In the very first chapter of the Bible, In telling us about God's creation of all that is, other than himself, God tells us something very important about the "heavens"--namely, that they are all around us. They are in the air we breathe, from which we have life. He does not limit his activity to a distant "Heaven."
In telling us about God’s creation of all that is, other than himself, God tells us something very important about the “heavens”–namely, that they are all around us.
I’ll start, both literally and figuratively, at the beginning:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (NIV) (link to interlinear)
As God first created all that is in our physical experience, it had only two divisions: “the heavens” (haš·šā·ma·yim) and “the earth” (hā·’ā·reṣ.) Both carry a definite article (ha-)–they are definite things. The earth (ha-erets) is singular: just one place. By contrast, the heavens (ha-shamayim) is plural, a definite collection of related things. And, significantly, while the plural noun shamayim theoretically should have a singular form, that singular form is never used anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures (and is, in fact, unknown).
“The heavens” God has created are always seen as parts of the same plural whole. This is true even in verses like verses like Psalm 148:4 (interlinear) in which haš·šā·ma·yim is traditionally translated as “the sky” or “the skies.” Indeed, Psalm 148:4 is an interesting case in point: the verse uses the word shamayim, or some form of it, three times. The first two are traditionally translated, together, as “the highest Heaven,” while the third is traditionally translated as merely the “sky” or the “skies,” the place where the “waters” that produce our weather are. But they are really all parts of the same concept, as is shown by the use of the same word for both.
Here it is also significant that the word used for “the earth” in Genesis 1:1, ha-erets, singular, is the same as the word used extensively elsewhere in the OT for “land” occupied by people. Thus, the phrase consistently translated “the people of the land,” or its equivalent, is ‘am ha-arets, and the territory into which God led Israel through Moses and Joshua is frequently called “the land” (ha-arets) which God gave, or is giving, to them. Indeed, “the highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” (Psalm 115:16). Thus, also in Genesis 1, as will be shown further below, “the earth” is simply the realm that was to be occupied by humans in the present Creation, and “the heavens” are the rest of what God has created. It is separated from “the heavens” not by distance, but by the purpose for which it was created. God exists throughout all of it, in all the heavens and the earth.
Continuing with Genesis 1:
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:2 (NIV) (interlinear)
Initially, what existed under “the heavens” was an “abyss” (ṯə·hō·wm), a word also used for a “sea” or “deep” water, full of “the waters” (ham·mā·yim). The noun mayim is another plural noun that is never used in the singular; it strictly means “waters,” or here “the waters” (because it has an article attached), but without an article it can also mean simply “water.” The noun mayim is also occasionally used as a near synonym of shamayim, “heavens” or “the heavens,” the place where the waters that make our weather resides. See, for instance, Psalm 115:16 (interlinear). So there is a clear conceptual relationship between water, “waters,” depth (conceived of as deep waters) and “the heavens.” The heavens, thus, are deep, but not necessarily distant.
This is true even in the OT passages which are usually translated as making a reference to the “highest heaven” or the “highest heavens.” The picture being painted is not one of physical height or distance, but of a part of “the heavens” which occupies the same relation to the broader “heavens” as “the heavens” do to “the earth.” It surrounds “the heavens” that surround “the earth,” and is distinguished from it not by distance but by purpose–it is the particular site of God’s rule. Consider:
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
Deuteronomy 10:14 (interlinear)
Here, the literal translation is “the heavens, and heavens of the heavens” (ū·šə·mê haš·šā·ma·yim), which in the context of the verse contrasts “the heavens” (plural) and “the earth”, and pictures “heavens of the heavens” as a part of “the heavens,” occupying the same relation to “the heavens” as a whole that “the heavens” do to “the earth.”
Exactly the same wording is used in passages like 1 Kings 8:27 (interlinear) and 2 Chronicles 2:6 (interlinear) that pertain to the First Temple and its dedication. Job 22:12 (interlinear) speaks of “the height of heaven,” really “the height of heavens” (gō·ḇah shamayim), where the spatial concept “height” (gō·ḇah) corresponds to “depth” (as in ṯə·hō·wm) as its converse. “The height of heavens” is, like “heavens of the heavens,” the specific realm of the heavens in which God locates his rule. Similarly, in Psalm 68:33 (interlinear) God “who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens ” literally says he rides “on heavens of ancient heavens” (biš·mê šə·mê-qe·ḏem). This is also a reference to the seat of God’s rule, as a part of the heavens, with an emphasis on its existence before us in time (indeed, before time)–it is the place from which the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the abyss which then comprised “the earth.” In Psalm 115:16 (interlinear) “the highest heavens” is literally “waters of the heavens” (haš·šā·ma·yim mayim), where mayim is probably being used as a near synonym of “heavens,” but reminds us of the intimate relationship between “waters,” depths, and the heavens. Psalm 148:4 has already been discussed.
Initially, in Genesis 1:2, these “waters” in the “abyss” that constituted “the earth” were unformed and empty, with the Spirit (or breath or word) of God “hovering over” them, by implication in “the heavens.” Then, in the next two verses, God speaks, bringing the light, the initial medium of his work creating order, into his physical creation:
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Genesis 1:3-4 (NIV)
I have previously written at some length on the meaning of the light as God’s creative activity, and will not here repeat what I have written. But the important point for the present discussion is that, in these verses, God introduces the next two, related, divisions in his creation. The first was the distinction between light and darkness (which is not a thing in itself, but the absence of light, exactly as Augustine explained), between places in which God’s creative activity was active and places in which it was not active. (As sin had not yet entered the Creation, the “darkness” here is not evil, merely the absence of God’s activity). The second was the distinction between day and night. The introduction of light, causing the day and night division, was also the beginning of time as we know it. There was evening and there was morning the first day–before this, nothing was changing, and time had no referents.
On the second day, God established the “vault” or “firmament” (rā·qî·a) in the midst of the “waters” (ham·mā·yim) which constituted the earth, separating them into two spheres:
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV)
God called the boundary separating the waters above from the waters below “sky”–šā·mā·yim, literally “heavens,” though without an article attached. “Sky” is a perfectly good translation, as long as it is remembered that this “sky,” the perceptible division between the lower heavens and the upper heavens, is itself described as “heavens,” a part of the “heavens” it divides. None of this implies in any way, however, that God remained on one side or the other of this boundary. Nothing is said of his location. In fact, he remained equally and indivisibly on both sides of this new boundary of our perception.
On the third day, God made a division of the “land” side of the heavens and earth division, separating the water from the dry ground. (Genesis 1:9). He also gave names to the collection of water and the dry ground. (Genesis 1:10). He called the collections of waters yam·mîm, seas (plural), which is straightforward. He called the dry ground ‘erets, a word we have seen before, in verse 1, although here it is used without the article. It can be translated “Earth,” as modern translations sometimes do, emphasizing at least the part of our planet that stands out of the seas, or simply “land.” As will be seen, it is the specific part of “the earth” (hā·’ā·retṣ) from verse 1 which was designed for humans to live upon.
God then spoke into being the plants that grow on the land. Thus ended the third day.
On the fourth day, God spoke into existence the sun, moon, starts and planets. He created these objects bir·qî·a‘ the “heavens”–that is, “within” (prefixed bet, be–) the “vault” he had created on day 2. This does not imply anything about the spatial or temporal organization of the space in which these “lights” have been placed, or about the characteristics or composition of the lights themselves. It does not imply that they are placed on fixed, solid or impenetrable surfaces, as most ancient and medieval people thought. Nor does it imply that they orbit the Earth, as ancients generally thought. Nothing in this passage is inconsistent with the modern perception that all parts of this “vault”–the Earth included–is moving relative to every other part. Instead, it implies only two things. First, whatever their characteristics and the characteristics of the space in which they are placed, both these “lights” and the “vault” of which they are a part forms the upper part of boundary between our perceptible lower “heavens” and higher “heavens” which are not perceptible to us. The “lights” are “in” the “vault.” Second, God spoke them into existence for his own purposes.
God also tells us the list of purposes for which he spoke these lights into existence:
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky (haš·šā·mā·yim–literally, “the heavens”) to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky (literally, “the heavens”) to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
Genesis 1:14-19 (NASB)
The lights of the heavens were given first of all to mark time for us, to give us a measure of the flow of time. Recall that time itself, as we know it, did not exist until God separated light and darkness, creating day and night. Now God creates, for our benefit, light sources in the heavens that will move continuously, allowing for a more precise sense of time than simply “light” (“day”) and “dark” (“night”). There are also “lights” to “govern”–to establish for us–the longer cyclic periods that measure and govern our finite lives in the present Creation–months, seasons and years. But at least as important, by giving plainly visible light sources to “govern” both day and night–God gives us a reminder that he is present even in the darkness. Even though the night is dark, it is not completely dark–there are lights in it. And even though the world is dark, God has never left it. He still shines, if we will look for him.
Verse 20 is particularly significant to determining where the “heavens” are:
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky (‘al-pə·nê rə·qî·a haš·šā·mā·yim).”
Genesis 1:20 (NIV + interlinear).
Literally translated, the last phrase says that the birds were created to fly “above” the earth, “across the face [of the] vault (rə·qî·a) of the heavens (ha + šā·mā·yim).” The first thing to note is that, as far as the flight of birds is concerned, everything above the ground is “above the earth.” A bird flying from one place on the ground to another place on the ground at a height of only a few inches, or flying right in front of our faces, is flying “above the ground” just as much as one that is flying in what we think of as the “sky.” The second thing to note is the words used in the last phrase of the verse to describe the space the birds were to fill with their flight. In this phrase, “the heavens” are plural and have the article attached to them, just as in verses 1, 9, 14, 15 and 17, and “vault” is the same word used repeatedly in verses 6 through 8 to describe the division that God established between the lower heavens and “the heavens of the heavens.” Thus, anywhere a bird can fly is a part of “the heavens,” though not of the “heavens of the heavens.” Birds can fly all around us! Thus, it appears that “the heavens,” strictly, the lower heavens, are all around us. The heavens are the air we breathe.
Next, recall that, when God established the “vault” that distinguishes the lower heavens, in which we exist, from “the heavens of the heavens,” he distinctly did not say that he was limiting either his presence or his activity to the area above the “vault.” Indeed, all of God’s recorded creative activity during the five days after he established the “vault” was accomplished in the area below it–the same realm where birds fly and we live!
On the sixth day, God created first land animals ( verses 24-25), then humans (verses 26-28). Only two additional notes need to be made about this. God created the first humans in his “image”–a concept I have discussed elsewhere in several places (see, for instance, Human Individuals Created in God’s Image and Likeness)–and that image included dominion over all of the land animals, fish and birds. But, even more than this, in giving at least the first humans dominion, God described the scope of that dominion that humans were to “rule over” as including “the birds of the heavens (haš·šā·mā·yim),” a formula which he repeated twice in this connection (vv. 26, 28, interlinear). So our intended domain included everything up to the “vault” that separates the lower heavens from the heavens of the heavens, the vault in which birds fly and astronomical bodies exist–literally from the ground up to the limit of our perception. All of this space belongs equally to “the heavens” and to the bounds of our intended dominion within “the heavens.”
Verses 29 and 30 then introduce, for the first time, the concept of “the breath of life.” God initially gave the plants as food for humans, land animals, and the “birds of the heavens”–all of which are said to share in, literally “breath [of] life” [ne·p̄eš ḥay·yāh], without any article, as it is the breath that gives life to many things. All of the other animals and birds apparently have this “breath of life” inherently as long as thy live, simply by virtue of God speaking (which takes breath!) each of their “kinds” of being into existence. However, humans are different–God first formed a lifeless human body, then specially “breathed” into the first human’s nostrils the same “breath of life” (Genesis 2:7, also interlinear) as found in the other animals. And, in Psalm 104:29, living beings are said to die when God takes away their “breath” (though a different word for “breath” is used).
From this, it can be said that what characterizes terrestrial animal life is its “breath”–the act of breathing. As long as it breathes, it is alive. When it stops breathing, it dies, and when it dies, it stops breathing. And what are living animals and humans breathing? Air, the substance of our part of the lower heavens.
The great depth, or its converse, height of the heavens implies that their workings are beyond our observation or understanding, but not that they are distant or inaccessible to us. They are all around us and affect everything that happens on earth. Indeed, we cannot live without them; they are the substance of the breath of our life. This is true, even though we cannot understand how the air around us moves, where it comes from, where it is going, or why it moves, just as we cannot understand the course God has ordained for those who are born of the Spirit (God’s breath, pneuma!) John 3:7-8. The heavens, in their height and depth, are accessible to us, but only on their own terms, in the manner God has provided. The modern materialist approach to the world insists that things–such as the heavens in which God dwells–which we cannot directly observe, understand, and, most important, ultimately manipulate, do not exist. But God has created all we see on exactly the opposite principle–it is the things we cannot see that are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18. It is these invisible things–God’s working in the heavens all around us–that are truly important.
Next : Our Father, the One in the Heavens: God with Us in the Lord’s Prayer
Acknowledgement
In approaching this subject of the Kingdom of the Heavens, I owe a great debt to Dallas Willard (The Divine Conspiracy) and Jacques Ellul (The Appearance of the Kingdom, The Apocalypse, and The Humiliation of the Word), although I am developing the subject from a different starting point and in a somewhat different direction than they did.
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