“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Psalms 19:1.

Did you ever watch the steam rising out of the tea-kettle and floating off in the air? If you look at it closely it looks very much like little tiny drops of water floating about. And that is really what it is, for if you hold a cold tin over it, the tin soon will be covered with water. When the sun comes out bright and warm after a rain, you can see steam or vapour, like this, rising from the wet pavements; in a few moments the water that was on them has all gone up in the air, and the pavements are dry. Some mornings when you look out of the window the air is so full of fog, or vapour, that you cannot see across the street.

When the earth was first created, you remember it was all covered with water. Part of this water was in vapours and fogs, like that which you have seen, only very much thicker. Job 38:9.

On the second day, the next day after the heavens and earth and light were made, God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,” that is, Let there be a space between the waters. It was the same as though He had said, “Waters, do not stay together any more, but let there be a space between you.” And it was so! Part of the waters (those which were in vapours) rose right up, away from the other waters (Jer. 10:13), and there was a great space between them and the others! And God filled this great space or firmament with air.

Some of these waters which rose up, God bound in thick clouds (Job 26:8), and others float around in such fine specks that we cannot see them. Even in a bright clear day, there is a great deal of water mixed up with the air. And God balances these clouds full of water and keeps them from breaking, and causes them to be driven by wind from one place to another where rain is needed. Then he causes them to let the rain come gently down in small round drops upon the thirsty plants and trees.

When we look up through this great firmament which God made, it looks blue, almost like a blue curtain or roof above our heads. We call it the “sky.” This beautiful space or firmament above us which looks so blue, which is lighted with the twinkling stars, and in which are the air and the wonderful clouds,—this we call the “heavens.” How grand and beautiful!

We cannot see the air, but we know there is air and wind because we see what it does. In just the same way we know there is a God. We cannot see Him, but we know that God is, for we see all around us and over us the wonderful things that He has done—things that no one else could do. No wonder that the Bible says, “The heavens declare [or tell of] the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” In other words, the wonderful things in the firmament show us some of the glory of God, and some of the work that He is able to do.

1. Did you ever watch it rain?

2. Did you ever catch any rain?

3. What is it?

4. From whence does it come?

5. How did water first get up so high? God put it there.

6. When? On the next day after He made the heavens and earth and light;—on the second day.

7. Did God take the waters in His hands and put them up there, or how did He do it? He did not touch them at all. He just said, “Let there be a firmament [or space] between the waters,” and all at once there was a great space between them; part of the waters rose right up away from the other waters and stayed there!

8. Can you make a space between things in that way?

9. With what did God fill the firmament? Air.

10. What did God do with some of the waters that rose up? He bound them up in thick clouds.

11. And when God sees a certain place in the earth that needs rain, what does He cause these clouds to do?

12. Do we know when the rain is needed as well as God does?

13. Instead of complaining, then, and looking cross when it rains, what should we do? We should be happy, and should thank God for sending the beautiful rain just when we need it. If He did not send it just when He does, we might be ill, or the plants or trees might not grow, and then we would not have any good food to eat.

14. Can you think of anything else for which the clouds are good?

15. When we look up through the vast firmament, how does it look?

16. What do we call this blue that looks so much like a blue roof? The sky.

17. Then on the second day when God said, “Let there be a firmament,” what three things did He really make? The air, the sky, and the clouds.

18. What name did God give to this firmament? or the air and the sky, and the clouds? The heavens.

19. What do the heavens declare, or tell us?

20. And what does the firmament or heavens show us? His handiwork, or the work that He has done.

21. Can anyone but God do such wonderful things?

22. You cannot see the air, but how do you know that there is air?

23. You cannot see God, but how may you know that God is?

“In the sun, the moon, the sky;
On the mountains wild and high;
In the thunder, and the rain,
In the groves, the wood, the plain;
In the little birds that sing;
God is seen in everything.”

The Present Truth – September 14, 1893
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf The Firmament