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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Trapp Complete Commentary - Genesis 1:7 - 1:7
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Gen_1:7 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.
Ver. 7. Waters which were above the firmament.] That is the clouds, and watery meteors above the lower region of the air, where God’s "pavilion round about him is dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies". {Psa_18:11 Jer_10:13} These he "weighs by measure"; {Job_28:25} not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place. And this is the first heaven: as the second is the starry sky, which is firm and fast, "as a molten looking-glass". {Job_37:18} To this heaven, some that have calculated curiously, have found it five hundred years’ journey. Others say, that if a stone should fall from the eighth sphere, and should pass every hour a hundred miles, it would be sixty-five years or more, before it would come to ground. {a} Beyond this second heaven, Aristotle acknowledgeth none other. Beyond the movable heavens, saith he, there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. {b} But "we have a more sure word of prophecy." God’s blessed book assures us of a "third heaven," {2Co_12:2} called elsewhere "the heaven of heavens," {Deu_10:14} the "Paradise" of God, {Luk_22:43} the "bosom of Abraham," {Luk_16:22} the "Father’s house," {Joh_14:2} the "city of the living God," {Heb_12:22} the "country" of his pilgrims. {Heb_12:14} A body it is, for bodies are in it; but a subtile, fine, spiritual body; next in purity to the substance of angels and men’s souls. It is also, say some, {c} solid as stone, but "clear as crystal" {Rev_21:11 Job_37:18} A true firmament, indeed, not penetrable by any, no, not by angels, spirits, and bodies of just men made perfect; but by a miracle, God making way by His power, where there is no natural passage. It opens to the very angels, {Joh_1:51 Gen_28:12} who yet are able to penetrate all under it. The other two heavens are to be passed through by the grossest bodies.
{a} Burton. Of Melancholy
{b} ïõäå ôïðïò ïõäå êåíïí ïõäå ÷ñïíïò åóôéí åîù ôïõ ïõðïíïõ - Arist. De Caelo, c. ix.
{c} Yates’s Model