Genesis 1:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the account of the second day’s work, the creation of the firmament. Notice, first, God’s command about it: “Let there be a firmament,” that is, an expanse or spread-out space. The Hebrew word means something stretched out like a sheet or curtain. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between the earth and the third heaven: the air in its higher, middle, and lower regions, and the heavenly bodies above.

It reaches up as far as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called the firmament of heaven (Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15). It also reaches down to where the birds fly, and that too is called the firmament of heaven (Gen 1:20). When God made the light, he appointed the air to carry its beams and serve as a means of connection between the invisible world and the visible one. Though the distance between heaven and earth is beyond measure, it is not an unbridgeable gulf, as the gap between heaven and hell is. This firmament is not a barrier, but a way of contact. See Job 26:7; Job 37:18; Psa 104:3; Amo 9:6.

Next, consider its creation. To keep us from thinking God only commanded it and someone else did the work, the text says, “And God made the firmament.” What God commands us to do, he must also work in us, or it will not be done. He who commands faith, holiness, and love creates them by the power of his grace working with his word, so that he gets all the praise. “Lord, give what you command, and then command what you will.”

The firmament is called the work of God’s fingers (Psa 8:3). Its huge size shows the work of his stretched-out arm, yet its delicate design shows fine skill, like a work of his fingers. Then comes its use and purpose: to divide the waters from the waters, that is, to separate the waters gathered in the clouds from the waters of the sea, the waters in the air from the waters on the earth. See how carefully this difference is noted in Deu 11:10, Deu 11:11. There Canaan is preferred to Egypt because Egypt was watered by the waters under the firmament, while Canaan was watered from above, by rain and dew from heaven, which “does not wait for man” (Mic 5:7).

God has storehouses in the firmament of his power, from which he waters the earth (Psa 104:13; Psa 65:9, Psa 65:10). He also has treasure stores of snow and hail, reserved for the day of battle and war (Job 38:22, Job 38:23). What a great God he is, who has so provided for the comfort of those who serve him and the defeat of those who hate him. It is a good thing to have him as our friend, and a terrible thing to have him as our enemy.

Finally, he named it 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 set it in the heavens. So the heavens are said to rule (Dan 4:26). Is not God in the height of heaven? Yes, he is (Job 22:12), and the sight of the heavens should lead us to think of our Father who is in heaven. The height of the heavens should remind us of God’s rule and the great distance between him and us. Their brightness and purity should remind us of his glory, majesty, and perfect holiness. Their vastness, their covering of the earth, and their influence over it should remind us of his greatness and his care over all things.