Creation Days: The Second Day

 

"...let it separate the waters from the waters.”

Genesis 1:6

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In our scientific age the second creation day appears, at first reading, as an archaic perspective of the atmosphere. The assumption is that the author of the text was trying to describe physical law based on ancient science and concluded there was a watery covering over the earth; however, the text makes no such claim. In the second day of forming, God makes a division between His dwelling place in heaven and man's universe on earth. This is a "sea of crystal" (Rev 4:6), a boundary marking the edges of our physical universe and while it remains unseen, it is represented to us by the blue sky stretched above as a kind of icon; appearing as the waters of the sea, the sky is also named "waters". Here we have a description of a three part division of the creation: heaven (God's throne room), the heavens (the firmament, space/atmosphere) and earth (man's dwelling place).

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Most significant however is the specific language used; a division of the waters, representing the descent into death. The symbol finds its clearest form in the Exodus narrative as Moses and the Israelites flee the pursuing Egyptians and God divides the waters of the Red Sea, allowing His people to cross through and bearing the waters down upon their enemies. The symbolic cycle repeats: the ark of Noah is bound between the flood waters below and the rain waters above; Jacob crosses the Jordan and his congregation is divided into two. The symbol is then actualized as the prophets Elijah and Elisha cross the divided Jordan, and on the other side the prophets themselves are divided- Elijah being borne up to heaven by the angels; salvation by Spirit and fire rather than death by water. In this same way, each Christian is baptized into Christ's death and as the curse of sin is left buried in the waters the faithful emerge, alive in Christ. Thus, the mirrored blue of sky and sea remain a constant symbol that we, like Elijah, will pass through the depths unmarred by receiving in the baptismal waters the death that Christ offered on the cross. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Part 4 of 12 of the Creation Days series