It seems, when he created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), God placed the stars where they are in space, relative to one another. In other words, he created the constellations to be where they are, as we see them today (cp. Job 9:9). Many critics would question how the distant starlight, traveling at the speed of light could possibly have gotten to earth by today. On the face, that is a good question, but I really don’t need to know that, and not knowing how it was done, doesn’t put the existence of God in question. First of all, a God who could create this universe in its immensity, placing the galaxies in their positions with respect to one another knows a lot of things that I don’t know. I simply stand in awe of the heavens he created, and if I could understand more, that would be good, but to understand all, would put me in the place of God. Would it not?
Only he knows all. Some things are there and simply point to his greatness. Certainly, in the Big Bang model, it requires the age of the universe to be billions of years old. However, if God was able to instantly bring the light of distant constellations to the earth, just as, he, instantly, created this immense universe with all of its contents, then age from his perspective would be no problem; from ours it only causes us to be in awe of him. He, and he alone, is THE God, after all.
For the most part, chapter one of Genesis concerns itself only with our solar system. The whole universe is what God brought into existence in a moment, as implied in Genesis 1:1. He left our solar system in chaos, water, land, heat, light etc. formless and indistinguishable (Genesis 1:2). He began to put our solar system in order by creating the sun, moon and planets in their respective places to one another, thus bringing light to the Earth, and with the Earth rotating on its axis, he divided the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3-5). Next, on the following day, God spoke again and he divided the waters from the waters, and this was done by creating an expanse that surrounded the Earth (Genesis 1:6)
Many critics like to cause the Genesis account of creation to arise out of other accounts of creation in Mesopotamia, like the Babylonian Enuma Elish. They claim that, when the Israelites were taken captive to Babylon, Jewish scholars copied the pagan record of creation, as it was believed by the priests in Babylon, and made it their own. The whole idea is wrong, but the critics presume the similarities prove plagiarism. The similarities are greatly exaggerated, and only a scholar would be able to see most of them on his own. Other folks are taught to see them by those who do. Nevertheless, what would be the motive behind the Jews’ plagiarizing their enemy’s understanding of creation? There is no premise for it. All the Jewish records at the time (Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and Ezekiel) show Jewish scholars requiring the Jewish people to remain separate from the nations around them. Where is the need or desire to copy?
Notice that, after God “said” (Genesis 1:6), God “made” (Genesis 1:7)! This is, once again, the second Figure in the creation record, whom we saw mentioned as the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2. God, outside the universe, speaks, while God, inside the universe, “made” what was described by God who spoke (Genesis 1:7). These are not two Gods, but one, and this will be made clear later, when we come to chapter two. So, God made a firmament, but a better translation would be an expanse. The idea of a firmament comes from the Vulgate, which received its understanding from the Septuagint, whose translators resided in Alexandria, Egypt. They undoubtedly embraced the Egyptian model of a solid firmament, a kind of dome shaped sky, if you will, that rested on the horizon of the earth. The dome was a solid heaven, hammered out and contained the sun, and moon and stars, which moved across the heavens to give the earth day and night and its seasons. This is not what the text expresses in Genesis 1:6-8.
The creation of the expanse that surrounded the Earth should be understood as thick dense clouds, which hid the sun, moon and stars from the surface of the Earth. The text also claims the waters were divided. There were waters below the heavens and there were waters above (in) the heavens. The Hebrew translated above comes from two Hebrew words, min (H4480), meaning “above” (but a part of) and al (H5921), meaning “above or against (but always with a downward aspect). So, the word isn’t speaking of above the heavens and into space, but above and in or a part of the sky.
In other words, at this point God began to create the Earth’s atmosphere, and it takes place after he had given form or order to our solar system (first day activity). So, first, God concerned himself with the whole solar system, but afterward, on the second day and from this point on, he concerns himself with the Earth. God called the firmament (expanse) heaven, and the evening and the morning recorded the second day (Genesis 1:8).
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