Hi Matt,
You bring up a interesting point about the earth being in Gen 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Now you can say that Gen. 1:1, the creation of the universe, could have happened a long time before God started creating life on earth in verse 2.
Though it seems that the earth is unique in all that we know about the other planets. It may have started out similar to what the other planets look like. But then God continued it here on earth and created a wonder life filled planet. I think unique in that aspect, in the universe.
Was a day of creation a 24 hour period? Here are the uses of the same word used for 'day' in the Genesis creation, throughout the scripture. The numbers in pharases are the number of times that word is used in scripture from the greek word for day.
H3117
day
יום
yom (398a); a prim. root; day: - afternoon *(1), age (08), age *(1), all (1), always *(14), amount *(2), battle (1), birthday *(1), Chronicles *(38), completely *(1), continually *(14), course *(1), daily (22), daily the days (1), day (1115), day of the days (1), day that the period (1), day’s (6), day’s every day (1), daylight *(1), days (635), days on the day (1), days to day (1), days you shall daily (1), days ago (1), days’ (11), each (1), each day (4), entire (2), eternity (1), evening *(1), ever in your life *(1), every day (2), fate (1), first (5), forever *(11), forevermore *(1), full (5), full year (1), future *(1), holiday *(3), later *(2), length (1), life (12), life *(1), lifetime (2), lifetime *(1), live (1), long (2), long as I live (1), long *(11), midday *(1), now (5), older *(1), once (2), period (3), perpetually *(2), present (1), recently (1), reigns (1), ripe *(1), short-lived *(1), so long *(1), some time (1), survived *(2), time (45), time *(1), times *(2), today (172), today *(1), usual (1), very old *(1), when (10), when the days (1), whenever (1), while (3), whole (2), year (10), yearly (5), years (13), yesterday *(1).
Maybe the days of creation went back to the beginning of the creation of the universe and came forward to the creation of man, just a thought.
Something else that I find interesting, is this verse;
Jere. 4:23 "I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light."
Sounds a lot like Genesis 1:2, but this is talking about how Christ will find the earth when He returns.
mercy, peace, and love
Kat