitesimally small building blocks of everything. We know that everything in the world is made of these little atoms that you can’t even see.
Well when God created the world, I imagine it like a “sea” of atoms. Just all the stuff. But it hadn’t been turned into anything yet. I think that’s a good way to understand it. And that’s basically how the Bible describes it: a sea. Waters. The word “waters” is a biblical code word for all of the unformed “stuff.” That’s a key point. The word “waters” is a biblical code word for all of the unformed “stuff.”
Now why is unformed stuff called “waters”? That’s actually a perfect word to describe it, because water has no shape. Water has no form. Water just assumes the shape of whatever container its in. But if there is no container, then the water just spills out in a mess. And Genesis 1:2 describes a world where there is no container. There’s no tub for these Legos. It’s just all the “stuff” with not borders or boundaries or order to it all. A sea of chaos.
Order Out Of Chaos
Now let’s study what God is doing throughout Genesis 1. God brings order out of chaos. That is how Genesis presents the creation story: God sets boundaries and order to everything.
Genesis 1:3-5
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Notice that God separated the light from the darkness. This speaks of setting up a boundary. A delineation between two things. And separating the light from darkness creates days. Before, everything was all mixed; now we start to have definitions. One thing is not the same as the other thing. Before, there was chaos. Now there’s some order. Boundaries create order. They create definition for us. Through boundaries, God shows us where one thing ends and something else begins.
It’s the same as when I opened my son’s dresser drawer in his room the other day. I popped open this 7-year-old’s top drawer and it was just a sea of chaos. Everything was all mixed together: pants, shirts, shoes, socks, underwear, dinosaur toys, all the way down. I’m like, how do you even find anything in here? There was zero organization. I’m like, this is without form and void.
And so that’s what God was looking at when the earth was unformed. As God organizes things, He brings order to it. Just like my son had to bring had to bring order to his dresser before I brought some chaos to his behind. We gotta have a drawer for shirts and a drawer for pants and a drawer for socks and underwear. Those are boundaries. Boundaries create an organized life. Boundaries bring order out of chaos. That’s what God is doing all through Genesis 1.
Genesis 1:6-8
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The expanse here is something really confusing; some translations call it a firmament. I’m gonna try to talk about the firmament in a month or two so let’s just put a pin in that for now. Today, I just want you to understand that the expanse is the boundary between heaven and earth. So there were waters- unformed stuff. There are (finger quotes) “waters” above and (finger quotes) “waters” below. God took some of the unformed stuff and separated it. The waters above are in heaven. God is going to use it to make the things of heaven.
Verses 9-10
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
God creates more order. He separates the Earth from the Seas. So now we have land and oceans, right? Is that what this is talking about? Yes and no. Yes, you can read this as being about how God formed the earth and how God created continents and oceans and mountains and rivers and so forth. You can read it that way, and God certainly did do all those things.
The Three Realms
But there is a remez going on here. There’s a hint of something deeper. Because when the world was covered with water in verse 2, was that literal water? It was finger-quotes-water. The word “water” there was simply a code word for all of the unformed, uncreated “stuff.” So by the time you get down to verses 9 and 10 and it talks about the waters withdrawing from the earth, why do we think that’s only literal water? I want to show you that it’s not mere water.
Look at verse 8 again:
8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The upper realm is called Heaven. Your translator even slapped a capital H on it. It’s an official title. Now the word “heaven” is somewhat a code word because we can say “heaven” or “the heavens” to mean the sky and space and everything “up.” But we also know that “Heaven” can be talking about a different realm than the one we reside in, the Heaven that is God’s home.
Look at verses 9-10 now:
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth [capital E], and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas [capital S].
So as God divided the realms, the part He dried out and put order to was called earth. The part where the waters of chaos remained was called the sea. So now we have three realms: Heaven, Earth, and Sea.
Within our world, we have three layers or levels: the skies, the ground, and the oceans. And these verses work as an explanation of how those things were created. But here’s what is interesting: the spiritual realm also has three tiers. The ancient Jews understood the spiritual realm to actually be three realms.
We all know about heaven and earth. But there’s a third one that doesn’t get as much attention. It’s called Sheol in the Old Testament, also known as the Underworld realm. The place that people went when they died. And keep this in mind as well: The Underworld is not hell. Hell is a place in the Underworld. But the Underworld has multiple locations within it. Hell is just one of them.
So here’s my central thesis today. In Genesis 1, we see three physical realms created with the heavens, the earth, and the seas. And I’m going to propose that the Bible also uses these three physical realms as word pictures or symbols for the three spiritual realms as well: Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. The first two are pretty common knowledge. But the Underworld is more mysterious; it is often referred to as the Sea or with water-related terms in the Bible. And this realm is where all the waters of chaos were relegated in the Creation account.
Because notice in Genesis 1: the “waters” of disorganization and chaos never went away. They were gathered together in a different place. Let me read it one more time:
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place…”
The waters of chaos were gathered to one place. And verse 10:
and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas
Spiritually speaking, the place of chaos is the Underworld. And that’s why this realm is often described in watery terms throughout the Bible. We see it come up a lot in the psalms.
Psalm 18:5 has a prayer of David where He says:
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
And then he speaks of how God saved him from that and says
In verse 16
He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
Sheol is described poetically as a place of many waters. Let’s look at another psalm of David,
Psalm 69:15
Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
“The pit” is talking about Sheol in the Old Testament. So it’s strange imagery to use for the Underworld, right? Because when we think of that place, we often associate it with fire, if anything, right? Not waves and waters. But this is speaking of the sea of waters of chaos.
Psalm 88:6-7 say
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
The word waves there is misbar (mish-bawr) in Hebrew; it literally means “the breaking of sea.”
And a good reference for chaos is found in Job 10’s description of the Underworld.
Job says in verses 21 and 22
21 before I go—and I shall not return—
to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness.
Did you catch that phrase “without any order”? That section mentions the Underworld as a place without order. Some translations like the NET, NRSV, and CSB actually call it a land of chaos. It doesn’t have the basic features of creation, with light separated from darkness. It’s the opposite of Genesis 1. And remember something we’ve talked about on the podcast before: in Old Testament times, this is where everybody expected to go when they died, the righteous and the unrighteous.
Another one of the clearest links is when Jonah prays from the belly of the fish. He talks about how he descends in the waters. Now, we can read that and say, “obviously Jonah is talking about the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.” And that is true in a literal sense. But I wonder if there’s not also a spiritual sense to these words: listen to them:
Jonah 2:1-3
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your breakers and your waves
passed over me.
And I’m not done yet; let’s refer back to Genesis 1. Yes, this chapter describes how God created the Universe. At one level, that’s certainly what it’s talking about. But I believe it’s also discussing how God created the three spiritual realms that the Bible talks about: the Heavenly realm, the Earthly realm, and the Underworld realm. And this Underworld realm is called the Sea- because that’s what it’s called when bunch of waters are gathered together. The Underworld realm is where all of the leftover chaos got dumped.
So what were the waters above and the waters below that it mentioned back in Genesis 1:7? Well there’s a physical aspect and a spiritual aspect to it. In the physical realm, the waters above created the objects you see in the sky- the sun, moon and stars. But in the spiritual realm, the waters above created the things of heaven.
So in Genesis, some of the chaos material/water is formed into the things of heaven. Some of it is formed into the things of earth. And that chaos material/water which is left over was relegated down into the lower realm. Genesis 1 is clear: it didn’t all go away. It was put somewhere else.
And let’s build this out just a little further today: In Genesis 1, what did God do after creating these realms? He created birds of the air, fish of the sea, and the land creatures that inhabit the earth. Obviously talking about literal animals.
But we also know from Scripture that there are heavenly realm spirits, earthly realm spirits, and Underworld realm spirits. And if you didn’t know that, then these are seeds I’m planting that we will explore in about two weeks. But I believe that just as Genesis describes how God populated earth with various physical creatures, it also describes how God populated the spiritual realm with different types of spiritual beings.
Words like (finger quotes) “beasts” and “birds” are used as terminology for spiritual beings in Genesis 3:1 and Revelation 18:1. And let’s also look at the text of the first commandment.
Exodus 20:4
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
In the water where? "Under the earth.”
Now of course, we shouldn’t make a statue of an octopus and bow down to it. But is Exodus 20 verse 4 talking about physical realm creatures? Are people worshipping octopi? They know that a dog is a dog and an octopus is an octopus. But they made idols for the beings that inhabit the spiritual realm. False gods. And they’re described in that commandment as beings who inhabit all three of the spiritual realms that God created in Genesis 1: the spirits of heaven, the spirits of earth, and the spirits of the water under the earth—AKA, the Underworld.
Next Time & Closing Thoughts
So today we covered the three realms of God’s Creation. The place in the Bible where you actually see this the most clearly is in the book that reveals the most about the spiritual realm, which is appropriately titled Revelation.
This is actually the book I was reading when I came to realize how Scripture describes the three realms. And as you read Revelation, you observe that there are two stories going on at one time. There’s a story in heaven and a story on earth.
But if you look even more carefully, you come to realize that there are three spiritual realms described: The Heaven, The Earth, and The Sea. Listen, I’ve studied Revelation A LOT. But I never saw it before this past year. I always thought it was kind of mysterious when it would describe this “sea.” It finally clicked for me: the Sea is the Underworld. Sheol. The realm of chaos. And so I’ll unpack that some more for you next time on the podcast.
But before we go, a closing thought: I know a lot of this stuff about Creation sounds really academic and perhaps even irrelevant to our lives today. Some will say this happened 6,000 years ago; others 6 billion years ago. What does what we believe about Genesis 1 have to do with your Wednesday morning?
But this study is also insanely practical. Chaos is a part of our human experience. We've talked before about how demons bring disorder to our lives. The Bible says God is not the author of confusion. So if you're experiencing chaos in your life, these verses show who you can rely on to help you sort it out.
Genesis 1:2 said, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Who brings order? The Holy Spirit. The presence of God that Jesus left with us to help us through this world. He is there, hovering over the waters of chaos, ready to pull you out of it. He is the expert at bringing order to your life if you'll seek His guidance. So that's my admonition to you today.
If life feels overwhelming and you feel like you're sinking, seek the Holy Spirit's guidance and allow Him to do what He's been doing since the first page of the Bible: to put all the pieces together. And if that sounds weird, I hope you'll be a little more weird today, too.
Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.