And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it be a division between waters and waters.
On the second day God speaks again. He calls for a space in the middle of the waters, to divide them in two. Two questions follow: what is this "expanse," and why do the waters need dividing?
The Word Behind "Firmament"
Older English Bibles read "firmament," which sounds hard and fixed. One writer traces where that word came from:
The Hebrew word translated "firmament" would be better given as "expanse," as it is marked in the reference column in some editions of our Bibles. The word "firmament" comes from the Vulgate translation of the Bible in Latin by Jerome, and is unfortunate. The idea came to him from the ancients. Greek and Roman philosophies described heaven as forming a solid vault over the earth.
The Bible itself never pictures a metal ceiling:
A solid vault is out of the question… The Scriptures really present the heavens as spread out, and the earth hung upon nothing. They nowhere support the crude idea of stars fastened like brass nails on a metal vault.
Which Heaven Is This?
Heaven was already named in the first verse of the chapter. So why does it appear again here? Scripture uses the word at more than one level:
On the second day God called a "firmament," or "expanse," into being; a further division, not now of light from darkness but of waters from waters. God called this expanse, Heaven. In verse 1 "the heaven" means what we should call the starry heavens. In verse 8 it means the atmospheric heavens… As a result of the work of the second day, an atmosphere surrounded the earth. He did it by His word, "God said … and it was so."
Kelly counts three heavens in Scripture:
The New Testament tells how Paul was caught up into the third heaven… Here God made another heaven, since man was about to be made. There is the heaven of His presence. There is the heaven of the stars, planets, and other objects in space. And there is the atmospheric heaven that man and living things here below need.
The Waters Above and Below
The two bodies of water are not alike, and one of them hangs over our heads every day:
The waters upon the earth are the salt, bitter waters of the ocean; while those above, though drawn from the ocean, are perfectly fresh. It is beautiful to see how these waters in vast and inconceivable volume are suspended in those "balancing clouds" which lift them above the earth and yet hold them in connection with it, ever ready to pour down in beneficent rain the treasures which they hold.
A Work of Kindness, Not Just Order
Take away this arrangement and life on earth becomes impossible:
God drew man's attention to His thoughtful and almighty goodness when He separated "waters from waters." Otherwise endless mist would have filled the space above the earth, without the right mixture of gases that makes up the air every living thing needs. To the air's work, with other causes God set up, we owe clouds, rain, and evaporation. It also bends and reflects light, softening it, which adds much to the beauty and usefulness of creation. Without it a black sky would have cast a constant shadow over the earth.
Why No "It Was Good"
The words "and God saw that it was good," repeated through the chapter, are missing from the second day. One writer links that silence to the kind of work done:
Nothing new was made on the second day. God separated the waters above from the waters below, leaving the heavens free as an expanse between them. But no new substance was created, so the day is not said to be very good.
The Lesson of Looking Up
One writer draws a lesson from the shape of the day:
If the first day pictures God beginning His work in a soul by new birth, the second day shows a person made to look up. True blessing comes from above, and so does authority… All below may look like a watery waste with no order. Yet if the believer is refreshed by the pure water of God's word from above, in true subjection to the Lord Jesus, his life can change greatly from disorder into calm, orderly obedience.
Summary
- Expanse. The Hebrew word means an open, spread-out sky. "Firmament" came through the Latin and sounds hard, which the text never was.
- Above. The expanse lifts fresh water over the salt sea. It holds that water in clouds, ready to fall as rain.
- Named. God calls the expanse "Heaven." It is not the starry heaven of verse 1, and not the heaven of His presence, but the air made for creatures below.
- Given. Kelly reads the day as thoughtful goodness: without this air there is no rain, no softened light, no life.
- Upward. Earth is set under heaven and fed from it. So the day teaches the soul to look up: blessing, refreshment, and authority all come from above.