"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 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. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." 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. Aristotle's (B.C. 384-322) description was "a sphere studded with stars." The little girl, who imagined the stars were gimlet holes let into the floor of heaven through which the glory of heaven shone, was not far removed from the learned philosopher in her ideas.
The meaning of the passage is plain. Up to now the chaotic earth was enswathed in water and enwrapt in darkness. Then God took in hand to reconstruct the earth. He decreed that there should not only be water on the earth, but by evaporation there should be water in the skies in the form of clouds. There was to be water below the expanse, that is on the earth; and water above the expanse, that is as seen in the clouds in the sky.
When one realizes that one inch of rain on an acre of ground, approximately an area of seventy yards square, weighs one hundred and one tons, and that often rain will fall on a whole country at one time, one gets some idea how vast is the weight of water above the expanse. By an arrangement of nature this enormous weight of moisture is suspended in space, and driven about by the winds, so that rain falls in the right places to fulfill God's will. Psa. 148 says, "Praise Him... ye waters that be above the heavens... Stormy wind fulfilling His word."
The great heat of the tropics and the great cold of the arctic regions by their reaction on each other produce winds, without which rain would be unequally distributed.
Such is our Creator-God. What do we not owe to Him? Our very life, and the sustainment of it. Every breath we draw we owe to Him.
It is calculated that seventy per cent of the earth's surface is covered by water, and thirty per cent by land. The average height of the land above the level of the ocean is about 2,300 feet; while the astonishing average depth of the ocean is about 13,000 feet. If the earth had too great a proportion of land, we should have droughts and deserts. If too much water in proportion to the land, we should have floods that would destroy the crops and devastate large tracts of land. The arrangement, that exists, shows the wonderful wisdom of our Creator-God.
It is worthy of note that the word, Heaven, in Gen. 1 I, in the Hebrew original is in the dual number. Who told Moses to write it thus? What did he know of the atmospheric heaven where life can exist, where the birds fly and the clouds form; of the stellar heaven, those vast spaces where the atmosphere is so rarified that human life cannot exist? Do we not see the hallmark of inspiration here?
It is interesting to note that the Apostle Paul was caught up to the third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:22I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. (2 Corinthians 12:2)). The Jews would understand this. The first, the atmospheric heaven; the second, the vast stellar spaces; the third Heaven, the dwelling place of God.
It is deeply interesting to see the division between Heaven and Earth. God would constantly remind man that he is dependent on his Creator. Where is the sun, the center of our system, the source of light and heat, the ripener of the fruits of the earth, but in heaven? Earth is dependent upon heaven. Whence come the refreshing life-giving showers on the thirsty earth, without which we should perish, but from heaven? Earth is dependent upon heaven. Would that men would recognize this. God emphasizes this very markedly in Gen. 1.