And God said, "Let there
be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God
made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water
above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening,
and there was morning -- the second day.
II. THE SECOND DAY
The second day's work is the
forming of an expanse or heaven in the creature, by which hitherto unbounded
waters are divided from the waters. God then names the expanse. At
this stage the state of the creature, that it is drowned in
waters, begins to be perceived.
Such is the second state or
stage in the new creation. In the midst of the waters a heaven is formed
in the once benighted creature. That unstable element, so quickly moved
by storms, is the well-known type of the restless desires of the heart
of fallen man; for "wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest,
whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Before regeneration, unquiet lusts
everywhere prevail: the whole man or creature is drowned and buried in
them.
In the progress of the new creation, these waters are not at once removed:
indeed, they are never wholly removed till that other creation comes, when
there "is no more sea". They are first divided by a heaven; then bounded
on the third day, when the dry land rises up out of them. This heaven represents
THE UNDERSTANDING OPENED, as the rising earth upon the day shews us the
will liberated. For till now, "the understanding has been darkened"; nay,
it is written of the natural man that he HAS NO understanding.
But now the heaven is stretched.
Christ "opens the understanding" of those who before this had been His
disciples. And thus another precious gift, once hid with Christ in God,
now by Christ is wrought in us also. A heaven is formed within the creature;
a heaven into which darkness may return, and through which clouds shall
pour as well as bright sunshine; a heaven which for sin may be shut up
and become like brass, but which was made to be the home and treasure-house
of sweet and dewy showers; a heaven, like Israel's path through the sea
of old, sorely threatened by dark and thick waters, but, like that same
path, A STEP TO RESURRECTION POWER, and worthy to be called "heaven", even
by God Himself; influencing the earth in untold ways, here attracting,
there repelling; the great means after light of arranging and disposing
all things. By it the waters are bounded. Until now, they have flowed hither
and thither without a bound, and without a rest also. But the heaven is
formed; then a bound is set, where hitherto the restless waters have prevailed.
Then again comes division. A heaven in the creature at once "divides the
waters from the waters". Some remain below; some are above or in the heaven.
The waters henceforth are rent in twain. Some rise, purged of their saltness,
and become the fruitful clouds, in which the bow of the covenant shall
be set in due season. Some are yet the barren sea. And so within. Of our
desires and affections, some are raised and purified, not without sore
rendings; and some are as before, unquiet and unbounded, save by the heaven
over them.
After this the expanse receives a name from God. It is called "heaven",
that is the arranger: so called, because this heaven, in ways above our
thoughts, is the great agent in arranging everything. Little do man now
think of the heavens, or perceive what forces around us are at work everywhere.
We speak in our wisdom of the "three kingdoms" - the animal, vegetable,
and mineral - AS IF THESE THREE WERE ALL. Genesis will shew us yet another,
on which all these depend. For as the animal depends upon the vegetable,
and that upon the mineral, so the mineral itself depends upon another kingdom,
which was yet earlier. Some have called it the meteoric. On this the mineral
world depends, as the very names of some of the metals, come down to us
from days when there was greater insight, yet testify.
Now this "heaven", or meteoric
kingdom - formed of old over the earth, before the mineral, as that before
the vegetable and animal - was called by God the arranger, to effect great
marvels, by what we now call attraction, repulsion, electricity, or evaporation.
And so the "heaven", which is formed within the Word, is the arranger,
and in that inward world must precede the gold and fruits and living creatures.
Some have tried WITHOUT this "heaven" to have gold and fruits and life.
What have they got? Not God's work, but Satan's imitation. The heaven
MUST BE FIRST WITHIN, if we would have true fruits, even as true fruits
must precede the living creatures.
Further, I observe on this
second day, that the creature's state begins to be discerned. The waters
now are not overlooked, as upon the first day. It is now
noticed that below the
heaven all is buried in them; and this discovery, though
painful, is a step to better
things. Still, as yet there is no earth, nothing
"stablished, strengthened,
settled"; BUT THIS, TOO, COMES IN DUE
SEASON.
.....Andrew Jukes
