#3 On the Nature of God: New creation shows God’s Brilliance

In earlier notes, God was shown to be eternally existent and the creator of the heavens and the earth. This means that the universe had a beginning and a zero-time date. On day one, God as the eternal Spirit created light, a tremendous achievement, in order to bring light to the dark earth. Then He started the earth’s rotation so that light would appear in the day and be absent at night. God’s nature was shown to be not only creative but able to evaluate His creation and pronounce it good. God gave the names evening and morning to the effect of light on the earth and to serve as markers for each of His days of creation.

On the second day, God continued in a brilliant way to fashion the earth so it would be suitable for His ultimate creation, Genesis 1:6-8:

“And 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 that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

Note that this expanse must be the sky that we look up and see, because in Genesis1:14 and 17, describing events of the fourth day, lights are placed in the expanse. Also, in Genesis1:20 on the fifth day, birds fly in this expanse or sky.

One might imagine that creation of an expanse was only one deed and not very impressive. This is not true. The creation of the heavens—the earth’s sky or atmosphere—was a tremendous act. First, it involved dividing the water into two separate locations: one above, no doubt as water vapor used later to water the earth, and one below as liquid to be further formed on the next day. In the midst of these two domains was the heavens, the sky, the air. But the water in the air was, no doubt, in the vapor form needed later for plants, animals, and mankind.

Note in connection with the flood of Genesis 7 that there was enough water provided in the initial creation to completely cover the earth. Now part of that water is moved to be in the atmosphere. Still, the earth is covered in water. Land will not appear until the next day.

This atmosphere above the water below was a great creation. This would be the air we now breath—about 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% carbon dioxide. The oxygen was for animals and man to live. The carbon dioxide would be needed on the next day for the plants. The nitrogen is inert in the lungs and to the body. Only God could conceive of this ideal composition of air.

Probably we do not appreciate the extreme importance of the atmosphere. At the outer extreme, ozone would exist and filter out the harsh ultraviolet rays that would radiate from the sun when it was created on the fourth day. Further, any meteor from outer space would be burned up by the ozone and the oxygen.

The rotation of the earth, now containing this atmosphere or expanse, would create gravity so that the air in the atmosphere would not escape into the vacuum of deep outer space. Later, as clouds formed and exuded water, the raindrops would fall to the earth.

In summary, day two was a tremendous creative day as God revealed His ability to plan and then execute the plan to make an ideal place for mankind. To do so much for mankind shows that God’s nature is one of love for man.

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