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. 8And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. English Standard Version
In verse 6, ((Two months ago. Yikes!)) we read that God declared the liquid waters to be separated from the gaseous waters. Verses 7 and 8 reflect what happened after the declaration.
The Greeks called the sky Uranus — “Father Sky,” with Gaia as Mother Earth. Uranus was commonly believed to be primordial — the sky had no father, no mother… no creator.
In actuality, the sky was purposed and formed by Almighty Yahweh, the One True God besides whom there is no other. In Hebrew, He called this expanse shamayim; its Greek equivalent is actually ouranos (“uranus”).
In just a few verses, the Scriptures describe the formation of the sky. It wouldn’t take man long before the sky is worshiped rather than its Creator. In Romans 1, Paul describes this role-reversal of serving the created rather than the Creator, and the Roman Christians would certainly be no strangers to this concept. The Romans too worshiped the sky much as the Greeks did, although they called it by the name Caelus.
A few thousand years after He created it, the sky is declared by the Psalmist to show forth the workmanship of God, declaring His glory (Psalm 19:1).
Go outside. ((Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Just go.)) Gaze up into the sky. What do you see? If you see the handiwork of God, if you get a keen sense of His glory, then you see rightly. If, on the other hand, you see the result of billions of years of cosmic evolution, then I encourage you to get alone with God, imploring Him to open your eyes to the truth of His Word. What Yahweh has said has left no room to have it both ways; either He formed the sky on the second day of the creative week or He did not. Either the sky declares the glory of God or it does not. My lots, as usual, are cast with the Almighty.
The prophet Daniel tells us that those of us who are wise — those who know the Lord and who shall awaken to everlasting life in the end of days — shall shine like the brightness of the sky above (Daniel 12:3). Like the sky, we too reflect the glory of God; in eternity, we shall do so without fault, without blemish.
And that’s the second day, the creation of what is sometimes theologically called the First Heaven, the Heaven nearest the earth, the sky, wherein clouds form, winds blow, and the birds soar. Oh, and it should be mentioned that without the First Heaven, there’d be no air for us to breathe!