The Earth and the Sea
Genesis 1:10
Passage To Study: Genesis 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Flow of the Passage:
- (Verse 10) - God names the dry land and the seas that He has just created and arranged.
What Do I Think About It?
Then called God to the ground, land—We use the word “ground” to denote the dry surface left after the retreat of the waters. To this the Creator applies the term meaning “land, or earth.” Hence, we find that the primitive meaning of this term was land, the dry solid surface of matter on which we stand. This meaning it still retains in all its various applications (Cp. Gen. 1:2). As it was soon learned by experience that the solid ground was continuous at the bottom of the water-masses, and that these were a mere superficial deposit gathering into the hollows, the term was, by an easy extension of its meaning, applied to the whole surface, as it was diversified by land and water. Our word “earth” is the term to express it in this more extended sense. In this sense it was the meet counterpart of the heavens in that complex phrase by which the universe of things is expressed.
And to the gathering of the waters called he seas—In contradistinction to the land, the gathered waters are called seas; a term applied in Scripture to any large collection of water, even though seen to be surrounded by land; as, the salt sea, the sea of Galilee, the sea of the plain or valley, the fore sea, the hinder sea (Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:11; Deut. 4:49; Joel 2:20; Deut. 11:24). The plural form “seas” shows that the “one place” consists of several basins, all of which taken together are called the place of the waters. We should also note that the term being plural also implies that the continents were in position like they are today, not in one mass as the evolutionists would have us believe, to be later divided and spread apart. We see diagrams of how the continents could have all be one, great mass, and then gradually, over millions and billions of years, drifted apart until the reached their current position. This would seem to be inconsistent with what the Bible here proclaims.
The Scripture, according to its manner, notices only the palpable result; namely, a diversified scene of “land” and “seas.” The sacred writer possibly hints at the process in Ps. 104:6-8: “The deep as a garment thou didst spread over it; above the mountains stood the waters. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up the mountains; they go down the valleys; unto the place that thou hast founded for them.” This description is highly poetical, and therefore true to nature. The hills are to rise out of the waters above them. The agitated waters dash up the stirring mountains, but, as these ascend, at length sink into the valleys, and take the place allotted for them. Plainly the result was accomplished by lowering some and elevating other parts of the solid ground. Over this inequality of surface, the waters, which before overspread the whole ground, flowed into the hollows, and the elevated regions became dry land. This is a kind of geological change which has been long known to the students of nature. Such changes have often been sudden and violent. Alterations of level, of a gradual character, are known to be going on at all times. The point is that, though there are modifications of this going on, by means of the forces of nature, constantly, the basic design was present from the beginning.
What Difference Does This Make To Me?
This disposition of land and water prepares for the second step, which is the main work of this day; namely, the creation of plants. We are now come to the removal of another defect in the state of the earth, mentioned in the second verse,—its emptiness, or rude and uncouth appearance. It is important that this arrangement was needful and deliberate in the design of God for His world. One step, as we have noted, prepares for and underlies another. God never does things in a haphazard and unplanned way. He is never spontaneous or impulsive. All that He does, beginning with the creation until now, is a function of His omnipotence and His eternal plan for the accomplishment of His will.
Is There Anything For Me To Do?
I need to be wary of explanations for the origin of the earth that are an attempt to accommodate the observations of unredeemed scientists with the claims of the Bible. It is not that they are automatically wrong, just that they are not automatically right!
Care To Respond?
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