The Strand Study Bible

GENESIS GENESIS The firmament above us is so extensive that it could hold in suspension three times the amount of all the waters on the face of the earth. The fact is: our rivers pour into our oceans 186,240 cubic miles of water a year. If the amount of water that flows into our oceans from our rivers flowed all at once, it would cover the entire earth to a depth of three feet. However, because God controls both bodies of water through the process of precipitation and evaporation this never happens. Solomon himself observed the same phenomena ( Eccl 1:7 ). Thanks to precipitation and evaporation, we are blessed to be breathing on planet earth instead of drowning in it. 3. To provide outside power – The reason God divided the waters from the waters, and established an ocean in the firmament above is so that man could exploit the power of electricity. Think about it. All the amazing wonders of power are possible only because of precipitation and evaporation. The oceans heat up by way of the sun and begin the process of evaporation. Fresh water then rises into the atmosphere and is carried off by the winds. The clouds then drop their precious cargo called precipitation over the dry lands of the earth. Man then harnesses those rains by building dams and power plants. Water is indeed the fit symbol of life, as every drop teems with it. Not only does water contain life, it prolongs it, extends it, and confers it. Learn about water and you will learn about salvation. And just as nothing can exist on earth without water, nothing can exist in Heaven without salvation. NOTE - Water is an amazing creation. Like the salvation it illustrates (Jn 4:14), water has some unique properties that no other fluid has. For example: * Water is not an element. It is a combination of two elements (or gases): hydrogen and oxygen . Separate the two elements (or gases) found in water and you have an explosive situation on your hands that is sure to result in fire. Hydrogen, as you know, is the most flammable gas known to science. Oxygen, on the other hand, is responsible for all combustion. Which means that the two ingredients in water (hydrogen and oxygen), if separated, become highly explosive and combustible. Like water, you don’t want to separate the two ingredients found in salvation: the WIND and the Word (hydrogen – Jere 20:9), i.e., the SPIRIT and Scripture - Ezk 37:1-10, I Pet 1:22-23, II Thess 2:13, Titus 3:5b , Jn 1:13 & 3:5 and Jms 1:18). To do so is sure to end in fire. However, the beauty of combining these two gases to form water is that, together, the two gases become a fluid that puts fires out instead of starts them. Separate the ingredients and instead of avoiding a fire, you’ll be starting one (Hell - Mt 7:13-14 & Rev 22:17-19). * Water does not always obey the laws of God and nature. Job calls attention to this mysterious phenomenon when he states in Job 38:30, “ The waters are turned into a stone , when the face of the deep is frozen .” What Job is describing for us is ice (frozen water). Job calls ice a stone because when water freezes it becomes hard and heavy. Yet it floats. Why? Because water does not always obey the laws of nature. Normally when something freezes it contracts. However, because water rebels against the laws of nature, it starts out to obey this law called contraction, and then it revolts and goes its own happy, independent way. The water begins to gain all the bulk it lost, plus 30% more so that by the time it becomes hard, heavy and stone-like – it floats. Salvation performs the same way. Like water that rebels against the laws of nature, salvation dissents against the laws of God. Like water, salvation does not depend upon our understanding of its mysterious operation, but upon the mighty facts which constitutes the source of its power. Paul said in Galatians 3:10-12: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse : …But that no man is saved by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith Like water and the laws of nature, salvation (grace - Eph 2:8-9) and the laws of God (works - Rom 11:6) don’t mix. The law was not given to save us; it was given to show us our need of a Savior. Paul said in Galatians 3:24: Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ , that we might be justified by faith (not works). * Water is controlled by only one source –the sun. Just as the heat of the sun is the only source that can control water, so the heart of the SON OF GOD is the only source that can control salvation. Acts 4:12 says: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men , whereby we must be saved . According to John 2:6-9 and 6:15-19,35, there is but one source, which controls water (salvation) CHRIST , the pre-existing light. As long as we deny its source, we cannot take the water of life. Salvation comes from Jesus and Jesus alone. It’s not Jesus plus – its Jesus only! 1:9a The first event of the third day is the formation of the oceans. Notice that Moses states that all the oceans are gathered together unto “ one place ” (one bed). Meaning, all the oceans are connected somehow. Question is: How could Moses, who lived c. 1500 BC, have known this? Neither he nor any other man of his day had even seen all the oceans. Yet it is true that all the oceans of the world occupy one vast and gigantic bed. The Atlantic meets the Pacific below South America; the Pacific merges with the Antarctic; the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean Sea at Gibraltar; the Atlantic meets the Baltic Sea at Skagerrak; and both the Pacific and the Atlantic merge with the Arctic. In fact, if one wanted to, one could circumnavigate the entire globe without bumping into any land whatsoever at latitude sixty degrees south. In Moses’ day only an all-knowing God could have known this information. It is impossible therefore that Moses could have spoken from purely human wisdom here. 1:9b The element of design is clearly shown again by the ratio of the dry land to the waters of the oceans. We know today that the oceans occupy three-fourths of the globe (or, 145 million square miles containing 358 million trillion gallons of water), and that the dry land occupies one-fourth (or, 52 million square miles). It is a known fact of nature that the amount of rainfall needed to 44