The Heavens: Declaring His Handiwork

 

The Heavens: Declaring His Handiwork

Psalm 19: The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And the expanse [of heaven] is declaring the work of His hands.
2 
Day after day pours forth speech,
And night after night reveals knowledge.
3 
There is no speech, nor are there [spoken] words [from the stars];
Their voice is not heard.
4 
Yet their voice [in quiet evidence] has gone out through all the earth,
Their words to the end of the world.
In them and in the heavens He has made a tent for the sun,

Ecclesiastes 4:

 

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

The Word refers to seasons that are dependent upon what is happening in the heavens. It is through the Heavens that the rains and storms come. It is through the Heavens that the Whirl Wind finds a path—the comet follows a road. These scriptures point to the idea that we live our lives out “under the heavens” or “under the sun” and every thing in them reflects natural aspects of our lives as well as spiritual aspects. We see in Psalm 19, who the heavens speak of the glory of God from one end of it to the other, in fact, in all directions. The heavens remind us that there is a God. Recently I asked the Father to reveal Himself to me. My Abba is above me keeping watch over my life and the lives of all those upon the Earth. When I prayed in the past, it seemed that I had to reach high into the Heavens to call upon the Father–I imagined Him far above the clouds. However, in Jewish tradition, there is no separation between this earthly realm and the Heavens. They are united. In fact, it is Western thought to have such distance between the heavens and the earth.

When we read in Ephesians that we are seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father, we need only close our eyes and we are there–we have access into the Holy of Holies, the third heaven, at the blink of an eye. Just close your eyes and you are there. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.” The Bible speaks of three heavens.  These are not dimensions. The first heaven is our immediate atmosphere, the second is celestial bodies or outer space, in an eternal sense, the third heaven is the place where God dwells on His thrown. It is difficult to get our head around the idea that God is everywhere. The Word says: in all one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:6). The whole earth is filled with God: And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). Because the whole earth is full of His Glory, and His Glory comes out of the third heaven, we get the picture that we are not separated from God.

 Nor Height

This idea that we are nearer to God than we know is an eternal principle: But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8).

Yet He had commanded the clouds above,

And opened the doors of heaven,

Had rained down manna on them to eat,

And given them of the bread of heaven.

Men ate angels’ food;

He sent them food to the full.

The Unseen World

Heaven brings a sense of the eternal into our lives. “Nor height, not depth” speaks of opposite ends of the unseen world. The Word is filled with the value of the heavens: The firmament, earth’s atmosphere that is the immediate sky where the “fowls of the heaven” are flying about. (Genesis 2:19; 7:3,23; Psalms 8:8.) “The eagles of heaven” refers to the immediate atmosphere that surrounds the earth (Lamentations 4:19).

The principles, patterns, and value of the heavens can be connected in that the heavens are the dwelling place of God, the pattern of truth that God provides the sun, moon, stars, and rains for our physical survival, and the value of the essence of life. In Genesis 1:14. “Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.” The first heaven consists of the clouds and the atmosphere.

The expression “doors of heaven” or “windows of heaven” refers to the firmament that is the immediate atmosphere. This term is used to refer to the place God commands the rain: “the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:11-12). “The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained” (Genesis 8:2).

I believe the connection is that God is all about life. When He created our dwelling place on earth and placed the sun in the sky–the Hebrew word for the original light means of a “heavenly substance.” This substance is the essence of Jesus in us–the Holy Spirit of light transforming us and causing an atmosphere of “new creations” within our being transforming us from glory to glory.

The First Heaven

God’s blessings come into this natural realm from the supernatural. “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 28:12). We need the immediate atmosphere to breath and to receive the rains upon the earth so we will have food. Jesus illustrates this principle of life through parables of sowing, reaping, planting, watering and seasons. This means God is all about manifesting Himself in our situations–He desires a place to dwell and that place is in the Temple within and the Body of Christ.

The Second Heaven

I have to say when the Psalms speak of the Second Heaven, which is outer Space; the celestial stars and bodies, I think of Psalm 19. The second heaven is the starry heavens where the immediate atmosphere ends. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). I am overwhelmed at the type and shadow of eternity, or idea of infinity. The heavens speak of the glory of God. When I think of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the colors, blue, scarlet, and purple, I think of the sky at dawn and evening. I connote the color blue to the Father, red to Jesus, and purple to the Holy Spirit who is the colors red and blue combined. This was my first glimpse into the types of color in the Bible. (Deuteronomy 17:3; Jeremiah 8:2; Matthew 24:29). I believe that the idea of an eternal destiny can be recognized in the heavens around us–in fact this is where we find ourselves awestruck at the magnitude of God–we can see His magnificence and the Heavens declare His handiwork.

(1 Kings 8:35); “opened” (Ezekiel 1:1). (The “kingdom of heaven” (Mt.25:1; Jms 2:5). The “eternal kingdom” (2 Pt.1:11). The “eternal inheritance” (1 Pt.1:4; Hebrews 9:15). The “better country” (Hebrews 11:14, 16).

The pattern of the habitation of God is found in the idea of heaven. The firmament, or expanse, raqiya: “In which the sun, moon, stars, and constellations are fixed.” And God placed them in the firmament of heaven (Genesis 1:17). “He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22). In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun… It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other” (Psalm 19:4,6). The “tent” of heaven is over us–it is our hiding place. The thing is our hiding place of safety is all around us in Jesus Christ–and the shelter of Abba’s wings enfolds us. The heavens are a blanket. The heavens are a pallet on which the impossible is written in our lives because we have the birth right to reach for the stars.

They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens which they have loved and served (Jeremiah 8:2).

The Third Heaven

What is the third heaven Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 12?

The Hebrew word for “heavens” is shamayim, it is in a plural form, meaning “heights” in terms of elevation. It is found in the first verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1; 2:1). The Bible teaches in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The phrase “heavens and earth” are used to indicate the whole universe in terms of the celestial bodies (Genesis 1:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish tradition there are three heavens. All the heavens are created by God: “Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Psalm 102:25). The KIngdom of Heaven within us, is ever changing and growing–think of the heaven you see on the outside coming into your being. The Kingdom of Heaven comes to this earth through us because we walk with it inside. It is where we lay up the treasures of Heaven in works of righteousness and love.

There are several other words for heaven used in the Hebrew.  The word marom is as equivalent to shamayim (Psalms 68:18; 93:4; 102:19). The Hebrew word gal, literally a “wheel,” is used in Psalm 77:18  to connote a “whirl-wind.” The Hebrew word shahak, is translated “sky” (Deuteronomy 33:26; Job 37:18; Psalms 18:11). The plural form meaning connotes clouds (Job 35:5; 36:28; Psalms 68:34) again connoting clouds referring to the firmament. Clouds also speak of the Glory of God. Clouds are made of the substance of water from the earth. The Glory of God is made of substance from Heaven and comes into us raining  (reigning with ) the Spirit of the Living God.

This is where God and the angels ( heavenly creatures) as well as the patriarchs dwell. It is called “The heaven of heavens,” (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 115:16; 148:4).  “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you” (1Kings 8:27).

When Jesus was baptized, “He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove” (Mark 1:10).

The third heaven is located beyond the celestial realm of stars and planets. This heaven is the dwelling-place of God, to which John was taken in the realm of God.

It is specifically named “the third heaven” by Paul in 2 Cor.12:2. Paul mentions being caught up to paradise in 2 Corinthians 12:4 the word “paradise” is also located in the third heaven.

Paradise

The word “paradise” paradeisos (NT:3808) occurs three times in the New Testament; Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7. It occurs often in the Septuagint, as the translation of the word garden; Genesis 2:8-10,15-16; 3:1-3,8,16,23-24; 13:10; Numbers 24:6; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 28:13; 31:8-9; Joel 2:3. Additionally, found in Isaiah 1:30; Jeremiah 29:5.  The word pardeec (OT:6508) in Nehemiah 2:8; Ecclesiastes 2:5; Song of Solomon 2:13 (from Barnes’ Notes).

 The High Priest of Heaven

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus ascended to the place He dwells before He became man (Hebrews 4:14). Jesus was in the beginning creating the universe. It is His home. It is also our home as He creates and quickens us to become light and love.

“For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). This presents the idea that Jesus is more significant than the dwelling place of God.

As our high Priest, he “is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1.) The Word says that we are as well. The Holy of Holy’s indwells our being in fact because we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

The word “heavens” is also used to connote visions or a spiritual event. Stephen said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56).

The Symbolic Heavens

It is where we are seated in Christ. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

The symbolic heavens: “Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven” (Psalms 78: 23). I believe that the manna from heaven originated in the third Heaven, which is a supernatural realm.

“Says the LORD of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). This is an example of the source of food, provision, and financial blessing coming from the throne room of the Father who is our provider. This window of Heaven comes from a supernatural realm into our reality–in terms of signs, wonders, and mighty deeds. God’s blessing is a heartbeat away. He is our provision.

Heaven is the abode of the righteous who are in possession of “everlasting life,” “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17), where they are delivered from all sufferings forever; deliverance from the evil one (2 Corinthians 5:1,2). Christ calls it His “Father’s house” (John 14:2), also “paradise” (Luke 23:43). 2 Cor. 12:4; Revelation 2:7). It is the location of “The heavenly Jerusalem” before it comes to earth (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12).

Heaven is our eternal dwelling place with God. Heaven is the destination of our inheritance in which Jesus goes to “prepare a place for us” that we may be with Him, where he is forever (John 14:2). Heaven is a place that represents the glory of God not only in the majestic clouds, the paintings of sunrises and sunsets, the power of the seasons in rains, snows, hail and storms, but it shows that this reality is powered by something we cannot grasp. Can we grasp the fact that a being created such glory? Do the heaven’s indeed declare His handiwork? Do the heavens represent an eternal destiny which never ends? The Heavens above us under which we live our lives, is the essence of an eternal Kingdom, a city, a source from which all is created and is continuing to be created. The heavens illustrate just a glimpse of His glory in the cloud, sun, planets, stars—the sunsets and dawns. Above all, the rainbow of promise resides in the sky ever stating a promise of life and that God will not destroy us. He wishes to have a people who live their lives under the shelter of his heavenly wings. What an awesome God. 

Heaven is the abode of the righteous who are in possession of “everlasting life,” “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17), where they are delivered from all sufferings forever; deliverance from the evil one (2 Corinthians 5:1,2). Christ calls it His “Father’s house” (John 14:2), also “paradise” (Luke 23:43).

2 Cor. 12:4; Revelation 2:7). It is the location of “The heavenly Jerusalem” before it comes to earth (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12).

Note: I found a great deal of this from a Hebrew master whom, when I went to give him the credit for this post I could not find the link. Thank you whoever you are.