Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.“

Genesis 1:7

The Hebrew word for ‘made; here is asi’yah, which is ‘doing’, adjusting something into its required position. The previous verse ‘hammered out’ the expanse, and this verse sets it into its place within its boundaries. The previous verse is the thinking and the saying of the creation of the expanse. This verse is the doing of it.

Some sages point out that since water is used as the vehicle of destruction in the Flood, God does not call them ‘good’ – the appellation that He uses on the other days. The act of destruction, the death of His beloved creation (no matter how far from Him they’ve gone), is NEVER good in God’s eyes.

In this verse the expanse is set between ‘the waters’ and ‘the waters’. It is the same base language structure used in Exodus 26:33 where there is separation between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. So it is more than a screen, but a complete entity (like the curtain of the Most Holy Place which is Jesus’ body – Exodus 33:21-23; John 14:6; Matthew 27:50-51). This entity is spiritual and physical. We see the far-flung firmament (space), but not the incorporeal elements of water (Psalm 42:7; 65:9). It is from above the expanse (above the physical) that God’s voice often comes (Ezekiel 1:25; Matthew 3:17).

A further physical divide is that everything to do with the ‘lower waters’ or the physical earth, relates to the running of the world through nature or natural processes (like the water cycle). Everything relating to the ‘upper waters’ or things in the firmament (the constellations once they get there), are run by a different set of rules (gravity, orbits, etc).

This verse ends ‘and it was so’ instead of ‘and it was good’. One reason is that the work is not yet complete. Day two begins God’s active work with water, but it isn’t completed until day three. Likewise, day two begins God’s active work with the expanse, but it isn’t completed until day four. God doesn’t call things that are not complete ‘good’. This is WONDERFUL confirmation of our salvation., We are made NEW in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17), with a NEW name (Revelation 2:17) – giving us permanence, and He calls us good (no condemnation – Romans 8:1) because He sees us THROUGH JESUS (2 Corinthians 5:21). He sees our end, our perfection in Him. He calls us what we are BECOMING day by day (2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 1:6). He calls us NOW what we WILL be (1 Corinthians 15:52).