God’s Word for You

Genesis 1:9-10 land and sea

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, July 30, 2026

9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

On the third day, God commanded the world’s muddiness and chaotic formlessness to come to an end. The waters would be in one place and the land in another. Now, we know today that there are seven continents (according to the way we count them), five oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic), and many seas, islands, rivers, and smaller lands and waterways. Since the continents are still moving even today (this is the primary cause of earthquakes) we would not say that the shape of the world’s geography was always identical to what it is now. Indeed, the great flood would seem to be an event that may have seen tremendous changes in the shape of the land and of the seas.

God describes this miracle for Job: “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?” (Job 38:8-11).

David’s poetry uses symbolism from the farm and the kitchen: “He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses” (Psalm 33:7). And in Psalm 104, the poetry shifts its subject from “he” to “you” and back to “he” again, moving from poetic history to prayer and back to history again:

“He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.” (Psalm 104:5-10)

The continents move, inches or so at a time, perhaps with the same amounts and irregularity as the growth of our hair and fingernails. But the roots of the continents go deep, deep below the ocean, resting in or on the superhot magma or lava below the earth’s crust. Therefore the waters of the seas and oceans cannot overwhelm the shorelines even though they pound the shores with their endless and relentless surging waves. Therefore God has said, “I made sand as the boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier that it cannot cross. The waves toss back and forth, but they cannot get past it. The towering waves crash, but they cannot pass over it” (Jeremiah 5:22 EHV). Luther was spot on when he asked, reflecting on the miracle of the relationship of land and sea, “What is our entire life on this earth but a passage through the Red Sea, where on both sides the sea stood like high walls?... But at times God gives providential signs, and entire islands perish by water, to show that the sea is in his hand and that he can either hold it in check or release it against the ungrateful and the evil.”

The land that appeared is described as ‘ha-yabashah,’ the dry land. This term is used several times by Jonah (1:9; 1:13; 2:10) who was more than a little concerned with getting back to land. His sin had led him far away into the depths of the sea, and only through the miracle of the huge fish was he rescued. God also repeated this word when he sent Moses to Pharaoh, saying, “Take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground” (Exodus 4:9). The dryness of the Egyptian soil showed that this was truly the hand of God at work.

Is the current distribution of the land and seas the best possible arrangement? Professor Hoenecke states that since God is the totally free Creator of the world, it is to be conceded that God could have not created the world (that is, at all) or that he could have created it differently than it is; but it is certain that the world is perfect as is has been created. But since the world has been through the upheaval of the great flood after the fall into sin, and there have been many disasters and catastrophes over the millennia, we also must concede that parts of the world are more challenging to mankind, and places like deserts may be considered punishments or crosses, in a sense. Whole regions of our world, such as the great deserts, the salt plains, the high and almost airless mountain peaks of Tibet, and the rainforests filled with deadly predators and poisonous snakes, lizards, salamanders, and biting insects, are useful to God to call people to repentance, fearing the Lord’s crushing punishment for sin.

So that we do not become smug and think that we are without fault, what sins and errors are exposed in our lives here in the account of the separation of land and sea?

1, Man sins when he fails to give God thanks and glory for this creation (Revelation 14:7).

2, Man sins when he disbelieves the creation account (1 John 5:10).

3, Man sins when he fails to care for the land and sea, and wastes them (Luke 16:1).

4, Man sins when, in his greed, he removes gems, oil, and other things without regard for the land or sea those things come from, and pollutes those places or hurts his fellow man in doing so (Numbers 35:33).

5, Man sins when he builds or develops in areas where upheaval, storms, or natural disasters are frequent and commonplace, without regard for the safety of those who will live there. He builds that house with unrighteousness (Jeremiah 22:13).

6, Man sins when he loves the creation (such as diamonds, rubies, gold, or other pretty or valuable things) more than God. This is idolatry (Hosea 4:17-19).

7, Man sins when he loves the creation (once again, gold or silver and so on) above his concern for his fellow man, and so violates the second table of the Law of Moses. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).

8, Man sins when he reveres the sea as the “birthplace” of life on earth or the seat of evolution. This, too, is idolatry and false teaching (Judges 2:12). For Jesus proclaims: “Worship the Lord and serve him only” (Luke 4:8).

Dear Lord, lead those who sin to repentance and to faith in Christ our Savior so that their sins will not always remain before you, and so that you will not cut off their memory from the earth. Be merciful, O Lord.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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