#8. The Firmament; its relation to the Ages.

     There are one or two items of importance that must be observed before we pass on from the creation of the six days as a whole, to the creation of man in particular. 

     On the first day God said, “Light be, and light was”, and “God saw the light that it was good”.  This last expression follows the appearing of the dry land and gathering of the waters into one place (Gen.i.10).  Again, on this third day the expression occurs after the earth brought forth the herb and the fruit tree (12).  The appointment of the sun and moon ruling over the day and night is also “good” (18).  The creation of the inhabitants of the waters and of every winged fowl is pronounced good (21). 

     The sixth day saw the earth bring forth cattle, the beast and the creeping thing, and these are pronounced good (25).  Man, too, is created on this day, and he is blessed (28), while the sixth day does not end without the record, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good”.  Seven times in the six days therefore do we find the word “good”.  Twice does the expression occur on the third day, and twice on the sixth.  The one day where the word is not recorded is the second, the day when “God made the firmament” which He called “heaven”.  The question arises immediately as to why the Lord did not say that this was good. 

     The reader will observe that while the first verse tells us of the creation of both the heavens and the earth, verse 2 goes on to speak of only one section of that creation, namely, the earth.  It is the earth that becomes without form and void, and it is upon the face of the waters that the Spirit of God moves.  The heavens are not mentioned here.  We are not told that the heavens became involved in chaos, nor, if they were, that they were brought through into light again.  When we come to the second day we read that God makes a firmament, and this firmament He “called heaven”.  This means the heavens that are now are not the heavens of  Gen. i. 1.   There has come in a temporary “heaven”, which is to last only for the course of the ages.  Its first name is “a firmament”, this name is descriptive of its nature, and in the A.V. margin is given “Heb. expansion”.  The Hebrew word is rakia, and comes from raka—“To stretch forth”.   Job xxxvii. 18  uses this word, “Hast thou with Him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?”.   Exodus xxxix. 3  keeps close to the meaning of the word in the passage from Job, “And they did beat the gold into thin plates”.  So again in  Isa. xl. 19,  “the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold”.  Rakia occurs 17 times in the Old Testament, being always rendered “firmament”.   Genesis i.  contains nine of these occurrences. 

     Let us endeavour to find out all that is written concerning this firmament, the heavens of the present, which were not seen to be “good” in the eyes of the Creator.   Genesis i. 6  makes the primary purpose of the firmament plain.   (1)  It was to be “in the midst of the waters”, and (2) it was to “divide the waters from the waters”.  Verse 7 shows that this purpose was put into operation, “and God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so”.  “It was so.”  When we look out over the “expanse” (rakia) away to the blue sky, however far the extent of that expanse may be, we know that above it are waters, and that it was made to divide the waters.  Further, verse 8 tells us that God called the firmament heaven.  It appears, therefore, that while the creation of the six days is in view, “the heavens” always refer to this firmament.  The next reference to the firmament, by the use of the “Genitive of Apposition”, draws our attention to this “the firmament of the heavens” of verse 14, meaning the firmament which is the heavens.  In this firmament God placed two great lights, for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years, to give light upon the earth.  Verse 20 concludes the references to the firmament by telling of the fowls that fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

     The next time we meet the word the limitation of the term is prominent.  “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork” (Psa. xix. 1).  The sun, placed in the firmament according to  Genesis i.,  is here seen running his appointed course “from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it” (Psa. xix. 6).   Psalm cl.  calls for praise to God (1) in His sanctuary and (2) in the firmament of His power.   Ezekiel and Daniel alone of the Prophets refer to the firmament.  A careful study of  Ezek. i. 22-26,  a highly complex passage, will, we believe, reveal that the firmament of  Ezekiel i.  is not that of  Genesis i.,  but that it gives us in symbol what the firmament of  Genesis i.  is with regard to God and the outworking of His purposes. 

     Ezekiel i. 22  commences, “And the likeness of the firmament”.  Likeness figures largely in the descriptions given in this chapter.  Instead of saying, “Out of the midst thereof came four living creatures”, we read, “… came the likeness of four living creatures (verse 5).  The likeness of the firmament was upon the heads of the living creatures, and under the firmament were their wings.  Above this firmament was the likeness of a throne, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man above upon it.  Here, this likeness sets forth hidden realities and their import.  Above the firmament upon a throne sits One who is like man — this is none other than Christ, the Image of God.  Beneath the firmament are four living creatures, called Cherubim in  chapter x. 

     Daniel xii. 3  is the only other reference.  It is to this firmament that Scripture refers at the time of the flood when it says, “The windows of heaven were opened”, and we have been told already of the waters that are above the firmament.  Here for the time is the throne of God (Psa. xi. 4).  His glory, however, is above the earth and the heavens (Psa. cxlviii. 13).  At verse 4 in this Psalm reference is made to the waters that are above the firmament, and to the heavens of heavens, which is the higher sphere of God’s activity, beyond the limitations of “the heavens and earth which are now”.  To this age limit refer all the references of Ecclesiastes, “under the heaven”, and “under the sun”.  To this refers  Dan. iv. 26,  “After that thou shalt know that the heavens do rule.”  Here also is “the kingdom of the heavens” of Matthew, and here also the scenes of the Revelation. 

     On many occasions the Scriptures speak of God “stretching out the heavens”.   Psalm civ. 2,  “Who stretched out the heavens like a curtain”;  also  Isa. xl. 22;  xlii. 5;  xlv. 12;  li. 13;  Jeremiah x. 12;  li. 15;  Zech. xii. 1.  These passages should all be read with their contexts, noting how closely they are connected with the theme of God’s purpose, as though the act which formed the firmament, the heavens of the present creation, was connected with the purposes that have this creation for its sphere.  Limited as it is by the creation of  Gen. i. 1,  and the new creation of  Revelation xxi.   When we grasp the significance of the firmament, and the purpose that is carried out within its expanse, we may then see the perfect fitness of the statements of Ephesians, where in the words “the heavenly places” (epouraniois, a word which literally means “upon the heavens”), we are taken beyond the firmament.  Some blessings outside the scope of Ephesians are heavenly, but none are said to be “in the super-heavenlies”.  We remember reading a letter from a well taught servant of God, who characterized our teaching as erroneous and dangerous, and he sought to dispose of the teaching we have given from Ephesians by saying that the 1^st chapter of the 1^st Epistle of Peter is so identical that to read it is to be convinced that they both teach the same thing.  We hope later on to institute a comparison, but for the time we note one point.  Ephesians always speaks of the blessings of the one body as being in the epouraniois, the sphere above the heavens.  Peter, however, does not pierce the firmament, the inheritance he speaks of is reserved “in the heavens”, not in the sphere above the heavens.  Before the overthrow of the world (A.V., foundation of the world) and before the ages times (A.V., times eternal) there was no firmament, and the blessings that Scripture connects with that period are not so limited as those which are from or since the overthrow of the world, and since the ages.  We do not know what Astronomy has to say about the firmament and the waters that are above it, but we have the revelation of Him who “stretched out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters”, and we know His Word is Truth.