Genesis 1:6-13 (NIV)

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.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning—the third day.

There are significant translation difficulties here. The Hebrew word translated as “expanse” can also be “firmament” and the word translated as “sky” can also be “heaven.”

But verses 6-8 seem to be describing the creation of the Earth’s atmosphere and then the separation of the clouds from the seas. This could be the creation of evaporation and the water cycle – or maybe God just cranked up the light until it got strong enough to start that.

Verse 9 and 10 describe the separation of the land from the seas. If God used natural processes to do this then it involved some pretty violent plate tectonics. The earthquakes we have nowadays are nothing compared to the ones that formed continents and mountains.

Plants need light, air, soil and rain. With all those now in place, God created the plants.

Those plants are an amazing gift. Not only are they food; they’re the source of medicine. While some modern medicines are made other ways, plants were the originals. We got the idea of medicines from seeing the effect certain plants had on us.

That has led to the wonders of modern medicine. While we should always thank God for this, sometimes modern medicine isn’t the answer. Think of someone who needs God’s supernatural healing and pray for them.

This is the kind of prayer that improves with time. Spend serious time asking God to heal someone and you may find your prayers going down paths you didn’t expect. In particular, if God is not going to heal them, you may be steered to new topics or tasks.

We ask God to do something for us and instead He tells us what to do.

That makes sense. He is the Lord, after all.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies