OneYearBibleOnline Discussion

“In the beginning God…”
Right from the start, Scripture just states the fact that God exists. It shows us that He is the one God, all-powerful and the creator of the entire Universe, including humankind.

Scripture never tries to convince us that God exists, it only declares the fact that God exists! The created Universe itself declares His existence and glory!

“O LORD…when I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers–the moon and the stars you have set in place–
what are mortals that you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us?” (Psalm 8:3-4)

I am so thankful to know that God is God and I am not!
Praised be the LORD!
peace,
Jeff

... and I'm thankful that GOD is mindful (cares) of us. Praise HIM!



Speaking of In the beginning … =)

Here's something that has peaked my curiosity for a long time … (at least when I'm not side-tracked by other musings) ….

Genesis 1:6
And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water."

7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky."

~ ~ ~

Ok …so I read this (from several different versions) that ... the sky separates water below it from water above it.

Has anyone else here ever wondered if there is water above us?

Day Two: Sky, Waters
Genesis 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.”7And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.8God called the space “sky.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

I have heard many different interpretations about the division of the waters.
The Genesis account of creation is written in the most ancient Hebrew. While Genesis declares God's actions accurately, it doesn't do so as a science text book would, but contains much symbolism mixed in as well as shifts from the human view to God's point of view about creation.

Some people say there was a "vapor canopy" covering the Earth in those days before the Flood and that sin and God's judgment unraveled this. Even today, we know that clouds are water above the expanse of what we call "sky". I was taught this when I first became a Christian. It seems to make sense to me, but I wasn't around then (contrary to popular opinion haha) so we can only infer from the text and the natural world of creation itself.

I would also point to the Flood account itself in Genesis 7 as well as the earlier statement in Genesis 2 retelling of Creation, which has some other details, for some clues:

Gen 2:4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
Creation of Man and Woman (2:4b-25)
Creation of the Man
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,5neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.6Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land.7Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.


[Notes from the NLT Study Bible :
The creation account describes the appearance of things from a human perspective. The sky is viewed as a shiny dome that is a buffer between two collections of water (cp. Job 37:18; Ezek 1:22). In the ancient Near East, the cosmos was understood as a three-tier system, with rain originating from the outermost tier]

Gen 7 :11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky.12The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.

[Notes from the NLT Study Bible [another Tyndale goodie!] :
The flood undid the boundaries established on the second and third days of creation (1:6-13). Elsewhere, the Bible describes God’s judgment as an undoing of creation (see Jer 4:23-26; Amos 7:4)]

Perhaps the "waters above" were part of what helped protect the earliest human beings from harmful deteriorating radiation before the Flood. Despite being fallen creatures that died, those before the Flood still had much longer maximum lifespans than those after the Flood (which dropped very dramatically to the 120 max we seem to have today). We know that the Earth's atmosphere has an ozone layer which is part of that protective function even today! Even a damaged Creation, infected by the results of the Fall of humankind, still bears the Creator's ingenious ways.

These are fascinating things to think about and there are persons that study these things better than I, but the text of Scripture certainly shows the basic states of water that existed and even exist until now in the ground, on the surface and in the expanse above us

Peace,
Jeff

Wow! .. Awesome!!
Thank you so much for the wealth of information here ...

Very interesting!! … (even more so than I thought) … and plenty to chew on!


Peace and blessings ..
Grace

I have also heard that it was a "vapor canopy" that helped the earliest human to have the longer lives, but that it dissappeared as part of the flood of 40 days. This kindof makes sense to me of thinking about how much water would be needed to flood the whole world. But as we know all know NOTHING is impossible with GOD.

Blessings,
Steve

We know that rain fell and water from in the earth broke open. It is certainly possible!
If a hurricane can level cities, and typhoons and tsunamis can cause devastation around the world, then I cannot see an event of this magnitude being insufficient to do exactly what God did as related in Genesis.

Take care, Steve
Keep sharing and "kudos" to you!