God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
The firmament is not a wall that shuts heaven off from earth but a way of intercourse between them. God appointed the air to be the vehicle of light's beams and the medium by which the invisible world communicates with the visible, spanning that vast distance yet leaving passage open.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:6-8
God called the expanse heaven, which reaches to the third heaven itself and includes the starry and airy regions. Evening and morning made the second day, a full twenty-four hours, yet notice the sacred formula 'and God saw that it was good' does not close this day's work as it does the others, because the waters were not perfected until the third day.
AI summary
The atmosphere draws up the lighter waters from the earth's surface and suspends them in the visible heavens while the heavier mass remains below. By this single creative act, air stands in the midst of the waters and separates them, fulfilling the only use Scripture mentions.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:6-8