Have you thought at all during the past month, as you have seen the heavy “April showers” falling so frequently of the place where they all come from,—of “the waters that be above the heavens?”

Yes, you have looked up at the sky, and watched the clouds, and wondered how long the shower would last, how soon the veil would disappear from the face of the sun, and its bright smile invite you out again to play in its warm beams.

But have you thought of the great ocean of water that is above the firmament, bound up in the thick clouds? What holds it up there, and how is it that it stays floating in the heavens, instead of all falling to the earth and swallowing up every living thing?

Well, we can tell you what it is that holds up this mighty ocean of waters, but we cannot tell you how it is done, for that is something that no one in this world is able to explain.

In the Book of Job there are two questions asked that none of the wise men of this world have yet been able to answer: “Canst thou understand the spreadings of the clouds?” and “Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds?”

It is the Word of God that upholds these waters in the clouds, for He “upholdeth all things by the Word of His power.” When God said, “Let there be a firmament [an expanse or space] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters,” His Word, the breath of His mouth, went forth between the waters and divided them. “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” Did you know that you are really dwelling “in the midst of the waters,” in a tent between the waters, which are held back by the Word of God, and if He should withdraw His hand you would be at once overwhelmed and swallowed up, just as Pharaoh and his host were in the Red Sea?

You may have thought, as you have read of the children of Israel journeying through the wilderness, how much you would like to have travelled with them, and seen “the mighty acts of the Lord,”—to have fed on the manna that fell from heaven, to have drunk of the water gushing from the rock, to have marched through the midst of the Red Sea and the River Jordan on dry land.

But all these things were only to show them and us what wonders God is doing for us all the time. He let them “see His works forty years,” so that they might “learn His ways,” might learn to know Him so well that they would be able to see Him working everywhere and in all things.

He fed them with bread from heaven so that they might know that all the bread they had came from heaven, and He the One who fed them always. He made the water gush from the rock upon which He stood, to teach them that all the water in the world flows from Him, “the fountains of living waters.” He held back the water; of the Red Sea and the Jordan, and led them through the midst on dry land, so that they might see that they were all the time walking on the dry land in the midst of the waters which are held back by His power.

In the Book of Exodus, we are told just what it was that divided the waters of the Red Sea. “The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong wind;” “by the blast of His nostrils the waters were gathered together.” God breathed between the water, so making a way for the children of Israel to pass, while His breath separated the waters and held them back.

And this is just what He did in the beginning, and has been doing ever since He first said, “Let there be a firmament.” He breathed between the waters, and divided the waters that were above from the waters that were below the firmament.

This firmament we call the atmosphere or air, which is the breath of God in which “we live, and move, and have our being. The Lord stretcheth out the heavens, [or the atmosphere] like a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.”

At one time God let the waters above and the waters below the firmament come together again as they were in the beginning. This was because the wickedness of the people in the earth was so great that God was obliged to destroy the world by a flood of waters.

Then “the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the flood-gates of heaven were opened;” the world was turned again into one great ocean and every living thing destroyed except Noah and those who were with him in the ark which floated safely upon the waters. “The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.”

Then “God made a wind to pass over the earth,” and “the waters returned from off the earth continually.” The waters were again divided, and “the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same Word are kept in store.”

How may we know that there will never be another flood of waters to destroy the earth? What has God given us to remind us of this? Think of this until next week when we will talk of it again.

The Present Truth – May 4, 1899
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  Between the Waters