I was on a cruise ship in the Aegean Sea when high winds and turbulent waves suddenly arose. Many people got sick – including me. I could not wait to get back to dry land.
Dry land was a new thing God created on the third day of Creation. After creating the atmosphere on the second day, God made the land masses on the following day. In Genesis 1:9-10 we read, “Then God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.”
Now, up to this point everything was a watery mix, with all of the material elements either dissolved or suspended within the water. Then God said, “…let the dry land appear,” and the suspended material began to form into dry land. The word “dry land” comes from a root that means “to dry up; to become parched or withered.” It is the absence of water that is emphasized by this word.
Dr. Henry Morris of the Institute of Creation Research describes it this way: “Tremendous chemical reactions got under way, as dissolved elements precipitated and combined with others to form the vast complex of minerals and rocks making up the solid earth—its crust, its mantle, and its core. …Finally, surfaces of solid earth appeared above the waters and an intricate network of channels and reservoirs opened up in the crust to receive the waters retreating off the rising continents.” Well, who knows how it really happened. But it was something like that when God said, “…let the dry land appear.”
Now you know the real meaning of the word.
Hey – God was preparing the earth for the presence of man, and man lives on dry land.