Creation - Day 2 & 3

Wed Night Bible Study - Creation

Lesson/Sermon 2 - Days 2-3

Genesis 1:6-13 (ESV)

Creation Bible Study - Creation: Day 2

Now let's take a look back at Day 1 and look at just what we learned:

We learned that our world did not just happen but it was created and God was the Creator!

We learned that the act of creation by God was not some skill God had with the 'pieces' of the universe that were laying around...

God did not form something INTO our universe...God spoke our universe into existence...

He created it with the word of His mouth and from out of NOTHING Creation happened and our Universe was born.

This is why I say that I really do believe in the Big Bang Theory, God spoke it and then BAM it was there! But we also saw that we cannot comprehend what WAS before God spoke things into existence... it was a vast nothingness where only God existed…

We learned that our finite minds cannot comprehend total nothingness – so we will never be able to fully comprehend the infinite nature of what God did in the creation event.

We also learned that God created light itself...God did not create a source of light, but He created light itself. He spoke and light burst onto the scene, but it was mixed with the darkness so God had to separate them...

So where are we... God has spoken and what was NOT was created! Light was created and God's powerful creative WILL has laid the template for the entire universe...

So tonight I want us to look at v6-13 where we will look at and learn about days 2 and 3 of the Creation event! Read v6-8 here (Day 2)

6Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.” 7So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so. 8God called the expanse “sky.” Evening came and then morning: the second day.

Now v6 reveals that just as light and dark had been intertwined and had to be separated... so too God began to separate the water that had been created on day one. v6 God says,

“Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters..."

Many may look to this as God separating the waters into the oceans, but that comes later. This is a much more intimate act... Moses describes God's actions as "...separating water from water..."

Today we can see this through a more clear understanding of science. Water has 3 basic states:

1)Liquid – we all know water can also be in a gaseous state. The water molecule can become so small that it literally is lighter than air...

And we see this all the time... we experience it here in New Orleans much more than people do in other places... we call this form of water -- humidity or water in our air... the air is heavier b/c there is water in the air...

2) Gaseous – we can also see water in its gas state when we boil water...we call that steam. Finally the 3rd way is that water can take on a solid state and we call that ice...

But here God is separating the waters, not liquid, gaseous and solid… BUT do you fully understand what God is doing here in this passage? God is actually building the atmosphere for our earth.

I am sure you know that without water, we are doomed! This planet would not survive and so in these 2 particular days of creation, God set up a process by which water could and would circulate from the sky to the earth and back again so that LIFE could be sustained. Without this process… without our atmosphere we would all die!

Do you know what where we get our word "Atmosphere"? It is a combination of 2 Greek words...

1st is ATMOS which means vapor and…

2nd is SPHAIRA which means sphere...

Atmosphere = A vapor around a sphere... our atmosphere is a vapor that wraps around and protects our planet... and it is the basic building block for this protection and survival that God uses in His creation…

There are many creationists who believe and proclaim that this is Moses describing the creation of a water vapor canopy for the earth… the 7So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse… (Genesis 1:7).

This theory holds that a “vast blanket of invisible water vapor, translucent to the light of the stars but productive of a marvelous greenhouse effect which maintained mild temperatures from pole to pole, thus preventing air-mass circulation and the resultant rainfall (Genesis 2:5)