Genesis 1:6-8, The Expanse

Intro

This morning we continue on in our text here in Genesis chapter one and we come now to verses 6 through 8 and day two of creation. Now at the outset this doesn't seem to be the most happening day of the creation week. In fact this is the only day of creation apart from the day of rest on day 7 when we don’t find the refrain “it was good.”

In fact there doesn't even really seem to be anything at all that is created here on day 2. Nothing is created out of nothing, nothing pops forth at the command of God, in fact all that we see on this day is space, space is formed, an expanse in the midst of the waters.

Is there anything that we can do with that? There does seem to be and intentionality and a purpose here.

After all, God doesn't combine this with day 3 and He could have, God doesn't do this on Day 1 and He could have. The very fact that there exists a day 2 at all shows us that this was part of the intentional plans and purposes of God and so we ought to take a look and see what kinds of things this creation and this passage recording it might have to tell us.

So lets hop in here and consider this day. There are three main headings that I would like for us to consider this morning, the first thing that we need to consider is what we just said, the intentionality, the structure of creation week and the text and why it might be structured that was so that day 2, even with its seeming lack of creative pop does lend itself to the overarching narrative and structure and proves important.

The second point that we will consider is to take up some of the various views about what exactly happened on this day. There are two primary ideas about this expanse that are common amongst creationists today and one that we need to see has rightly been called into question though it was popular when the movement to take back these first chapters of Genesis began in the early 60 and as proposed by John Witcomb and Henry Morris in their book the Genesis Flood.

Lastly we will as the question, “can these verses point us to Christ?” Is there anything here on day two of creation that leads us to Christ or the work of the cross?

Structure of the Week

Lets take a look first at the structure of the creation week. It is particularly here on day two as we see this brief account of the creation of the expanse that really drives home that God is doing things here exactly how He sees fit. There is obviously purpose and intentionality here.

Many of the old Church fathers as we mentioned several messages ago were confounded that it even took God 6 days to create. Far from being long age supporters they questioned the narrative of Genesis and even sought out allegory and such in it because they believed and rightly so that God could have done all this work in a moment. That God speaks and worlds pop into existence, light comes to be, multitudes of living creatures suddenly appear, this is a God that certainly did not need 6 days to do all this. And so as we witness the account here in verses 6 through 8 it does seem to drive us to God’s ordering not just creation but also the creation narrative and all for a purpose.

The first sort of structure that we can see in the verses is that the creation week itself can be divided into two major parts. The first three days of the creation you could call the forming stage. The key word here in this stage is seperating. God seperated day and night, light and darkness. God seperates here on day two the waters from the waters creating the expanse. Lastly on day 3 we see the separating of the waters from the land.

Separating, dividing, forming the cosmos and the earth so that it is made ready for life. Days 1 through 3 show us this forming of the world. Then on day three the second half of the week begins, when the earth is formed when land and water have been divided there immediately comes the creative act of God to begin filling and then for the remainder of the week we see God filling His now formed creation!

Now one of the key things that creation day two makes possible is a creation day 3. If the events of day 2 happened on day 1 or were included the events of day 3 then day three would not have been day three and when we consider day three it is interesting that it is on this day that life begun to spring up from the ground. We will likely touch on this more in a soon coming future message but think for a moment of other day threes in the Bible where we might see life rising up out of the ground! Thats right, the structure here in these early days of creation at the very least hints at the coming of a future day three where once again God raises new life out of the ground only on that day three it was Christ who was raised out of the tomb. Here in the structure of the creation narrative we see an early echo of the cross and of Christ. Thats day three though and we are still here on day 2. However it is this structure with day two being what it is that ultimately gives us this echo of day three and so we find intentionality in the story, an echo created here that has the power to direct us to the work of Christ.

Good?

We also mentioned at the outset that this is the only day, apart from day 7, the day of rest, where we don’t find the refrain “it was good.”

Now the most likely explanation for this is that day 2 does not bring us a completed creation element. God has yet to place the lights in the heavens which will happen on day 4 and God has yet to bring the dry land out of the water which will happen on day 3. Day two therefore presents us with an incomplete work and thus no designation that it was good because it wasnt complete.

Now I believe we can learn from this as well. As I thought about this element of the text I was driven to the book of Philippians and the promise there in 1:6 that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”

There is a reminder here in this unfinished work of day 2 that God intentionally completes His work in time. Though the creator of all could have spoken a word and the entirety of creation popped into existence fully formed and ready in a moment yet He takes a week to do this, and though He certainly could have brought the creation elements of day 2 to their final state yet He does not showing us that there are times where we have to patiently wait for God to accomplish His work.

And yet we also find here the tremendously encouraging truth that day three does come, day 7 does come. That when God sets out to create He will bring to completion, as Philippians tells us, the work that He set out to accomplish! God does not fail to accomplish the work that He sets out to do.

It was so

There is also another encouraging note that we can see from this text in its differentiation from day 1. We read here the first example of “and it was so.”

Genesis 1:7 ESV

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.

This is phrase not only shows us that God’s word has accomplished what it had commanded but also shows us the fixedness of this creation. We don’t see this phrase after the creation of light because we see the earth cycle through phases of light and darkness but here we see it was so, this will always be the case. The sky in other words is not going to fall on our heads. This expanse that God has created will always remain.

In other words we dont have to worry that the sky is going to fall on our heads. God will uphold that which He has fixed in its place.

MacArthur says: “And it was so” lends itself to the understanding of the firm and fixed and unchanging nature of that element of creation. 

The Expanse

The next item that I would like to take up is the expanse, the thing that was created here on day 2.

Again we read:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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.

Now there is plenty of disagreement in creation science circles as to what exactly was going on here. There are two views that are probable and we will cover those this morning and also one view that has fallen out of favor as I said earlier.

What we see in the text is that God takes this large ball of water and makes a division there in the midst of it, that he separates the water above this division from the water below this division and that this space that now exists between is now called heaven.

Vapor Canopy

The view that has fallen out of favor is that of a vapor canopy. This view postulated by the early men who sought to reestablish the historicity of Genesis for the Church in light of the so called scientific challenges that had been brought and the capitulation on the historicity of Genesis by out forefathers in the faith there in the enlightenment and post enlightenment periods.

These men postulated that God had taken the waters that are above and placed them as a thick layer of water around the earth. They said that this vapor canopy protected the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation that helped the pre flood people live such long lives and that at the flood God had caused this vapor barrier to crash back down to earth and that much of the water from the flood came from this.

There are several problems with this view but there are many who came into an understanding of creation while this view was popular who believed it with almost the same fervency with which they would hold to the inerrancy of scripture. We must be careful not to conflate theories about the text of scripture with the scriptures themselves. We do our best to study and understand but we ultimately realize that if we are given solid reasons to believe otherwise or to find that our interpretation of Scripture has been faulty we must yield as Luther said to sacred scripture or evident reason.

Two key problems for this vapor canopy are firstly, that it would have blocked nearly all view of the stars themselves. These lights we read were placed in the sky as signes for those living on earth so to place a barrier over the earth that would block out their view would be problematic to say the least.

Additionally, water itself is not very protective against ultraviolet radiation! As Sarfati notes you can still get a sunburn on a cloudy day. On top of this water vapor is a much more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide the great villain of our day and if there had been a shell around the earth as these folks postulate then it would have held in so much heat that it would have literally cooked the earth.

Now could God have created this in such a special way that these things didn't happen? Of course He could have but there is nothing in the text to lead us to believe that and no one had conceived of this canopy from the text until the 60’s when striving to respond to the so-called scientific claims made about the age of the earth and the historicity of Genesis.

On top of this there are better answers for things like the long ages of people before the flood and in fact we see that Noah still lived for a long time after the flood pointing to this vapor canopy not being the cause of his long life.

I guess I should also mention here that those who propose a flat earth theory are also prone to believe that the waters above form a solid dome over this flat earth but both the flat earth and this solid dome have no place in scripture and are results of twisting and misinterpreting the text of scripture to support a conspiracy theory. There are good articles on CMI for this but we are not going to spend our time this morning debunking conspiracy.

Water around the universe:

The next two views are, in my mind both probable and I fluctuate between the two. In recent years CMI has published some articles showing that option two is more likely but option 1 is held by one of the men whose theory for distant starlight that we will discuss on day 4 I really appreciate.

Again, we must not be dogmatic here and we must not elevate these theories to the level of scriptural orthodoxy itself but it is good to have an idea of what might be going on here.

According to the first view, sometimes called the cosmic shell view, the the waters that are above are to be found at the outer edge of the universe. This view sees the expanse that is created as all of space from the surface of the earth to the farthest edge of the universe. That when God created the expanse that he cut a line in the waters surrounding the earth and pushed all of the water above the cut upward and as it went up it expanded and thinned eventually stretching for light years out at the farthest edge of the universe.

This view hinges on maintaining a strict meaning for the expanse throughout the account so that on Day 4 when the luminaries are placed in the expanse of the heavens that this means the waters above must be farther out than the stars, thus now residing at the edge of the universe.

This view also says that when God makes the birds on day 5 and it says that the birds fly across or on the face of the sky that this means the thin inner layer of the expanse the immediately surrounds the earth.

As I mentioned this view is held by Dr. Russel Humphrey whose theory for the expansion of the universe as God stretched out the heavens is, I believe, a great model for the problem of distant starlight that we will see on Day 4. However there are some issues that other creation scientist have pointed out.

For one thing; when Moses speaks of the birds flying across the face of the expanse on Day 5 the text doesn't say that the birds fly in the face of the expanse as those who hold to the cosmic shell theory postulate but rather that they fly across the face of the expanse. The word for face here would describe the very outside layer of something, thin and perhapse not even really thin but rather that this is the edge that, literally, faces you. The image here is that when we gaze up into the air that the face of the expanse is looking down at us. Therefore the face is the upper edge of the sky that we can see and when the birds fly in front of this, from the perspective of someone standing on earth, as we have said you have to understand everything in the story from verse 3 on in that way, when the birds fly here from our perspective they are flying across the face of the expanse or the face of the heavens.

Another problem for this view is that those who propose it must see the waters above as so vast before they were stretched out that the earth would be minuscule compared to them. Humphreys says that this sphere of water may have been as much as two light years across. This would make what then became the earth nothing more than a spec in the middle of this vast deep before its division here on day two.

Following our hermeneutic of viewing this account from an earthly perspective then it hardly seems to be that the account can bear the weight of a deep of such a magnificent size.

Atmosphere/Clouds

So if the waters above aren’t a cosmic shell at the edge of the universe then what are they.

It seems to me that it is quit likely that the folks are right who say that the waters above are the atmosphere and the clouds that we see there. That when God separated the waters and created the expanse that what He created was the atmosphere of the earth.

This has the advantage of being very geocentric and also of being very visible and intelligible to Moses and those to whom he wrote. While God could have inspired Moses to write an account that included an element of the universe that he and his audience could not have even begun to imagine, the edge of the universe light years away from us it doesn't seem likely.

Some points in favor of this view are that the bible clearly shows us that the Hebrew people clearly understood that rain comes from clouds, that there are waters above:

Psalm 77:17 ESV

The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side.

Ecclesiastes 11:3 ESV

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

The people of God clearly conceived that the clouds held water and thus these are the most natural place for them to see the waters above.

Additionally the people of God did not consider the atmosphere and the clouds to be but a thin veneer of the face of the expanse. They often used clouds as a symbol for something vast and high as we read in Psalm 36.

Psalm 36:5 ESV

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

If they had conceived of something vastly farther out than the clouds which are not very high when compared to the height of the stars and the edge of the universe then certainly they would not have used the clouds as an example for the vastness of God’s love.

We may be prone to read the entire universe into the expanse because we are aware of it in ways that these people were not but the text was written to them and must be viewed from their perspective.

it seems more likely to me then that when God created the expanse that what is being created is not the vastness of the universe but rather the atmosphere of the earth and I don’t believe that this prevents me from adhering to Humphreys’ view of the expansion of the universe with the galaxies and stars either.

Christ

Now though I want us to consider how it is that this text points us to the person and work of Christ. We have already seen how this day two makes possible a day three in which God causes life to spring from the ground a prefiguring of the resurrection of Christ on the third day.

We have also seen that the unfinished nature of this day lends itself to understanding how it is that God works in time to accomplish His purposes and that all of the purposes that He sets out to accomplish will be realized in the time that He ordains them to be completed. These are already two magnificent truths about God that we can see in this text.

However, there is at least one more shadow or echo of Christ that I believe we can see here and it starts be considering this question:

What is it here that God divides?

God divides the waters. Can you think of any other examples of God dividing waters?

The exodus right!?! And not only the exodus but also the entrance into the promised land whenGod divides the Jordan.

While there was nothing evil or wicked about the waters here on Day 2 we do know that deep waters in scripture do come to represent sin and judgement. Most notably in a few chapters we will see God judge the earth by covering it with water and preserving Noah and his family through this judgement by carrying them safely through these waters in the ark.

Israel passes safely through the water of the red sea while the Pharos army is plunged to death in it.

It is impossible for a person to survive in water. Put a person under the water all on their own and even a person who can hold their breath for a long time will not be able to last long! To be plunged beneath the water brings death, this is why it is such a prominate image of judgement.

And so we see here on day two that in order for there to be made a way for life to inhabit this world there must first be made a way though the water. Long before God divided the read sea God divided these waters that covered the earth and He does this explicitly to create a place between the water in which life can thrive. This is another good reason to see the waters above as the clouds, this is a very specific space that is being created and it is the space within which all of the life in the universe will soon be placed!

This separating the waters then points us to Christ as the One who came to bring the true Exodus to God’s people. Just as water comes to represent judgemtn and sin so we find that all of humanity, ourselves included, are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are born in sin, we are covered in the waters of judgement from our conception and there is no way for us to have life.

However, Christ came to lead His people out of this place of death and He does so by dying in the cross in our stead so that the waters of judgment may be parted and we can find freedom in Christ on the other side. Christ entered into the waters of judgment so that we can be freed from them!

This image powerfully combines with what we saw earlier about day three and the life that comes out of the ground there. These two ideas that God divides the waters to make way for new life and that on the third day God raises new life from the ground shine a spotlight on Christ!

We see here at the very beginning of Creation these powerful images being set in place that will later find their typological fulfillment as the one who created these things comes and fulfills that toward which they were made to point, the creator of the world becomes the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by leading His people on a new exodus from sin through the power of His death in our stead on the cross where he entered the waters of judgement for us opening a way for life and then rose on the third day to bring this new everlasting life to His people!

Consider also the fixedness of this divide that we considered earlier. That “and it was so.” We can take great comfort in this as well. That when God has moved to deliver us from the waters of divine judgement through the death of His son that over our salvation and new life there also is the declaration, it was so, it is so, it is finished! Christ has fully completed the work that saves and because of His finished work at the cross our salvation which was planned in eternity past will surly carry us into the wonderful eternal life that Has been purchased for us through the blood of our savior.

Let us be thankful then this morning for all of the wonderful truths about God, the creation of the world and our savior and our salvation that are brought to us through these few simple verses here on this least assuming of all of the creation days!