Fire and Water

Theological Reflections on the Third Day of Creation

In preceding posts, we have discussed the significance and symbolism of the gathered seas of Genesis 1:9-10. Here, I wish to pan out and recall to your mind the significance of water’s narrative journey in the text thusfar. This will help us frame the symbolic freight that the interrelation of land, water, heaven, and earth carries throughout the rest of the Scriptures. In the process of this, I also wish to reflect on the concrete qualities that water carries in our minds. The creation of the world begins with the production of a twofold cosmos: heaven and earth. The scriptures consistently distinguish between two heavens- the “heaven of heavens” and the “heavens.” Deuteronomy 10:14 gives one example among many of this distinction: heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the LORD.” The relationship between “heaven” and the “heaven of heavens” is analogous to the relationship to the “Holy Place” and the “Holy of Holies.” Indeed, the grammatical construction is the same- “Holy Place” is simply a substantive use of the word “Holy.” It is the “Holy” and the “Holy of Holies” just as scripture deals with “Heaven” and the “Heaven of Heavens.” This relationship is not accidental, as the scriptures link the structure of the cosmos to the structure of the temple and tabernacle. As has been discussed many times before, the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle are given in seven speeches, the last of which deals with Sabbatical regulations. Naturally, then, we are to take the tabernacle as a miniature representation of the cosmos, with each of the seven speeches interpreting the furniture of the tabernacle in light of the creatures made on the corresponding day of Genesis 1.

We therefore have the “Holy of Holies” containing the place of God’s indwelling. The “Holy” contains the Menorah with seven lamps. And the Courtyard is accessible by any Israelite (and even gentiles are permitted, according to the Book of Numbers, to bring an offering on the Courtyard Altar. The Holy and Holy of Holies can only be entered by special invitation of God, signified by the wearing of distinctive priestly garments. Deuteronomy 10:14 summarizes the threefold structure of the cosmos: “Heaven of Heavens”, “Heavens”, and “Earth.” The Tabernacle and Temple share that threefold structure: “Holy of Holies”, “Holy”, and “Courtyard.” Linking each level of the tabernacle with the corresponding level of the world, we see that the Heaven of Heavens is where God dwells. The divine, uncreated fire is behind the veil of the Holy of Holies, and the “Heaven of Heavens” is where the prophets of Israel encounter God enthroned with His council. The “Heavens” is where we find the celestial bodies. This is signified in the architecture of the tabernacle and temple by the Menorah with seven branches. Remember that the imagery of the world tree- the tree which unifies the various levels of creation- is pervasive in the ancient world and almost certainly belongs to the primordial tradition of the human family going back to Adam. Revelation 6 utilizes the imagery of the world tree by describing stars falling from heaven like fig leaves. That Adam and Eve eat the Tree of Knowledge and then wear fig leaves suggest that the Tree of Knowledge may have been a fig tree- we become what we eat- the Tree of Knowledge contained the knowledge of all the natures of things, fitting a person for sovereignty over the world, and is thus an appropriate specification of the world tree image. If stars are analogized to leaves, then the world tree stretches into the visible heavens.

This is what we find concerning the Menorah- it is a Tree with bowls fashioned like “almond blossoms.” [I am still exploring in my mind the symbolic relation between the almond tree and the fig tree. What matters here is that the Menorah is a tree at all.] If the Holy Place corresponds to the Heavens, and the leaves (and blossoms?) of the world tree spiritually correspond to the celestial Heavens, this makes intelligible one of the dimensions of the seven branches of the Menorah- it represents the sun, the moon, and the five “wandering stars” or visible planets moving against the relatively fixed background of the starry heavens. These seven celestial bodies designate the seven days of the week in a variety of traditional cultures. Thus, we see the symbolic architecture of the world suggested above makes sense of the architecture of the tabernacle. It is the middle place of the Tabernacle which contains the sun, moon, and stars. Biblical critics are therefore shown to be mistaken in thinking that the Hebrew Bible makes no distinction between the place of God’s dwelling and the starry heavens. Important for our purposes, they are demonstrated to be wrong in thinking that Genesis 1 only mentions a single heaven and has no concept of an invisible heaven transcending the visible world. On the contrary, it is precisely this heaven which is mentioned in the first verse of Genesis.

Now, recall your mind to the fall of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. Leviticus 8-10 narrates the inauguration of the liturgy of the tabernacle. Nadab and Abihu help preside over its first offering, but bring unauthorized worship before God. We are told that "fire came out from the presence of the LORD” and killed them (Leviticus 10:2). The reference to the LORD’s presence suggests that the origin of the fire is the Holy of Holies- matching the Heaven of Heavens. This is highly significant in the framing of the narrative of Genesis 1, because the “Earth” of Genesis 1:1-2 is utterly unformed. God creates the high heaven and the earth, but the earth lacks form, population, and illumination. Genesis 1:2 begins to narrate the development of the world by describing the descent of the Holy Spirit over the surface of the waters. Hence, we see what almost every ancient culture recalled about the world’s creation- the initial state of the corporeal world was a mass of undeveloped water, which is the primordial element. It is not that the ancients noticed the significance of water in the structure of creation and generated invented stories in order to make sense of it. Instead, it is that scripture describes the reality of things: creation genuinely did begin with God’s calling into being a world in potency that took the form of the cosmic sea. He crystallized everything else out of that water, and as the whole is in every part, so this dynamic is to be found in countless small stories in creation. Every human being, for example, begins in water. Genesis 1 describes the growth of the human family in terms of arboreal and agricultural imagery- they are to be fruitful. Genesis 3 describes human beings as having seed which extends their life to future generations. These images are rooted in the third creation day, where trees and plants possess fruit and seed.

It is not an accident, then, that just as human beings are literally born of a watery womb, so also are the trees and grains which signify humanity. The ground is saturated with water, and the seed which is implanted in the watery ground is energized by heat coming from the burning heavens. Likewise, a human being in the womb of his mother develops within a watery environment that is heated and energized. This is the narrative arc of creation week: God begins the creation by producing two environments: heaven, associated with fire, and earth, associated with water. The Spirit-Fire of God descends from Heaven, illumines the world, and begins shaping it out. Observe, moreover, that the first creature other than water and fire produced is the land produced by the gathering of the dispersed waters on the third day of creation. The waters themselves are drawn together and united, giving birth to an environment which the scriptures and other ancient cultures associate with an altar or sanctuary. The land which rises from the sea rises towards the heavens which send forth light and heat and is apparently ordered in relation to a sacred mountain (Genesis 2:10-14) in the midst of which man will be planted. The waters birth the land, and the land is saturated with heavenly fire. Indeed, as noted in preceding posts, the very word used for “gather” carries the connotation of one thing being stretched in relation to another- the word is related to a cord, line, or thread of yarn which links together two things.

The “first consummation” of the world takes place on the third day of creation. The world story is a process of the world’s creation, division, and unification in glory. God creates the world, divides the upper part of the world (where He dwells) from the lower part (where we dwell.) In the eschaton, God makes His habitation in the lower part of the world by bringing the upper part into the lower part. Thus, the city of God descends from heaven to earth (Revelation 21:1ff). Adam is created, divided in two, and then unified with his bride, acquiring a new name (instead of Adam, man of dust, he is Ish, Man of Fire- see preceding posts for a development of this imagery, but observe the centrality of fire in Genesis 15, which is the only other passage besides Genesis 2 where the word for “deep sleep” is used). On the first day, the world is created. On the second day, it is divided. On the third day, the land rises from the sea so as to unify the world, and trees and grains are born out of the union of the two. Heaven is masculine, earth is feminine, and the birth of trees and grains signify fertility- they are the offspring of the two. Moreover, trees are linked with fire in a number of ways. One obvious way is that they provide the necessary precondition for controlled fire. Only with wood can human beings learn to manipulate fire in a way that is creative rather than destructive. Another way- less obvious to a man of the ancient world but evident in the plan of God for creation- is that trees generate oxygen- it is in the coincidence of heat, fuel, and oxygen that fire emerges.