Second Day of Remodeling. - The Firmament

13. Second Day of Remodeling. – The Firmament
Genesis 1:6-8.

"And God said, Let there be a firmament (i.e. expanse) in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." (6) "And God made (Hebrew "asah") the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so." (7) "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." (8) In these verses there are two distinct acts that are recorded. The first act being that the firmament (i.e. expanse) is made, NOT created. The second act was that the waters were divided from each other. May we pause to refresh your memory concerning the meaning of the Hebrew words of "create" and "made." Create is the Hebrew "bara" and means creating or bringing into existence something that had not previously existed. "Made," on the other hand, is the Hebrew "asah" and means: "to manufacture, to form, to release from restraint, or reassemble. The Holy Spirit wanted it known that this expanse, i.e., "firmament," had previously been created and was in use with the Original Creation. Remember, your young earth advocates do not want you to believe this.

God was now going to use the firmament to divide the waters, making two bodies of water, the atmospheric and the terrestrial. The Hebrew word for firmament is "raqia." It appears in the Old Testament in the Hebrew manuscripts seventeen times, nine of which are in the first chapter of Genesis, and refer to the starry heavens, so to speak. As to the heavens beyond the earth's atmosphere, we are told in Genesis 1:14, "And God said, Let there be lights (i.e., sun, moon, stars) in the firmament of the heaven..." The firmament also includes the earth's atmosphere as we find in Genesis 1:20.

"...and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."