Sermon Tone Analysis

The Firmament

God created the firmament on the 2nd day.

It was an expanse that separated the waters above from the waters bellow.

The firmament is clear allowing us to see the heavenly bodies but also preventing our atmosphere from escaping into space.

The firmament acts like a magnifying glass helping us to see stars and other heavenly bodies.

It seems that we live inside a protective dome much like a greenhouse.

The Hebrew language denotes something solid or strong.

The firmament is described as something beautiful, crystalline, like a light blue sapphire stone.

Genesis 1:6, 8 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

And God called the firmament Heaven.

So the evening and the morning were the second day.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Job 37:18 With Him, have you spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?

Amos 9:6 (NASB) The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, The Lord is His name.

Psalm 148:4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, And you waters above the heavens!

Ezekiel 1:22 The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads.

Exodus 24:9–11 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.

And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.

Ezekiel 10:1 And I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

The expanse of the atmosphere or sky.

This term is derived from firmamentum, the Vulg.

rendering of the LXX steréōma.

Although in classical Greek the latter denoted something solid, or a firm structure such as a foundation, its LXX usage was of the open sky, or the expanse stretching above the earth.

This curious divergence of meaning is matched by the difficulty in translating the original Hebrew term rāqî (a)ʿ.

It is a cognate form of the verb rqʿ, “spread out” (Ps.

136:6; Isa.

42:5; 44:24), or “beat out” (Ex.

39:3; Nu. 17:4), the former usage referring to the expanse of the heavens at creation, and the latter to the beating out of metal into thin plates or sheets.

In Job 37:18 the existence of the vault of heaven is attributed to God’s spreading it out, “hard as a molten mirror.”רָקִיעַ

S7549 TWOT2217a GK8385 n.m.

Gn 1:6 extended surface, (solid) expanse (as if beaten out; cf.

Jb 37:18);—abs.

ר׳ Ez 1:22 +, cstr.רְ׳

רָקִיעַ Gn 1:14 +;—𝔊 στερέωμα, 𝔙 firmamentum, cf.

Syriac sub √ supr.;—1.

(flat) expanse (as if of ice, cf.

כְּעֵין הַקֶרַח), as base, support (WklAltor.

Forsch.

iv.

347) Ez 1:22, 23, 25 (gloss?

cf.

Co Toy), v 26 (supporting י׳’sthrone) 10:1.

Hence (Co Ez 1:22) 2. the vault of heaven, or ‘firmament,’ regarded by Hebrews as solid, and supporting ‘waters’ above it, Gn 1:6, 7(×3), 8 (called שָׁמַיִם; all P), ψ 19:2 (|| הַשָּׁמַיִם), זֹהַר הָר׳ Dn 12:3; also הַשָּׁמַיִם ר׳ Gn 1:14, 15, 17

Genesis 1:14–17 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

He made the stars also.

God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, God set the sun, moon and stars IN THE FIRMAMENT of the Heavens, not above it as some of the waters are.

This helps explain how the stars fall from the heavens to the earth when the 6th seal is opened.

Revelation 6:12-14

The firmament has windows in it which allowed the waters above it to rain down during the flood.

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

It then rained for forty days and nights Jubilees 5:24-25 And the Lord opened seven flood-gates of heaven, And the mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number.

And the flood-gates began to pour down water from the heaven forty days and forty nights, And the fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was full of water.

Genesis 1 and 2 tell the story of creation, and it says things that are at odds with what modern people know to be true of the world and universe around us.

One of those issue concerns the second day of creation (Genesis 1:6-8), where God made the “expanse” or the “firmament.”

The Hebrew word for this is raqia (pronounced ra-KEE-ah).

Biblical scholars understand the raqia to be a solid dome-like structure.

It separates the water into two parts, so that there is water above the raqia and water below it (v.

7).

The waters above are kept at bay so the world can become inhabitable.

On the third day (vv.

9-10), the water below the raqia is “gathered to one place” to form the sea and allow the dry land to appear.

Ancient Israelites “saw” this barrier when they looked up.

There were no telescopes, space exploration, or means of testing the atmosphere.

They relied on what their senses told them.

Even today, looking up at a clear sky in open country, the sky seems to “begin” at the horizons and reaches up far above.

Ancient Israelites and others in that part of the world assumed the world was flat, and so it looked like the earth is covered by a dome, and the “blue sky” is the “water above” held back by the raqia.

The translation “firmament” (i.e., firm) gets across this idea of a solid structure.

Biblical scholars agree on this understanding of raqia.

Nasa has stated numerous times humans can’t get past low earth orbit.

Why?

The firmament stops them.

This expanse the Lord has made regulates our weather, protects our atmosphere and enhances our view of the heavens.

It is vitally important to all creatures on the earth.

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.

The Pillars of the earth, foundations of the earth and its cornerstone are also integral parts of support for the earth.

We will see these things mentioned in the scriptures a little later.

Enoch 18:1 I saw the treasuries of all the winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth. 2 And I saw the corner-stone of the earth: I saw the four winds which bear [the earth and] the firmament of the heaven.

3 «And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven», and have their station between heaven and earth: «these are the pillars of the heaven».

4 I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring the circumference of the sun and all the stars to their setting.

5 I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds: I saw «the paths of the angels.

6 I saw» at the end of the earth the firmament of the heaven above.

And I proceeded and saw a place which burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent stones, three towards the east, and three towards the south.

7 And as for those towards the east, 〈one〉 was of coloured stone, and one of pearl, and one of jacinth, and those towards the south of red stone.

8 But the middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne was of sapphire.

9 And I saw a flaming fire.

10 And beyond these mountains Is a region the end of the great earth: there the heavens were completed.

11 And I saw a deep abyss, with columns «of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns» of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike towards the height and towards the depth.

12 And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place.

13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: 14 ‘This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven.

15 And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times.

16 And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) ‹for ten thousand years›.’

Second Esdras 16: 55 He said, “Let the earth be made,” and it was made, and “Let the heaven be made,” and it was made.

56 At his word the stars were fixed in their places, and he knows the number of the stars.

57 He searches the abyss and its treasures; he has measured the sea and its contents; 58 he has confined the sea in the midst of the waters; and by his word he has suspended the earth over the water.

59 He has spread out the heaven like a dome and made it secure upon the waters; 60 he has put springs of water in the desert, and pools on the tops of the mountains, so as to send rivers from the heights to water the earth.

61 He formed human beings and put a heart in the midst of each body, and gave each person breath and life and understanding 62 and the spirit of Almighty God, who surely made all things and searches out hidden things in hidden places

Jubilees 2: 6 And the waters did so as He commanded them, and they retired from off the face of the earth into one place outside of this firmament, and the dry land appeared.

7 And on that day He created for them all the seas according to their separate gathering-places, and all the rivers, and the gatherings of the waters in the mountains and on all the earth, and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the seed which is sown, and all sprouting things, and fruit-bearing trees, and trees of the wood, and the garden of Eden, in Eden, and all 〈plants after their kind.

8 These four great works God created on the third day.

And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all the earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the darkness.