The LORD wrote the pattern of how he made the earth.

He made it so that he could then form it and then fill it.

This is the same pattern that he followed with other things.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

The earth was first without form and void, not by the devil nor by judgment, but by design.

The design, I believe, is the pattern, to be first from formless and void, to formed but still void, to finally both formed and filled.

Some say the devil destroyed a good first earth, or that it was judged, and that the darkness resulted from that.

However, that would be forgetting the following:

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

The LORD created the darkness so that he could bring forth light:

Psalm 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

The pattern was first from formless and void, to formed but still void, to finally both formed and filled.

The same pattern was followed when the LORD made Adam.

First, Adam was simply everyday dust without form and void.

Then the LORD formed him from that formless dust, but he was still void.

Then the LORD filled him, by breathing into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The LORD followed the same pattern with the scriptures.

He made all the different ancient languages at the tower of Babel, including perhaps, at that time, ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek.

The words in those two languages were simply everyday words, used by everyday people.

In that sense, like the dust of Adam, they were without form and void.

Then the LORD took those everyday words and formed them into sentences, paragraphs, and books.

However, sentences, paragraphs, and books need inspiration, or they remain void.

The LORD breathed into them his very life, he inspired (breathed into) them.

II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

So, the words that Rabshakeh railed against the LORD, outside the wall of Jerusalem, were not inspired.

They were everyday words used by a wicked messenger of the king of Assyria.

Yet, when the LORD inspired the recording of those same words in multiple books of the scriptures, something was different.

Those same words in the record are inspired by the LORD, not new words, or changed words, but words breathed into, by the LORD.

I used to believe the "without form and void as showing a prior destruction".

It went along with, also at that time, believing in a gap theory to "add into" the scriptures, between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

However, perhaps, at least in my case, it may have been too convenient for me.

Believing the gap theory took the heat off from the mocking for believing in a young earth, according to the scriptures.

That way there was no fear of being mocked or persecuted, for not going along with the supposed millions year old fossils.

Of course, if confronted with that, I would have denied it, and said that I was simply believing the Bible because of Jeremiah 4:23.

Yet, that would have been a cloak, as that was not the reason for believing the gap theory.

I bought into the gap theory long before I had ever heard of any connection to Jeremiah 4:23.

Jeremiah 4:23 served as subsequent justification, not as a proof text.

I should not have been "adding" to the scriptures, inserting an entire new earth and a pre-Adamic race between Genesis 1:1 and 2.

By doing so, I contradicted:

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Since I was believing that sin entered long before Adam, and that death was around a long time before Adam's sin.

Because I needed to justify believing in millions of year old dead dinosaur bones, to the apparent denial of the scriptures.

Shame on me.