GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GENESIS 1:6-8
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The work of the second day is the division of the muddy, uncertain and soupy mass that was created the previous day into two or three parts. The point of the division was to be high above the surface of the world; it was the firmament, or “expanse.” Below this expanse were some of the created waters, and above it were the rest of the created waters. Moses tells us that God’s own name for the expanse was the “sky.” In Hebrew, this is the word ‘shamayim,’ which is simply the word ‘mayim’ “waters” and the relative pronoun ‘sha-’. Frequently ‘shamayim’ is used of “the heavens,” but here “sky” fits the context better. In the Scriptures, there are three “heavens” in the minds of the men who were writing. The first heaven is the air we breathe and where the birds and moths fly. It would be filled by God on the fifth day of creation, when he said, “Let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky” (Genesis 1:20). The second heaven is the place above our sky, where the sun, moon and stars heave their way through their celestial paths (Habakkuk 3:11). The third heaven is the place of God’s throne and abode, where Paul said that he was aware of a man (perhaps Paul himself) who “heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:4).
In this case it is clear that the expanse or firmament was not between heavens, as it were, but between waters. Ancient and Medieval scholars and theologians did not know what substance exists above the clouds, or is the stuff through which the sun and planets heave their vast bulks through on their separate voyages through the skies. Could it be something like water, some of them wondered? It’s clear to us that the emptiness of space is not equivalent to “the waters above the expanse.” And it is clear with hardly any comment that the waters below the expanse must be the seas, the waters that were modified on the third day when the land was separated out and the waters were gathered into seas. Therefore the “water below” was still a muddy and watery deep, soon to be cleared up by the word of God. But this leaves us still wondering about the water that was above the expanse.
Since the “expanse” (Hebrew ‘raqia’) had water above, we are left with one probable and rather convincing answer, but of course there might be other answers as well. This is an idea that has been brought forward:
The waters above the expanse could have formed a vast, very large and unbroken canopy of cloud above the earth, extending far out into space and resembling, perhaps, one of the small gas giants of our solar system. Hints in the record of Scripture help carry this idea along. There seems to have been no real rain in the pre-flood world, since streams or mist “came up from the earth and watered the entire surface of the ground” (Genesis 2:6). Also, there would surely have been enough water in this canopy to flood the world. Peter writes: “The heavens came into existence long ago by the word of God and… the earth came together out of the water and between the waters. Through these waters the former world perished, when it was flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5-6). This would also account for the apparent newness or novelty of the rainbow, which God declares that he himself “set in the cloud” as a sign of the covenant between himself and the world (Genesis 9:13-15).
I think that this is a good theory, and a good explanation of what God had made, but I also think that it would be wrong and dangerous to insist that this must be the only possible solution to our questions about the second day of creation. Luther wisely said, “We Christians must be different from the philosophers in the way we think about the causes of these things. And if some are beyond our comprehension (like those before us concerning the waters above the heavens), we must believe them and admit our lack of knowledge rather than either wickedly deny them or presumptuously interpret them in conformity with our understanding. We must pay attention to the expression of the Holy Scripture and abide by the words of the Holy Spirit, whom it pleased to distribute his creatures [that is, his creation] in this way: in the middle was the firmament, which was brought forth out of unformed heaven and the unformed earth and spread out through the Word; furthermore, above and below the firmament there were waters which were also drawn from this unformed mass. This entirety the Holy Spirit calls ‘heaven,’ together with the seven spheres [the Medieval designation of the planets and the sun] and… in which the birds roam.”
Now, at the end of the second day, the Lord saw his creation. There was a world. There was light and dark, an atmosphere, and great clouds in the sky. It was ready for the next act, the next day. But why, here, is there no mention that “it was good”? One ancient Hebrew scholar, Rabbi Solomon (also called Rashi, 1040-1105), pointed out that “it was good” appears twice in the account of the third day, and that the development of the oceans (the waters below) was not completed until the third day, and therefore one of those “it was good” statements could be applied to the work that began on the second day. However, it is also possible that Moses simply varied his style a little here and there in recording the whole account. And we can’t forget that he ends the work of creation by stating that God saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).
It’s best in questions like this not to be too inquisitive. Most questions we would ask of the Scriptures that are not answered within the text might be beyond our comprehension anyway, or else they would not help our understanding in the least. Just two days ago I was asked in a Bible class who wrote the book of Hebrews. There are educated guesses about this. Some think Apollos, others think Paul. But what if the answer turned out to be Zenas (Titus 3:13) or Crescens (2 Timothy 4:10) or some completely unnamed Christian from the first century? Would we be any better off for knowing this? Or what if it were the grandson of Caiaphas? Wouldn’t that knowledge stir up further questions that would only distract the reader from the text of that excellent book of the Bible? The Holy Spirit in his wisdom considered that we were no worse off not knowing certain things, and perhaps we are even better off now knowing certain things. Therefore we will read and love and take to heart both the book of Hebrews and the work of Creation’s second day, and give glory to God for arranging both our world and our salvation as he saw fit. For he makes his creation clearly seen by us, and if we are wise enough to look, we will see that the earth, the air and sky, water, clouds, day, night, and all visible things remind us of who made them, our Creator, who loves us and who cares for us. Let us give him thanks for his creation, but more thanks still for our Savior and the forgiveness his brings.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2026
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Genesis 1:6-8 The expanse