Genesis 1 SERIES - Verse 6-8

  Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry

 

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.

Vs.6-8

 

We have here an account of the second day's work, the creation of the firmament, in which observe, 

1. The command of God concerning it: Let there be a firmament, an expansion, so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens: the air, its higher, middle, and lower, regions—the celestial globe, and all the spheres and orbs of light above: it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the firmament of heaven (v. 14, 15), and as low as the place where the birds fly, for that also is called the

firmament of heaven, v. 20. 

 

2. When God had made the light, he appointed the air to be the receptacle and vehicle of its beams, and to be as a medium of communication between the invisible and the visible world; for, though between heaven and earth there is an inconceivable distance, yet there is not an impassable gulf...

This firmament is not a wall of partition, but a way of intercourse. 

 

3. The use and design of it—to divide the waters from the waters, that is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapped up in the clouds and those that cover the sea, the waters in the air and those in the earth. 

 

4. The naming of it: He called the firmament heaven. It is the visible heaven, the pavement of the holy city; above the firmament God is said to have his throne (Eze. 1:26), for he has prepared it in the heavens;.... Is not God in the height of heaven? Job 22:12. 

 

---The height of the heavens should remind us of God's supremacy and the infinite distance there is between us and Him; 

---the brightness of the heavens should remind us of His glory, 

---the vastness of the heavens, their encompassing of the earth, should remind us of His immensity and universal providence.