Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. 

  Regarding the waters above and the waters below, see notes on Genesis 1:2. We turn our attention now to the expanse.

  One reason God separated the heavens and the earth with a great expanse was to distinguish the holy from the common, the Creator from the creation. We see this, for example, in passages that speak about His Majesty enthroned in heaven, far beyond all human dominion and authority.

Thus says the LORD,
“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where then is a house you could build for Me?
And where is a place that I may rest?” - Isa 66:1

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!” - I Kings 8:27

  Looking at verses 14-17, we see that God placed the sun and the moon in the expanse, and apparently the stars as well. So this “expanse” reaches all the way from the air above us that birds fly in (verse 20) to the uttermost reaches of the universe. Man cannot reach the river of God that flows above the heavens — not with airplanes, not with space shuttles, and not even with a Federation Starship. Astronomy, as with all science, should humble man to the core (Isa 66:1-2). How sad when man turns discoveries of his own tininess into occasions for inflating his pride.

  We need to appreciate the vastness of the expanse between heaven and earth in order to grasp how profoundly remarkable it is that God might bridge the gap. Yet that is precisely what is hinted at in Scriptural accounts such as the story of Jacob’s dream about a ladder:

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. - Gen 28:10-12

Likewise, Agur the son of Jakeh saw a Biblical mystery regarding the expanse but could not find the the answers in his time:

Neither have I learned wisdom,
Nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.
Who has ascended into heaven and descended?
… Who has wrapped the waters in His garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name or His son’s name?
Surely you know! - Prov 30:3-4

  Surely we do know! Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God, is the One who has ascended into heaven after descending to earth. How blessed we are to live in an age when Jacob’s dream has been fulfilled:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” - John 1:51

  Now we can look at the expanse of the heavens and see an entirely different lesson. Not how unreachable God is, but how unfathomable are the depths of mercy that God gone to in order to satisfy us with a drink from the waters above:

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat…. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isa 55:1-9, emphasis added

  Muslims say that God could not become a man because God’s dignity is so far above and beyond man. If only they listened to the superior wisdom God has spoken of Himself in the Bible! The Lord is indeed so far above and beyond (sinful) mankind, that He does the one thing that we would never expect someone so far above and beyond us to do — He comes to sacrifice and serve:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:45

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;¼br> as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  - Ps 103:11-12

Hallelujah and amen! Now all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 16:19, Matt 18:18, Matt 28:18) belong to Him who crossed the expanse and came down from above (I Cor 15:47).

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Phil 2:8-11

  Often in Scripture the heavens and the earth are called upon to witness the work of God, to hear and to give testimony in God’s courtroom about all that has transpired (e.g. Deut 32:1, Isa 1:2). But the heavens and the earth have never seen anything that tops the unsearchable riches of Christ that Jew and Gentile now share in His church:

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Eph 3:10-11, emphasis added

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. - Eph 1:9-10, emphasis added

  Those who have come under the headship of Christ rejoice that new heavens and a new earth are coming (Isa 65:17ff), where the dwelling place of man is not separated from the dwelling place of God (Rev 21:3). But not everyone will be there to enjoy it. Another “expanse” is coming which can never be crossed.

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. - Luke 16:26

If Lazarus was condemned to such an eternal fate for rejecting the testimony of an earthly man such as Moses, then how much worse will it be for those who treat lightly the Man from heaven:

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what cannot be shaken may remain. - Heb 12:25-27

Jesus Christ — in Him all things (in heaven and on earth) hold together.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

John 1:4-5:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Rev 22:16:

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

  Mornings are all about Jesus. Jesus as the preincarnate, eternal Word of God ushered in the first morning. Jesus as the incarnate, life-giving Word of God brought the dawn of the new day as prophesied in Isaiah 9:1-2 and fulfilled in Matthew 4:16. And Jesus as the radiant, glorified Word of God is the bright morning star whom we look to with expectant hope during this age of present darkness. So whenever you think of mornings you should think of Jesus. Wake up every morning saying, “Hey, it’s a new morning — that reminds me of Jesus!”

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  These two words, “formless” and “void”, point to an outline of God’s creative work during the next six days and beyond. The first three days of creation God brought form to the formless, while the next three days He filled the void. More specifically, on each of the first three days God performed acts of separation to make a distinction between one thing and another. On the fourth day He populated the structure that He created on the first day, on the fifth day He populated the structure from the second day, and on the sixth day He populated the structure of the third day.

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[The speaker is Wisdom personified]
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
“From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
“When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no springs abounding with water.
“Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills I was brought forth;
While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,
Nor the first dust of the world.
“When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
When He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed,
When He set for the sea its boundary
So that the water would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in the world, His earth,
And having my delight in the sons of men.

  “The clear personification of these verses led most of the early Church Fathers to find here a prophecy of Christ” (Wycliffe Bible Commentary). However, this passage also became a source of controversy since vs. 22 in the Septuagint reads, “The Lord created me.” In order to avoid the (Arian) heresy of a created Christ, and for other reasons, many later commentators have said that Wisdom in this passage is not the same as the Logos of John 1.

  However I am persuaded, with the early church fathers, that this passage IS indeed about the preincarnate Christ, the Logos of God. Perhaps the first reasons is because in principle I believe that Christ is at the forefront of all the Scriptures when rightly and fully understood, which claim this site intends to prove more and more over time. Some other reasons for accepting the “traditional” view of this passage will become clear as we proceed.

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1-3:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Rev 22:20-21:

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

  Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, the beginning and the end. Like the two covers of a book, in Him all things hold together. Presently we will be looking back toward the beginning. But as we do so it is good to remember that the universe, the Bible, and the gospel don’t begin with Jesus as a starting point only to move on to something better. There is nothing better than Him. The Beginning is also The End.

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