06.0.4.4. The Third Day

IV. -- THE THIRD DAY FOR on the third day the earth emerges from the waters (Genesis 1:9). Up to this point the unquiet element, which is naturally uppermost in the creature, has prevailed everywhere. Light has come, and shewn the waste; a heaven is formed within it; but nothing fixed or firm has yet appeared. Just as in the saint there is first light, and a heaven too within, while as yet he is all instability, with nothing firm or settled. But now the firm earth rises. The state desired by Paul, -- "that we be no more tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:14-15), -- here begins to be accomplished. Now the will, long buried and overwhelmed with tossing lusts, rises above them to become very fruitful; and the soul, once lost in passions, emerges from the deep, like "the earth which He hath founded for ever." This earth rises out of the waters. Above their storms and waves something fixed appears, setting a limit to them. Seas yet may remain; at times they roar against the land; but from this time they cannot overflow it. "He hath set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth" (Psalms 104:9). "He hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it" (Jeremiah 5:22). And when we think what a bound it is -- the shifting sand; when we think how, as the wise man says, "all the rivers, -- all the torrents of passion, -- run into the sea, yet it overflows not" (Ecclesiastes 1:7); when we think how oft it rages under the gales of lust, and yet the dry land fails not, nor sinks before it; we must confess God’s hand in its preservation, as in its first appearing, and that it is His word and will that keep the bound. For "He shut up the sea with bars and doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb: He said, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy waves of pride be stayed" (Job 38:8; Job 38:11). Nay, more. Here, as in all things, "out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong comes forth sweetness" (Judges 14:14). Not only do the waves not destroy the earth, but the rough gales borne from their vexed bosom are full of health and bracing. We could not afford to lose them. Trying as they are for a while, and most hurtful if we have not some protection, the gales of lust and temptation will strengthen while they move us: by them noxious exhalations are carried far away. In the world to come we shall want no storms; therefore "no sea" is there. Here we need it; therefore it is left in love to try us. Yea, these seas and their roaring may praise the Lord, for He sitteth King above the water-floods; and all their tempests within, like the wrath of man without, in ways above our present thoughts, yet praise Him (Psalms 76:10). But the work here, the rising earth, is to restrain these waves. Good may come out of their roarings; the greater good, the special work of this day, is to bound them, to form a fixed and quiet habitation. So the earth is freed. Need I repeat the lesson here, that it is by checking our desires -- by bounding the unstable element in us -- that the man is made free? (Note: Greg. M. Moral. in Job, l. xxviii. c. 19, § 43. The whole passage to the end of the book is very striking, and will amply repay any reader the trouble of turning to it.)

There is yet more for us to mark in this emerging earth. Not only does it escape the floods: it comes up also into the expanse of heaven. That creature, so long buried, now mounts up to meet the skies, as though aspiring to touch and become a part of heaven; while on its swelling bosom rest the sweet waters, the clouds, which embrace and kiss the hills. When the man by resurrection is freed from restless lusts; when he comes up from under the dominion of passions into a state of rest and peace; not only is he delivered from a load, but he also meets a purer world, an atmosphere of clear and high blessing; where even his hard rocks may be furrowed into channels for the rain; heaven almost touching earth, and earth heaven. Not without awful convulsions can such a change be wrought. The earth must heave before the waters are gathered into one place. The Psalmist marks this, when he says, "The waters stood above the hills:" then -- "at thy rebuke they fled; at the noise of thy thunder they hasted away: they go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys, unto the place which Thou hast founded for them" (Psalms 104:7-8). Some have felt all this within: the earth clean dissolved -- the earth broken down and moved exceedingly -- the earth reeling like a drunkard, and removed like a cottage -- preparatory to binding the host of lusts which have held sway over it, till they are gathered together as prisoners in a pit, and shut up in their prison. Many a soul shews rents and chasms like the steep mountains. Nevertheless, "the mountains bring peace, and the little hills righteousness." And this is effected on the third or resurrection day; for in creation, as elsewhere, the "third day" always speaks of resurrection. (Note: The "third day" is resurrection in one aspect, as deliverance from the grave; for there are other aspects of resurrection, as the "first" and "eighth" day. The book of Leviticus will be unintelligible till we see this. Compare Hosea 6:2; Luke 13:32; 1 Corinthians 15:4.) We shall see in the development of Adam or man that the third great life, I mean Noah’s, is regeneration; for in man, as in the earth, much is wrought ere the flood is passed. The earth rises not before the third day. Just so in the world within: much is done before this day, before we know anything of "the power of resurrection" (Php 3:10). But "after two days He will revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:2-3).

Then the earth being raised, and so separated from the waters, a name is bestowed on both by God. "The dry land He called Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, Seas" (Genesis 1:10). Here, as elsewhere, the name is characteristic; and, in this instance, it seems easy to trace the thought intended to be conveyed by these titles. The word "seas," in the Hebrew, means tumults or agitations. (Note: Heb. yawmim [H3220], from y-m, tumult.) The word "earth," like our word "ground," describes a substance which will suffer itself to be reduced to powder, and so is fitted to take any form as God pleases; ready to be framed by the will and wisdom of the Great Potter, to be animal or vegetable, as He will. (Note: Heb. ehrets [H776]. "Various etymologies have been by learned men proposed of this word; the most probable seems to be that which derives it from r-ts, breaking in pieces, crumbling. ’The matter of earth,’ says the great Boerhaave, ’appears friable or crumbling, so long as it continues under the observation of our senses, as it always readily suffers itself to be reduced to a finer powder.’ And it is manifest, that on this remarkable property of Earth, its answering the end of its creation, or its usefulness in continually supplying the waste of vegetable and animal bodies, must depend. It is not improbable that the Greek word chthon, from the Hebrew k-th, to pound to pieces, the Latin terra, from tero, to tear away, and the English ground, from grind, all aimed at the same etymological reasons." -- Parkhurst, Heb. Lex. sub voc.) For, indeed, tree or beast, of earth they are, to earth they return. Earth is the pliant clay from which their forms come. It is "earth;" therefore a creature meet to be used, ready to be transformed into fruits or bodies, according to the will of God. Need I apply this within? Surely till we are such "earth" or "ground," broken and ready to take what form He pleases, though the light is come, fruits will be wanting; for to this day it is "out of the ground that the Lord God makes every tree to grow" (Genesis 2:9).

Then the earth brings forth fruit (Genesis 1:11). Fruitfulness, hitherto delayed, at once follows the bounding of the waters. For, "being made free from sin, we have fruit unto righteousness, and the end everlasting life" (Romans 6:22). (Note: Origen. in Gen. Hom. i. fol. 1.) The order of the produce is instructive; first the grass, then the herb, then the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind (Genesis 1:11): as ever, the blade before the ear, the small before the great, from imperfection onwards to perfection. The first thing borne is "grass," the common emblem of the flesh (1 Peter 1:24). Is it asked how the risen creature can bring forth fruits, which are, like the goodliness of the grass, of the flesh and carnal? Because for long the regenerate man is yet "carnal," and his fruits are in the flesh, though with sincere desires for God’s glory. The development of Adam, as exhibited in the Word, not to say experience, gives proofs on proofs of this. The Corinthians, too, were "carnal," though with many spiritual gifts (Compare 1 Corinthians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 1:7 with 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 3:4). But after "grass" comes "herb and tree," with "seed and fruit;" some to feed the hungry, some to cure the serpent’s bite; some hid in a veil of leaves, or bound in shapeless husks; some exposing their treasures, as the lovely vine and olive; the one to cheer man’s heart, the other to give the oil to sustain the light for God’s candlestick. Such is the faithful soul, with many-coloured fruits, "as the smell of a field which the Lord blesses" (Genesis 27:27). The form of the fruit may vary; its increase may be less or more -- some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold; for "the fruit of the Spirit may be love, or peace, or faith, or truth, or gentleness" (Galatians 5:22): but all to the praise of His grace, who bringeth forth fruit out of the earth, "fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ" (Php 1:11). (Note: Aug. Confess. l. xiii. c. 17, § 21. So too, Gregory the Great, Moral. in Job. l. vi. c. 35, § 54. So also Origen, Hom. i. in Gen., and Ambros. Hex. l. iii. c. 7, § 31.) Nor let us forget, -- "whose seed is in itself, after his kind" (Genesis 1:11). God’s fruits all multiply themselves: this is their constitution. The tree propagates itself; every fruit produces more: so every act of charity has in it the seed of other acts. As one lie breeds another, so one truth produces more. Love bears love, anger, anger, and kindness, kindness. There is another and higher fruitfulness, which we get on the last two days; yet this of the third day is lovely in its season. The law of creation cannot change. God has said, "Let the tree yield fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself." Every act, therefore, will yield its fruits; "the seed is in itself," to propagate itself in increasing measure from age to age, even for ever.

It only remains to notice that at this important stage the state of the creature is no longer unperceived. What it shall be, is not known; but what it is, seems realised on this third or resurrection day. Not till this stage is the creature known. And so throughout the last dispensation, because the creature was not known, resurrection was not apprehended. But after resurrection it is seen what the creature is in itself, and the change which God has wrought in it. On this day the light is seen, the seas are seen, the heaven is seen, and, last in order, the earth is seen with herb and tree. On this day the separating process ends; for things are known. What is now wanted is perfecting; and this is next accomplished. (Note: Augustine briefly sums up the inward fulfilment of the work of the first three days, De Gen. contra Manich. l. i. c. 25, § 43.)

Such is the work of the first three days, deepening at every step; first light upon the deep; then a heaven in the midst of the waters, which lie uppermost; then a lifting up and working upon that which was lower still, the earth, which until now had been buried and concealed. Some have learnt this deepening process. I observe, too, that the work was comparatively slow until the third day. Upon this day God speaks twice (Genesis 1:9; Genesis 1:11); and the amount of work is equal to or exceeding that of the two preceding days. Surely it is a mighty change. Twice on the third day is it repeated, "And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:10; Genesis 1:12). If we have reached the third day, we shall know how good it is. If we have not reached it, let us pray and wait for it.