Genesis 1:6-19 Set Apart
Notes
Transcript
Set Apart: Creation days 2-4
Set Apart: Creation
days 2-4
Jake Lopez / General
The Book of Genesis / Creation; Day / Genesis 1:6–19
Genesis 1:6-19 Set Apart:Creation days 2-4
Intro
How many people love to look at the stars on a warm
summer night?
I’m sure everyone has done this before and isn’t just
amazing to behold that which The Lord has created?
Early last fall, when we were travelling out to John Day
and teaching Sunday nights a couple of times we
stopped out in the Brogan area on the way home. One
night was very memorable because it was a new moon
and there was no light around us at all except for the
stars.
Everyone of us was blown away at how many more
stars were visible and how majestic the sky was.
Psalm 19:1 NKJV
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
I think sometimes it’s so healthy to go out under the
stars and just to remember how God created all of this
for his good pleasure but also for us to enjoy as well.
2 out of the 3 days of creation that we are going to look
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at today has to do with the creation of the sky, the
cosmos, and the lights that God put in them. Then,
when you couple those two days with day1 we find that
God spent half of his time creating focused on the
universe itself and that shows us the greatness of our
God and how much there is to behold in our Universe.
I was listening to a teaching of Damian Kyle, a Calvary
chapel pastor from Modesto CA, and he said something
that I thought was very profound and useful for today
and that’s this. Ya God spent a lot of time creating, but
the whole Bible is about God relating to man and not
his creation.
Day 2 The Firmament
Day 2 The Firmament
[Gen 1:6 NKJV] Then God said, "Let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters."
[Gen 1:7-8 NKJV] 7 Thus 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. 8 And God called the
firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning
were the second day.
Word Etymology
Firmament Hebrew word for a beaten metal plate, or a
bow. This use of the word has brought criticism
against the Bible pointing out that the Bible has agreed
with pagan philosophies that the earth has a solid sky
or a solid dome built over it.
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Flat earth enthusiasts love this because it describes a
cosmology that fits their beliefs. This is one of these
words in the Bible where it is important to dive into the
Hebrew, look at the root word and also to see how this
word is used other places in the Bible.
Before we look at the root word however, I want to
point out how other translations of the Bible translate
the word for firmament :: Raqi’a.
NLT: Space
NIV: Vault
NASB: Expanse
ESV: Expanse
KJV: Firmament
So why the variety of english words? Well the reason
the King James Bible uses the word Firmament is
because they grabbed that term from the Latin Vulgate
Bible where it uses the Latin word firmamentum. It
was used in Latin as defined as such: strengthening,
prop, the main point, support.
This is very interesting to me because of the way that
the Lord uses the firmament that we will see in the next
verse so keep that in mind.
Now let's talk about how this was used in the Hebrew.
Regardless of how this is translated into the english the
Hebrew word is the same, even when viewed across the
various manuscripts.
The root work for Raci’a is Rq’a (rachah), this is a word
describing something spread out thin or spread out.
These are great word pictures because when we think
about how vast the sky is, it is spread out thin. This is
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very interesting to me because we know from
measurements maid in the upper atmosphere that our
atmosphere gets thinner and thinner the higher you go,
so this word here is to spread out and make thin.
Metal Working Example
So why the word RaQi’a? Well this process is the same
way a metal shield would be made, it would be beat out
thin with a hammer to spread the material out.
God is trying to communicate how our world is formed
in terms man would understand. Now granted, this
terminology would mean much more to a metalsmith
that it does to most of us today. The Bible does this
regularly in using animal husbandry or farming to
describe spiritual truths.
Firmament Takes Shape
With all that said, I’m not suggesting that this is
metaphoric necessarily and here’s why look at verse 7.
[Gen 1:7 NKJV] Thus 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.
God is using the firmament to divide the waters.
Remember last week that the earth was void and
without form, that it was just a mass of water.
God made the firmament for this purpose and it was to
divide the waters. Now at this point how do we know
what the firmament looks like or what shape is it in, as
far as we know, it’s just a flat plane sitting in between
or in the midst of waters, but it’s dividing them. Well
this is where the word for Raqi’a comes in very
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descriptive. Since the firmament is described as a thin
metal covering or a bow, now we know that the
firmament has curvature to it.
So we know that it’s not just a flat surface pushing up
the waters above but rather it’s in a curved pattern.
Firmaments Purpose
Now remember when I said the Latin word was defined
as having strength and support?
It would take something very strong indeed to support
a bunch of water over head.
Also, we are told by science that space is a vacuum.
Hmm well have you ever thought about that? It might
be true, but if space is a vacuum, it could be that God
has also used the firmament to divide the vacuum of
space from the atmosphere that have on our planet.
Well you might be thinking, what are you talking about
water overhead, there is no water over head, this is just
a fabricated story.
Well before you get to excited, you can go onto Nasa’s
website and read about articles talking about water in
space. In fact I read an article just last week where
Nasa has admitted that the universe is full of water in
various forms.
They are even doing studies where they might have
found larger amounts of water not attached to planets
but just in huge bodies of water itself.
I’m not sure if anyone really knows where the waters
above the Firmament are.
Henry Morris II in his commentary on Genesis,
suggests that the water was surrounding the earth and
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that it made a blanket that insulated the earth making
the planet a worldwide tropical environment. There
might be some credence to this because they have
found wooly mammoths frozen in ice but that had
tropical vegetation still in their stomachs. Henry’s
theory is that during Noah’s flood the water that was
surrounding the earth came down as precipitation
helping to flood the earth. We will talk about this more
in detail when we get to Genesis 6 and 7.
Now I have no clue where this firmament exists if it is
indeed somewhat of a barrier, it could very well be at
the edge of the universe for all I know, but we can take
God’s word for what it’s worth and simple take it for
what it says, and that is, the firmament divided the
waters.
The other purpose of the firmament is to create space
for life to exist, and I think that’s the main point of it.
How The Firmament Was Made
This is not a fabricated story, but rather the account of
fabrication.
Remember in day one, God created light by his mouth?
Well now we see a different Hebrew word for make or
made, and that’s ‘Asah’, this word means to
manufacture or make by more practical means. Again
very interesting that the firmament is describe as a
metal that is hammered out thin. This also could
explain and show how God made it, that it was more of
a laborious process and that he used his hands to create
it rather than his words.
This totally reminds me of how Jesus was a carpenter
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on this earth. Isn’t fascinating that the one job he
chose to do was to build stuff. So cool.
Now here’s the real definition, look how God himself
defines the firmament in verse (8),
[Gen 1:8 NKJV] And God called the firmament Heaven.
So the evening and the morning were the second day.
As we talked last week, Heaven is almost always used to
describe The abode of God and the angels, the sky, or
outer space. So God used the firmament to divide the
waters thus making the sky or our atmosphere. I think
this is best way to describe and the best use of the word
heaven, because in scripture the firmament is always
described as something that is seen.
Can we see the dwelling place of God? - no.
Can we see a metal dome above our earth? - no.
So it would seem that the best definition of it is our
atmosphere as a whole.
Application: How do we apply Day 2 of
creation?
Well God is Holy, God is greater than his creation and
he created a world in which his dwelling place was
divided from the material world. God The Father is
always described as being above or looking down on his
creation and this is a big part of what the firmament
plays. This shows his Holiness and his greatness.
When we get into the creation of Adam, we are going to
see God come and walk with Adam. So even though
God has a seperate dwelling place, his intention was
always to commune with man in which he made in his
own image.
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Now mankind has also created a divide between God
and man and that’s sin. Because of our sin we have
created a “firmament” or space between us and God.
God is Holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. The
good news is though that Jesus Christ came to be the
bridge between fallen man and our perfect and
undefiled father. Jesus said that I am The way The
Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except
through me!
Just as the Heavens above are higher than imaginable
so the distance we are from God without forgiveness of
sin.
This distance between us cannot be traveled, nor made
right any other way except though your faith put in
Jesus Christ and him alone.
But Thank God that he came to redeem man to God the
Father and that we would be able to walk with God in
peace once again - Hallelujah!
Day 3 Oceans, Lands and
Plants
Day 3 Oceans, Lands and Plants
[Gen 1:9 NKJV] Then God said, "Let the waters under
the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let
the dry [land] appear"; and it was so.
[Gen 1:10 NKJV] And God called the dry [land] Earth,
and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas.
And God saw that [it was] good.
[Gen 1:11 NKJV] Then God said, "Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb [that] yields seed, [and] the fruit
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tree [that] yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed
[is] in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
[Gen 1:12 NKJV] And the earth brought forth grass, the
herb [that] yields seed according to its kind, and the
tree [that] yields fruit, whose seed [is] in itself
according to its kind. And God saw that [it was] good.
[Gen 1:13 NKJV] So the evening and the morning were
the third day.
So Now we have the waters above the earth or the
celestial waters. And we have the water that stayed
down at ground level. Genesis is now going to focus on
the creation of the terrestrial or that of the planet earth.
One theme that keeps jumping out to me as we go
through Genesis is the division or separation of things.
We’ve seen the separation of light making night and
day,
We’ve seen the separation of waters thus creating an
earth or an atmosphere around the earth rather.
The Earth Surface
Now we see the separation of water from dry ground.
Now verse (9) this dry ground is just that, dry. We see
God causes this to happen with his words again. This
no doubt is supernatural for dry ground to come forth
from water and not be wet. Now remember we are
talking about a literal day, so it would obviously be
impossible for dirt to dry out in one day.
This does not mean that this didn’t all happen in one
day though.
There are two other examples in The Bible of God
separating water and making the ground perfectly dry,
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do you guys know what those two examples are?
Crossing of red sea and crossing of the Jordan River.
Now in Genesis 6,7 when we get to the flood, the word
says that it took 150 days for the earth to dry which
seems like a pretty plausible number, so for the earth to
have land appear in one day and for it to be dry is no
doubt supernatural.
God’s Purposeful Creation
God has purpose in everything he creates and we will
see this pattern throughout creation, but look at what
he names them in verse (10).
Naming things is obviously common to us, but it’s
because we got that pattern from our heavenly father.
Naming things shows purpose, meaning God just didn’t
make trivial things that didn’t matter.
I think this is somewhat obvious, but God has perfect
purpose in the things he creates.
I contrast this with us and how sometimes we create or
do things that doesn’t really serve a purpose or we do
things that are detrimental to us or that fulfills a
negative purpose. But not God, his creation has perfect
meaning and purpose as well as design.
Grass, Trees, Fruit and Seeds
In verse 11, we see the first creation of living things and
that is grass, trees and the ability for them to propagate
themselves through their seeds.
I think it’s important to point out how much the
creation account differs from the account of evolution.
Here we see that life began in the dust of the earth.
Some evolutionary theories have life starting in some
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sort of primordial soup that was struck by lightning
thus sparking some sort of lifeform. These lifeforms
would have made it into water somehow where they
began their evolutionary process of growing in the
water. Then over the course this lifeform turned into
some sort of amaeba which after many more millions of
years adapted the ability to move on to land and then,
well you know where this is going.
This no doubt is very different that what God created
on day 3.
Notice that according to the Bible, the first mention of
life are things that we recognize today, Grass, seeds,
Trees, vegetation and fruit. There is not even a
mention of anything remotely close to adaptation or
the process of evolution.
Seeds:
We also are shown that these creations were created
with the ability to propagate themselves and multiply,
meaning that they were intended to continue as they
began. The whole purpose of something multiplying is
so that it will continue, not that it would become
something totally different than what it started out to
be. both verses 11, 12 talk about their ‘kind’, meaning
that a seed of one kind doesn’t produce a lifeform of
another kind.
We have never witnessed a seed producing a different
species when it matures. What we witness in nature
agrees with the biblical record.
Amazing Creation of Seeds
but make notice seeds didn’t come first, which also
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shows no evolutionary process, that is, a first thing
needed to be created before offspring could. Also, the
dormant nature of seeds. How can a seed lay dormant
until the perfect situation comes about? What is the
cause that makes it spring into life again?
Example of shrimp in Idaho desert. 10-15 years ago -
bioligists.
God called this process of lifeforms multiplying good. I
find it fascinating that he calls this good but didn’t
make such a claim about the firmament.
Abundance and Multiplication
So in nature we see this process and multiplying in fact
we serve a God who loves abundance. So the things
that he declares good, he makes a lot of it. Remember
there is only one firmament, but how many trees are
there? How many people throughout time? How many
stars are there? God likes to have a lot of the good
things.
According to the La Times, in 2016 18,000 new species
of plants and animals were discovered. Wow! You
might say what a banner year, but guess what, we
average 16k-18k new species discovered every year in
the modern scientific era.
No doubt we are still discovering God’s vast abundance
all the time.
God also wants the same for you, the things that are
good for you, God wants an abundance of that in your
life. God wants to fill your life with abundant heavenly
things. I’m not teaching prosperity doctrine here, but
even the things that seem bad in our life, God is using
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them to fill your life with abundance of good things.
You who are parents understand this. Don’t you just
want your kids to have abundance? Material things are
fine and good, but that’s not what I’m talking about,
I’m talking about Joy, virtue, health and holiness.
That’s what you want for your kids, and regardless if
you are a parent or not, that’s what God The Father
wants for you.
Day 4 The Light Holders
Day 4 The Light Holders
[Gen 1:14 NKJV] 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;
[Gen 1:15 NKJV] "and let them be for lights in the
firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth";
and it was so.
[Gen 1:16 NKJV] 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.
[Gen 1:17 NKJV] God set them in the firmament of the
heavens to give light on the earth,
[Gen 1:18 NKJV] and to rule over the day and over the
night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And
God saw that [it was] good.
[Gen 1:19 NKJV] So the evening and the morning were
the fourth day.
The Hebrews used the zodiac very extensively, in fact
all of their feasts are driven by the full moon or new
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moon in the appropriate season. God gave them this
gift for calendar purposes, holidays or Feasts, and
prophecy.
Prophetic signs
God gave his people prophetic signs in his word for his
people to watch for in the stars.
We know that the wise men knew of the sign of the star
and were able to follow it to Jesus. They knew from the
Jewish influence that it would lead them to the
Messiah.
Matthew 2:2 NKJV
saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the
Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have
come to worship Him.”
Another example of this is The Prophecy in Joel
predicting The Day of The Lord a period of time in
which the earth would be judged before Jesus’ return to
earth.
Joel 2:31 NKJV
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the
Lord.
When we start talking about watching the stars, and
looking for signs, I don’t know about you, but I start
feeling uneasy. This is because of the Bible passages
warning us not to be involved in astrology.
That means we are not to seek guidance from fortune
telling, horoscopes or any other non biblical resource.
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Why would God tell us in creation that he has given us
the stars for signs in creation but then commanded us
not to practice divination in the stars later.
Well it’s a simple answer, God gave these markers or
signs, that we would know when special events were
unfolding, but these are also given in scripture and
backed by the word.
The practice of sorcery and divination is Satan’s
attempt to pervert a godly thing and make it corrupt.
This is satan’s pattern. So the difference in the two.
God gives us few signs in the heavens and they are
mainly for the Jewish people and are backed by
scripture.
Divination is seeking direction from the stars that is
extra biblical meaning that it has nothing to do with
direction from God.
I want to warn you brothers and sisters, if you refer or
look at Horoscopes I want to tell you right now that you
don’t want to get involved with that. The word is very
clear warning to stay clear of this error. If you want to
read more about that in scriptures read Deut 18:9-14
Now because the word says that these lights, meaning
the stars and planets are in the firmament of Heaven
(15) It seems like the firmament would include out
space because the stars and planets are kept within it.
Special Stars
Psalm 147:4 NKJV
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
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As I mentioned earlier, even the stars that God has
created have specific purpose. So much that he gives
each one of them a name. How many billions of stars
exist?
So in verse 16,17 The word says that God created the
Sun and Moon and put them in the same firmament as
the stars, again showing the vastness of the firmament.
I love how God creates lights to be enjoyed by both day
and night.
God himself called day 4 good.
In Closing
In days 1-4 in creation we have seen God separate
different things. We have seen him separate light from
dark, divide the waters into waters above and waters
below, and divide the oceans from dry land.
We also know from the new testament that there will
be a final day of judgment when God will divide the
sheep from the goats or the believers from the non
believers.
God desires to divide his perfect creation from that
which Satan wants to pervert.
Just as talked about earlier when Satan perverted the
use of the stars of heaven, he too wants to pervert you,
that is to twist the good things The Lord has blessed us
with to use them for evil.
Right after those verses I shared, we find these verses
in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 18:13–15 NKJV
You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For
these nations which you will dispossess listened to
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soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your
God has not appointed such for you.
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like
me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall
hear,
You see God calls you to holiness, he calls you to be
blameless, he is calling you to righteousness and that’s
what it means to be sanctified, to be set apart.
Now the only way we can do this is because of Jesus
and that’s what Moses points out in verse 15 of
Deuteronomy. The power to live a set apart life or a
sanctified life is found only in Jesus.
We don’t have to do anything, we don’t have to strive to
be perfect or to live a life without blemish or fault, no
instead we need to repent, believe, and then give our
will over to him and he will do the rest.
Now just like creation, God wants to do a good work,
remember he said that his creation is good. Well you
too are his creation and he wants good things in your
life.
Psalm 23:1–3 NKJV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
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He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
God wants to bring peace in your life, just as the Psalm
says but we have to come to that place of not wanting.
A place where his will is done and not our own.
God has peace for you and he wants to restore your
soul.
I encourage you to let him, let him in and let him do the
work and see what good things The Lord has for you.
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