The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
(Proverbs 20:5) ESV
Before moving on to the physics of what God did with the waters of the deep, we need to see if there’s anything to be learned from the Bible about what water actually IS.
Water is poorly understood, despite the body of work called Chemistry which describes what it does. Among other things it’s a thread which runs through the broad narrative of scripture from Genesis 1:2 to Revelation 22:17.
We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.
– Matty’s Razor
The word “water,” occurs 396 times in the KJV, the word “waters,” 287 times for a total of 683 occurrences. Both are translations of the same Hebrew word mayim מַ֣יִם but this isn’t much help, either. There’s an abundant description of why water is needed, what it does and what it is used for. The Bible doesn’t expressly state what water IS. It’s enigmatic. However, by using deduction we can learn precisely what water is and resolve it as being one of the identities of God the Son.
For reference let’s look and see what popular science (SciPop, and it’s henchman peer review, the collective will of society, has decided that it is:
Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth’s streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that each of its molecules contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms that are connected by covalent bonds. Strictly speaking, water refers to the liquid state of a substance that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure; but it often refers also to its solid state (ice) or its gaseous state (steam or water vapor). It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, and atmospheric humidity.
– Wikipedia
You may notice that this is a description of the physical characteristics of water, but it doesn’t really tell us what water really IS. We know some of the things that water does. Here’s a proverb which captures the sentiment of the boy who put his finger in the dike to stop a leak. He couldn’t take his finger out to go and warn the nearby town, because the slow drip would become a torrent which would flood the town.
Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.
– Faith, definition
The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.
(Proverbs 17:14) ESV
Here’s another verse with a similar sentiment: if you spill some water, you’re never going to get it all back.
(2 Samuel 14:14) ESV
We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.
We’re going to have to turn to physics and our knowledge of the broad narrative of scripture to make the connections that we need. Just based on what we know so far we can conclude that water has the following attributes or properties.
Properties of Water
- A substance which predates creation, from which the universe was created.
- The physical medium in which cause and effect are linked.
- The essence of free will.
- A physical substance which allows God to manifest his glory.
Matty's Paradigm 