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)
5…for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land…
It would certainly have had the further effect of efficiently filtering harmful radiation from space, markedly reducing the rate of somatic mutations in living cells, and, as a consequence, drastically decreasing the rate of aging and death.”(Morris, Henry, Scientific Creationism, 1984, p. 211.)
Citing evidence of this much denser atmosphere Morris postulates that this vapor layer would have dramatically increased the atmospheric pressure on the surface of the early earth, contributing to a healthier environment (similar to a natural hyperbaric chamber – a hyperbaric chamber is used to help wounds heal faster & for burns & skin to grow back fast).
It is not until much later that this canopy “collapsed” in the form of God’s punishment of the earth when He caused it to rain! Gen 7:11 speaks of the “the floodgates of the sky were opened…” causing the great flood that destroyed all the world except those on the Ark. This ‘collapse’ of this water vapor layer is probably the reason behind the dramatic drop-off in longevity after the flood…
Certain Bible scholars cite the language of the Psalm 148:4
4Praise Him, highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. as evidence against a vapor canopy. They content that if the canopy had collapsed during the flood, then reason, why does the Psalmist still reference the waters above the heavens here?
But this poetic allusion could hark back to the original creation, or it could make reference to waters God expanded out into deep space as part of creation, or it could refer to some of the original water vapor (left over from the canopy) still in the outer reaches of our atmosphere.
Lately many leading creationists have become skeptical of the theory citing that the Water Vapor Canopy Model is untenable. Recently a climatologist working out of the Institute of Creation Research did some extensive computer modeling to determine the impact of a vapor canopy on earth’s climate.
He reported that a canopy, while technically sustainable, would be too effective as a thermal blanket... that it would cause a runaway green house effect and make the surface of the earth extremely hot (Vardiman, Larry, “Sensitivity Studies on Vapor Canopy Temperature Profiles,”Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creationism, R. E. Walsh (editor), pp. 607-618, 1998.)
My belief is that v6-7 refer to the atmosphere and whether or not it was what we may call a Water Vapor Canopy or not is really immaterial… the fact of the matter was that God created our atmosphere on Day 2! -- v8 completes Day 2
8God called the expanse “sky.” Evening came and then morning: the second day.
God separated the waters and the separation between the waters… God called that ‘expanse’ – sky! So on Day One the Universe was created and on Day 2 the Atmosphere for our planet was created, but what happened on Day 3…
Day 3…
9Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry land “earth,” and He called the gathering of the water “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
In v9 God takes a planet that was covered with water… and surrounded by water, and begins to terra-form it… He begins to bring forth land and separate the waters on the surface of the earth.
God names the dry ground ‘earth’ and the gathering of the waters ‘seas’. There are some who believe the earth used to have only one continent…
Pangea and it eventually split and became the 7 continents we know today. Here God could have taken what He had created and began to shape it into the world we now know.
After God has created light, an atmosphere and now provided land with a water source… God makes vegetation and gives the vegetation seeds to replant and gives humanity an endless source of food supply…
11Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. 12The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13Evening came and then morning: the third day.
So here we are at the end of Day 3 and God has spoken our world into existence, He has created an atmosphere where the world is protected from the harsh cosmic weather and radiation from our sun… and He has now spoken into existence every kind of plant/vegetation…
There is order to this creation and God is setting things up for the living creatures he is about to bring onto the scene, but before we get there, He has a few more things to do… Our next study will be Jan 8th and we will look at Creation Day 4 Gen 1:14-19…
