Genesis 1:9-13
Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Matthew Henry: “Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; the light of heaven was kindled and the firmament of heaven fixed: But now he descends to this lower world, the earth, which was designed for the children of men, designed both for their habitation and for their maintenance; and here we have an account of the fitting of it for both, the building of their house and the spreading of their table.
I. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man, by the gathering of the waters together, and the making of the dry land to appear. 1. The waters which had covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place. The waters thus collected he called seas. Waters and seas often, in scripture signify troubles and afflictions…
Psalm 42:7
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
Psalm 69:2, 14, and 15
I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me…Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters. 15 Let not the floodwater overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
…God’s own people are not exempted from these in this world; but it is their comfort that they are only waters under the heaven (there are none in heaven), and that they are all in the place that God has appointed them and within the bounds that he has set for them. 2. The dry land was made to appear and emerge out of the waters, and was called earth, and given to the children of men. The earth, it seems, was in being before; but it was of no use, because it was under water. Thus many of God’s gifts are received in vain, because they are buried; make them to appear, and they become serviceable.”
Clay Miller: Matthew Henry had a great knack for seeing truths from nature. It is as if nature is designed to display so many great spiritual truths. Henry takes us through a brief account of the earth appearing out of the waters and some analogies he gleaned from this picture. Before I comment on those, I just want to say “WOW”! What must this have looked like! What did this massive movement do to the earth, to the tectonic plates, etc…This was enormous activity and surely would create amazing effects on the appearance of the our globe.
Scripture indeed harnesses the idea of water to convey the idea of troubled times. He gave two passages as examples. As I was copying all of this, my mind kept asking, “what are our waters? What are our waves and rushing waters?” We all go through hard times. But God is that bridge over troubled waters. He sustains us. He purposes those times and we trust our lives and deaths in His hands. We know as God controls physical waves, He controls spiritual waves as well. As a Christian I have this comfort. Some reading this will scoff and say I am leaning on a crutch. But who isn’t limping? And by the way, you lean on one too. I don’t care who you are. The question is, how long will your crutch hold out for you?
The second thought is how, like the earth coming up out of the waters and becoming useful, so our gifts should not be buried but made to appear and then they become useful. I would like to add one thought to this…The things God is teaching us when we are buried in the waters will soon come out and appear and be useful too. We should never bury our gifts nor our lessons learned from being tumbled through the tidal waves of trouble.
