So I’ve been thinking for a little bit about what to write on this website — it’s been a little too long since I wrote anything, and I’ve wanted to write something that is a little different from my Christian Creatives series. A while back I led a small group on Heaven and Earth, and so I’m planning on publishing a typed-out small group series over the topic, expanding where needed and talking about something that I feel is skipped over or taken in stride in the Church. I want to begin conversations about the big things in life. Smaller matters like good music to listen to can be important, too, but I like talking about these deep things a bit more.
SO — The Heavens and the Earth. Let’s get started.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
What do you think of when you hear the word heaven? For many, it is an idea of a disembodied realm in which the Lord resides that we go to after we die. It might have a blanket of clouds surrounding it, a pearly gate, and even some nice golden roads that everyone walks on. It’s an, admittedly, cartoonish way of viewing God’s dwelling place. Those that aren’t Christians (but Christians too) might use the word to refer to something synonymous with “paradise” or “bliss”. That beach you went to for your last vacation or maybe that apple pie you snacked on might be called “heavenly.” And I think it is good to equate good things with heaven, but I think that there is a lot more to unpack. I don’t think that sentiment is how the Bible portrays heaven. I think it’s much better than that.
Side notes: If you want a quick intro to what I’ll be talking about, you can check out this video by the BibleProject on Youtube. Their small group series on heaven and earth is what this series is based on (although adapted throughout), and the video serves as a great primer. I am extremely thankful to the folks at BibleProject for their excellent publications and videos over there.
Go check them out!
Also, this is the first installment of the “Heaven & Earth” series. To read the other installments, click here.
In the opening lines of Genesis, we are told that God created the heavens and the earth. Right away, we should notice something: it’s heavens, plural, not a singular heaven. So the idea of this being a creation of the earth and heaven (God’s home separate from humanity) is already removed from the possibility, unless you allow for there to be multiple heavens. So what in the heavens (see what I did there?) are they referring to? The Hebrew used here is shamayim. The word is often translated as “heaven” in the bible, but there’s a more basic word that gets at the meaning of shamayim: “sky.” Sometimes, shamayim is used to refer to the realm in which God rules and has domain, but it is also just used as “the sky.” It just depends on context.
To ancient readers, the sky was enchanting; humankind was unable to traverse the skies as we do today, and the realm lay beyond human ability. In this perspective, God separating the heavens from the earth is God separating the realm that we live in and can control from the realm that we can see but cannot grasp and control. God isn’t creating some supernatural place where he lives outside from humanity. He’s creating where we dwell.
Now, the sky is often used metaphorically as a reference to God’s domain, as opposed to a literal interpretation (and limitation) of His domain. We’ll say that God is “looking down” from above, or something similar. And in the Hebrew style of poetry, to say that God “lives” in heaven (the skies) is to mean that he shares the same characteristics as the skies, i.e. the skies are a reflection of the majesty, the expansiveness, the glory of God. That expansiveness, so great, yet beyond our reach (at least to the ancients), makes it a perfect way to relate God’s glory and transcendance compared to humanity. Take the following verses:
The Lord is high above all the nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? (Psalm 113:4-6)
“Is not God in the heights of heaven?” (Job 22:12)
Here, the Lord is sharing some of those characteristics of “the heavens”, where he is described as being over us, and having a glory that surpasses our own. His majesty is emphasized in the phrase “seated on high”, and the sense that he almost has to crane his neck to look at us, so high and exalted is he.
So clearly, the Israelites understood that shamayim can be either God’s domain or the skies above us. But what about the rest of their cosmology?
The ancient Israelites (and indeed, much of the Ancient Near East), viewed the universe through a three-tiered cosmology.
The first tier is the waters below the earth. To the Israelites, waters surround the land on every side. They knew, too, that if you dug deep enough into the ground, that you would encounter water. So it makes sense as to why they would have thought that all the waters of the earth that surrounded them on all sides also extended underneath the earth. The sea was also viewed as a chaotic and violent realm of the earth; it was dangerous and impossible to rule. Think of the ocean, the force of the tide, capable of tossing a boat around like a ragdoll; it makes sense why the sea would be seen as violent and incapable of rule.
The second tier was the land. Because they viewed the waters as surrounding on every side, the land was like a disc floating in the open sea, or like a floating island. The waters were around and below the land.
The third tier was the skies. Ancient people saw the heavens as a giant dome over the land and the sea, a lot like the glass of a snow globe. There was water above this dome, and rain was water leaking through the dome. We see this is Isaiah 55 (“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven…”) and Genesis 7:11 (“the floodgates of heaven were opened”).
So given that we now know the universe as this three-tier cosmology, let’s look back at the opening chapter of Genesis and see how it impacts the reading.
In Genesis 1:2, God’s Spirit hovers over the face of the waters (those waters of chaos we talked about earlier). Then, as God creates light and separates it from darkness, he is bringing structure to the order of time itself, creating day and night. (For more on the topic of time, check out the topic of Sabbath!) Then, as God separates the waters on the second day, he pulls the waters above from the waters below. God calls the expanse above “the skies” and the expanse below “the land,” surrounded by the seas. Then, God mirrors his creation, by successively filling his creation with creatures and humankind. Every step throughout the creation narrative points to the three-tiered cosmology of the Israelites. If we want to understand the creation story better, and to understand heaven and earth, we need to understand them through their original contextual lens. This is what good study allows us to do. It means that we can view the Bible closer to how it was originally viewed, and that can help us learn more about our faith in the process.
As a bonus, check out these verses where “heaven” is just referring to “the sky”:
And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. (Genesis 7:19)
And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. (Deuteronomy 4:11)
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place… (Psalm 8:3)
And these verses where “heavens” is used as a metaphor for God’s royal domain:
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. (Psalm 14:2)
The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; (Psalm 33:13-14)
That he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the Lord looked at the earth (Psalm 102:19)
What I’m trying to get at with all this, and hopefully with future installments of this series, is that understanding the historical context surrounding something in the Bible can lead us to better understand our own faith. By understanding what “heaven” meant to the ancient Jew, it can take on new meanings for us modern Christians. I believe that the Bible is the story of God working to reconcile Heaven and Earth back together as it was in the beginning, and I think that it’s an important topic to consider and meditate on. It changed how I viewed God. I think it can do the same for you.
Leave a Reply