GENESIS CHAPTER 1

CREATION #4

The Second Day

Gen. 1:6-8 – And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

I.   Define Firmament - expanse - called heaven (atmosphere)  Three heavens;

A.     Gen. 1:20 - The birds fly in the first heaven (Atmosphere)

B.     Gen. 1:14, 15, 17 - The sun, moon, and stars, are in the second heaven.

C.     The third heaven is where God dwells:

1.      Ezk. 1:26 - above the firmament is the throne of God.

2.      Rev. 4:2 - The throne of God is in the heaven.

3.      II Cor. 12:1-4 - The dwelling place of God, where Paul went, was the third heaven.

II.   Purpose of the firmament:

A.     To divide the waters from the waters (v. 6)

1.      apparently "foggy" all the 1st day

2.      physical laws about clouds set up.

B.     Preserve life:

1.      Gen. 5 - notice that before the flood, men lived about 800 or 900 years.  These are actual years, not another measurement of some kind.

2.      Gen. 11:10-32 - notice that after the flood men lived about 300 or 400 years.

3.      Gen. 10:25 - notice that Peleg was born, the earth was divided, (continents separated).  At this time, men began to live even shorter.

4.      The overall reason men began to die sooner is SIN.  How the shorter life span came to pass, we cannot tell for sure, but by looking at the scripture, we can tell that something happened at the flood to cause this.  Some believe this is because the earth changed its axis causing not only a change in climate, but also a difference in the way the sun's rays hit the earth.  We know the harm a young person does to his skin by getting a "good” a tan.  Medical science has pretty well proved that too much sun causes cancer.

C.     Stabilize the climate - Gen. 10:25 - 99 years after the flood (in the days of Peleg), the earth was divided.  At that same time, there supposedly was a drastic change in climate, whereas before the flood, the climate was fairly stable, after the flood, the climate made drastic changes, such as we see in the world now.

D.     Keep the earth and ocean even - by equally distributing the water:

1.      Above the firmament

2.      Below the firmament

3.      Under the earth.

4.      Gen. 10:25 - 99 years after the flood, the inequality of distribution between the water and land caused the land to divide itself.  This has been described like a tire out of balance.  If all the land were on one side of the earth (as it seemed to be) and all the water on the other side of the earth, this would cause the earth to be "out of balance".

III.   Conclusion:  Deut. 11:10, 11 - Compare Egypt (the earth) and Canaan (heaven)

1.      Watered Egypt by foot - a mechanical device.

2.      Watered by heaven - by God.