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<p>We have here an account of the second day’s work, the creation of the firmament, in which observe, 1. The command of God concerning it: <i>Let there be a firmament</i>, an <i>expansion</i>, so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens: the air, its higher, middle, and lower, regions—the celestial globe, and all the spheres and orbs of light above: it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the <i>firmament of heaven</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Gen.1.14,Gen.1.15" href="/passage/?search=Gen.1.14,Gen.1.15"><span class="bibleref" title="Gen.1.14">Gen. 1:14</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Gen.1.15">15</span></a>), and as low as the place where the birds fly, for that also is called the <i>firmament of heaven</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.1.20" href="/passage/?search=Gen.1.20">Gen. 1:20</a>. When God had made the light, he appointed the air to be the receptacle and vehicle of its beams, and to be as a medium of communication between the invisible and the visible world; for, though between heaven and earth there is an inconceivable distance, yet there is not an impassable gulf, as there is between heaven and hell. This firmament is not a wall of partition, but a way of intercourse. See <a class="bibleref" title="Job.26.7,Job.37.18,Ps.104.3,Amos.9.6" href="/passage/?search=Job.26.7,Job.37.18,Ps.104.3,Amos.9.6"><span class="bibleref" title="Job.26.7">Job 26:7</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Job.37.18">37:18</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Ps.104.3">Ps. 104:3</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.9.6">Amos 9:6</span></a>. 2. The creation of it. Lest it should seem as if God had only commanded it to be done, and some one else had done it, he adds, <i>And God made the firmament</i>. What God requires of us he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love, creates them by the power of his grace going along with his word, that he may have all the praise. <i>Lord, give what thou commandest, and then command what thou pleasest</i>. The firmament is said to be <i>the work of God’s fingers</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.8.3" href="/passage/?search=Ps.8.3">Ps. 8:3</a>. Though the vastness of its extent declares it to be the work of his arm stretched out, yet the admirable fineness of its constitution shows that it is a curious piece of art, the work of his fingers. 3. The use and design of it—to <i>divide the waters from the waters</i>, that is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapped up in the clouds and those that cover the sea, the waters in the air and those in the earth. See the difference between these two carefully observed, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.11.10,Deut.11.11" href="/passage/?search=Deut.11.10,Deut.11.11"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.11.10">Deut. 11:10</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.11.11">11</span></a>, where Canaan is upon this account preferred to Egypt, that Egypt was moistened and made fruitful with the waters that are under the firmament, but Canaan with waters from above, out of the firmament, even the dew of heaven, which tarrieth not <i>for the sons of men</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mic.5.7" href="/passage/?search=Mic.5.7">Mic. 5:7</a>. God has, in the firmament of his power, chambers, store-chambers, whence he <i>watereth the earth</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.104.13,Ps.65.9,Ps.65.10" href="/passage/?search=Ps.104.13,Ps.65.9,Ps.65.10"><span class="bibleref" title="Ps.104.13">Ps. 104:13</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Ps.65.9">Ps. 65:9</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Ps.65.10">10</span></a>. He has also <i>treasures, or magazines, of snow and hail, which he hath reserved against the day of battle and war</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Job.38.22,Job.38.23" href="/passage/?search=Job.38.22,Job.38.23"><span class="bibleref" title="Job.38.22">Job 38:22</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Job.38.23">23</span></a>. O what a gr
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