creation series- Day 2

Intro

This is the second part of a 7 part series which focuses on the events of the first 7 days of creation.

Briefly recap day 1

In our last presentation, we discussed briefly what the foundation of the Earth was tied to. We started out by looking at the 1^st Day of creation week, and we examined the cause for the presence of darkness and water that were in existence before the 1^st day was called into existence.

We concluded that darkness was created just as surely as the light was. We went further to make applications for the creation of light and darkness and the contrast the existed the two. It was said that light and darkness symbolized two roads that lay before every creature of God; if the light was chosen then that creature would be a child of the light and in if darkness was chosen then that creature would become the child of darkness.

But we did not stop there; another application was made for the darkness. We said that the darkness represented a “great misunderstanding which God’s creatures had”. We looked at the origin of this misunderstanding and we also looked at how God through the working of The Word and The Holy Spirit intervenes to clear up the misunderstanding by sending forth his light into the darkness.

We concluded that day one examines the initial stages God takes to deal with the sin problem; and it emphasizes the role Christ (the light) occupies as the mediator between good and evil, light and darkness.

Before we begin our study for today let us pray

Today’s study

All these studies are to be understood in the light of the question “What was the foundation of the Earth tied to?”. We will be looking at day two of creation and its symbolism in the plan of Salvation, but before we can begin, there are certain understandings that must be had, (disclaimers if you will) if we are to have steady progress. One of which is time.

Statements about time

In Heaven where God dwells, before the creation of this Earth there was no calculation of time. In other words, time was not calculated in no way shape or form as we now know it is today. We being creatures that exist in time, this is hard for us even to wrap our mind around this concept.

So let me try to explain this..

If speed = d/t, then a speed of 65miles/hr is simply the representation of distance over time;  it follows then from this definition that time would be represented as (Time = distance/speed) distance times speed. 

In this scenario we would just get one (1) as our answer but what does this one hour mean? 

Our time is broken down into seconds, minutes, hours, days, month and years. Which are intricately tied into the revolution of the Earth around the sun; or in layman's turns the rising and setting of the sun. Now, do tell, if there is no sun and no Earth, don't you think changes would be measured by things that we cannot now attain to?

Incidentally, you cannot have a first before the first and still call the thing that followed first. In other words, if there was a day somewhere else, then this day that God called the first day would not have been the first day.

Also, if nothing was changing in Paradise what need would there be for the calculation of time.

Things were always peacefully the same until sin came in the picture. 

Know this that time is a tool created for the specific purpose of dealing with the sin problem i.e. when it would arise. 

In other words, God knew that sin would enter Heaven, so long before its manifestation in Lucifer, a plan was put in place to deal with it. 

Had there not been any possibility of sin there would be no need for time.

The fact that time did not exist anywhere else in the heavens is one argument that we can use to prove that this earth was to be the place that sin would be staged. (1cor 4:9) This idea will be developed further as we go through other studies. So if you want to hear more the conclusion of the matter I recommend that you stick around until I complete all 7 presentations on the week of creation. 

Endless time vs timelessness

So what we had before the creation of time was timelessness. However, after the sin problem is dealt with we will be moving into a period of endless time Isa 66:23.

 I hope that you can at least follow my line of reasoning so far.

Now that we have gotten this out of the way let us now proceed to our text of study Gen 1:6-8

Gen 1:6   And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 

1:7   And 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. 

1:8   And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

(not included originally) 1:9   And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. 

What physically happened

It is extremely important to know that scripture can only have one interpretation; at the same time, however, it can have infinite applications. 

So that no one leaves here with misconceptions, I will first describe what was physically done on this day, and when were are together there I will go on to make applications.

It is only with a keen understanding of the interpretation that we will be able to make good applications.  If our interpretation is correct then our application will be is correct, and it will be able to stand the test of scrutiny. This is so important it must be repeated. Whereas there may be room for more applications, there can be no room interpretation, because there is only one correct one.

On day two of creation, God created the firmament and puts it in the midst of the waters. Did I leave anything out?

But what are we to understand by firmament? We cannot begin to make an application if the interpretation is not clear. So I must clear up the interpretation.

The firmament is a circular space that God created. (Prov 8: 26-28)

• there?
  A. There are 3 heavens: 2 Corinth 12:2
  
  
  Namely: The Heaven where God dwells, the starry (celestial) heaven and the atmospheric heaven.
  
  
  Let us briefly look at them.
  
  
  Heaven where God dwells (Heaven 1)
  • This is the dwelling place of God and the celestial beings. (Rev 12:12)
  • This was the place God was/is when He spoke our world into being.  (Heb 12:22-29. )
  • This place is where the punishment/blessing which come from God originate. (Gen   8:2, Gen 19:24 VS Ex 16:4, Mal 3:10)

Heb 12:22   But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 

  12:23   To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

  12:24   And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. 

  12:25   See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven: 

  12:26   Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 

  12:27   And this [word], Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

  12:28   Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 

  12:29   For our God [is] a consuming fire.

Stress verse 25 — speaketh from heaven (Gen 21:17, 22:11 (Mount Zion)

Heaven: the origin of Punishment

Gen   8:2   The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped,

and the rain from heaven was restrained;

In the burning up of Sodom and Gomorrah, where did the fire come from?

Gen 19:24   Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

Heaven: the origin of Blessing

The starry heaven (Heaven2)

This is the first compartment of the firmament that God hangs the stars and moons and other planets, this was completed on day 4 of creation. Gen 1:14-19

This is the easiest of all to connect with and to explain since every night we are able to gaze into the starry heaven.  

The atmospheric  heaven (heaven 3)

This is the second compartment of the firmament that God allows the birds of heaven to roam. Having put the birds there, the finishing touches were added to it on day 5 Gen 1:20

Gen 1:20   And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Both the 2^nd and 3^rd heaven are visible by man. Therefore it is easy for a man to pass comments about the two, such as the “heavens declare the glory of God” or said another way the “firmament showeth forth his handywork.” Ps 19:1

Slide -15

But it is impossible to pass comments upon that which we have not seen. (Is 64:4, 1 Cor 2:9)  Blessed be John the Revelator for he was privileged to see, and as best as he could he tried to capture on paper what he saw.  Beyond that, however, man, in general, has not been allowed to see beyond the firmament.

Since we have been talking about heaven, it is now that I can explain verse one of Genesis.

THE FIRMAMENT

In GEN 1:1 the bible is stating what God did, and then the rest of the chapter is devoted to telling us How He did it. The titles tells us what is covered. One person said that this is like the title for a news item in a newspaper.  Picture a news item in a paper.  What the title does is tell you what happened, you then read the body of the article to get how it happened. This is the same thing that Gen1:1 does for the first chapter of Genesis.

Consider these images.

Is this clear?

Bible scholars will tell you that this was a common thing in the writing of chapters of the bible.

It just makes filing the chapters easier. Remember there were no verses or chapters when the bible was being written, so it hard to be organized in some way.

Now that we have gotten this out of the way, we can better wrap our minds around the 4th commandment.

Slide -16

The heaven made mention of in verse one (although singular-comprises of two compartments) is the heaven that God made on day 2. 

Although heaven is being referred to for the second time, the mention on day 2 qualifies the use of the word in verse 1.

Slide-17

Now that we understand this definition of Heaven, we now understand what the 4^th commandment is talking about when it says in 6 days the Lord made Heaven (singular) and Earth. Ex 20:8-11. 

 Ex 20:11   For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Deut 4:19)

Now that we have a better understanding of what was created. We also should have a clearer understanding of what will be destroyed when Jesus comes the 3rd time.

What will be destroyed!

Or

The entire thing that was created along with the Earth!?   Let us see what the scripture has to say about this

Matth 24:35

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

The earth the sky the entire galaxy All the planets ………..remember man has sent space junk out into space, man has also sent equipment to other planets. All of it will be destroyed although there are parts that we have not yet discovered. All of it will be destroyed and God will make a new heaven and a new earth. Rev 21:1

Slide-22 New Jerusalem

What will be re-created!

Rev 21:1-2

Notice how all three heavens are made mention of here in these two verses. The first and second compartment of heaven is destroyed and then recreated; after which time New Jerusalem comes down from the celestial heaven, properly adorned.

Lets Recap

The Heaven spoken of in Gen 1:1 is later described as the Firmament in verse 8. This is the space that is later divided into heaven 2 & 3.

Since the Heaven where God dwells is not governed by time, the fact that an element associated with time (beginning)  is used in the introductory verses suggests this was the start of time. Based on this we cannot say that at this beginning any other heaven was created with the Earth. Because there is no time in heaven.

It is not a debate whether or not God created the heaven where he dwells, because we know that God created everything, but after we put verse 1 in context we understand that the heaven where he dwells was not being spoken of in verse 1.

Are we now ready to make applications, or are we too tired?

Step 2 - applications

Now that we have cleared up the interpretation of what was made on day 2, we can now go on to make applications.  Let us look at our text of study again.

From a glance

There seems to be nothing spectacular about this day.  Howewver the truth that is being taught on this day is so important that God singles it out as the lone act for the day so that we can clearly see it. He does not want there to be any confusion on this matter, so this is the only thing that was done on this day.

Q. As you read the text can you see what is the lesson? 
Q. Do you understand what was done?

A: The water was divided.

It took me a mighty long time to realize what was the lesson in this day, but it is so plain it cannot be missed. I missed it though. 

This is the second time the separation message is being mentioned.

What was here done on day 2 further strengthens the point that was made on day one. You will remember that God divided the darkness from the light on day one. He did not totally dismiss the darkness, as he will be doing in Jerusalem made new. But instead, he divided the two.

Why separate/divide?

Both the light and the darkness had a purpose; until that purpose had been fulfilled there was still a need for the darkness.

However

We know that water was not called into being during the 7 day creation week, so it must have come from heaven where God dwells. The waters from heaven were stopped and a portion left to complete another aspect of the creation of the Earth.

The firmament acts as a divider from the waters that stay in heaven where God dwells and the water that stays becomes a part of the creation of the Earth.

In one context we can say that the firmament represents Jesus the mediator. In the same way that he was to be the divider between light and darkness, we now see him as a divider between the two types of peoples.

During the flood, the windows of heaven were opened. Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.  (Key) Again we see where God is pre-planning the event. He knew that when the man was to sin there would be a need to baptize the earth with water first and then later with fire.

Surely the separation lesson goes deeper than this I thought so I started to ask the scriptures questions.

Thinking to rev 17:15 I thought, What kind of people were these, and Why would God want to divide them?

I stumbled upon a whole range of bible truth, but none to help my study of this day. But then I asked the right question which was: "Why was it important to divide the waters from the waters?" which was the sole important thing done on that day.

Then is when I received my answers.

You God is so marvelous, and he is a teacher. He does not readily provide the answerrs until we have put in our fair share of work. He does not encourage laziness.

Before I jump in and share all that I received, let me direct your mind to the questions that I hope to answer.

• What does the water represent here?
• What time frame is being referred to here, was this before sin or after sin?
• What is the significance of  dividing these waters?

What does the water represent?

I think this is an easy question to answer. What do you think? 

Turn to Rev 17:15.

If I look at the Genesis verses as a prophecy, and they may very well be treated this way, considering the circumstances, these waters may represent people/beings.

If these water represent people, what kind of people are these? 

Since the Earth was not yet created, it means that these creatures outdate the Earth.
As far as we know, the only creatures that outdate the Earth are called angels.

What angels could these be?
 If this is the case then we can understand from the verse that the word of God is letting us know that all angelic beings were just one group prior to the Earth. before now there was no reason to separate them.

However the fact that God separates the waters from the waters means He separates the angelic beings from angelic beings. At this juncture there arose a need, i.e. in the mind of God that these angelic beings need to be separated.

Why was there a need for separation?
In my mind there are only two reasons for separation. Either the thing which is separated is contaminated or is set apart for a special purpose.

Turn with me to Rev 12:9

God being who He is, separated these angelic being becasue they had become contaminated. Now he was going to show the rest of creation what would happen in a world without law.

He was separating these angels both for a special purpose and becasue they had become contaminated.

Angels were around before the Earth was created.
Not many can substantiate this. However I touched on this a little in day 1.


We know that darkeness was made before the Earth, becausue there is mention of it before anything associated with this earth is mentioned. We read in Jude 1:6 and 2 Peter2:4 that darkness was the prison created for the angels after they were thrown out of heaven.

Casting out
Although Rev 12:9 speaks about the casting out and down, there is a distinction between the two.

When there was no Earth and the deveil was cast out.  Know and understand that before, everwhere was heaven. There was not a place that was not considered heaven. So God had to create a special place which then could be referred to as outside of heaven. This was darkness. This was the place that the devil and his angels were banished to before there was a place called Earth.

So the devil was cast out of heaven into outter darkness. Still a part of heaven technically, but it was a sort of prison that no other creatures would be found there except the devil and his angels. That was a place for the disobedient.

Although not subscribed to by all, this was the reason God came to the darkness to create this world.

Why does the bible say he was cast down to the Earth?

It is only after the cross that the devil is cast down to the Earth Let us read it in Rev12:10-13

10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

We are told in Job that Lucifer presents himself at the meeting of the sons of God as the representative of the Earth.

After Adam had sinned, Lucifer was now the representative of the Earth, thus he could go to these meetings.

The pen of inspiration tells us that after the cross all sympathy was dried for Lucifer and he no longer had a place in the meetings held in heaven.

Lucifer was uprooted  out of the meetings for two reasons.

One: Christ had now come to take the place of Adam in the meetings

&

Two:  Hie had become a bother to all the other hosts of heaven and no other angelic beings wanted him near. Now they understood why God had banished him from heaven. A punishemnt which seemed harsh at the time, but now they understood, and now they could rejoice.

Rev 12:12

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. ..

The Angels had been sorry for him before, but now that his true character had been revealed there was no more sympathy for him.

As a result of bing thrown out of heaven, the only place he now had access was the earth. So he planned to make the life of man as miserable as he could, becasue loosing access to heaven a second time was indeed a great defeat.


Rev 12:12

... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.


The sin problem began in heaven, consquently it had to be first resolved there. 

Back to our application.
The division lesson referred to on day two highlights exactly what had already happened in the heavens. The angelic host had been divided into two groups.

As if the lesson on day one was not sufficient God repeats the lesson here. There are two different beings that exist; one for good and the other for evil, one holding to the light and the other holding to the darkness.

In the same way that God separated the seeds in Gen 3:15 God was separiting the angels, so that good and evil would not be blended together but separate.

Psalm 4;  4:3   But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him (the holy belong unto the Lord eg. Sabbath, priests, children of Israel)

Slide-24

Separation cont'd
Throughout the ages there has always been a reason for separation

In the case of Abraham and Lot, they separated so that there would be no strife (Gen13:8-14)

Sometimes separation is made so that punishment can be handed out, consider  (num 16:21)

In separating the waters from the waters God was saying that sin and holiness cannot be joined, thus all components that are going to deal with sin will needs be separate. 

Think of it this way, if you know you are going to handle something unclean requiring gloves, common sense tells us that after these gloves have been used we do not put them back with the clean ones, especially if they have been contaminated. 

Hence from this separation, we could understand that this separation was for a reason. There was a special purpose for the separation. (separated for a special reason)

After you get paid you take out your tithe because that money has a special purpose. This was what was happening here, God was setting these creatures that were going to be created apart from the rest of creation.

Appeal

God has once again re-iterated the point that there are two distinct roads, and he has given us the opportunity to be numbered either among the family of living or the family of the dead.
...as children of light or children of the darkness
..as those who follow a noble purpose or them that seek after filthy lucre

What will your choice be?

Deut 30:19

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: