83. HEAVEN

83. HEAVEN(S)

Revelation 3:12. “Which comes down from my God out of heaven.”

Since the term heaven(s) is mentioned more than thirty times in the Book of Revelation, it is necessary to understand the Biblical definition and concept. The opening verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, tells us that God created the "heaven," (KJV), or "heavens," (RSV). The word is neither singular nor plural but is the Hebrew dual form indicating a "double."  Since the English language does not have a dual form, it is variously translated as either a singular or plural.

In Genesis 1:6-7, we find that God spoke into existence a firmament that separated the waters that were below from the waters that were above. Then, verse 8, "God called the firmament Heaven."  The word firmament is Hebrew râqîya’, (BDB), which means an extended surface, (thought of by the Hebrew Rabbins as solid).  It is from the root meaning "spread out." It would most aptly be called "space" in today's vernacular. In Christian Palestinian the word is used for “swaddling bands.” In Phoenician it was used to mean a platter or bowl. 

Is there any connection between these various meanings of the word? Yes. The term swaddling bands aptly describe the great circles of the ecliptic, the equinoxes and the solstices. The great bowl is descriptive of the concept of the sky as a great inverted bowl, which contains the sun, moon and stars for determining time. In other words, the great bowl of the heavens is filled with "times." This concept is also evident in Revelation 15:7, 16:1, etc., as the "bowls" of God's wrath. These are the seven "times" of the great tribulation. Times are referred to as passing over ones head. For example, Daniel spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar that “seven times” would pass over him, Daniel 4:16, 23, 25, 32.

Another illuminating part of this concept is to be found in Genesis 2:6 where the KJV translates: “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”

The word which RSV translates mist is Hebrew ’êd but it gives an alternate meaning in a footnote as “flood.” BDB lists it as perhaps derived from a root meaning “something curved or bent,” which would describe the apparent arc of the sky. The mists from the earth go into the sky and return as floods.

The word ’êd (אֵד) may be an alternate spelling of the word ‘ad (עַד), meaning "perpetuity...advancing time." The picture that emerges here is that the starry heavens are viewed as a river, or stream of time which can accumulate into a "flood." In the Hebrew of Genesis 2:6, it is said that the mist or flood was "going up" or "was over,” or “above" the earth. The sky appears to turn, bringing day and night, and the seasons of the year. 

In this context we can see that the "Great River" is the river of the time-telling heavens as it perpetually flows onward. The river Euphrates is a “great river” but only the earthly shadow or counterpart of the heavenly “Great River” of time. The "waters that are below the firmament” mirror the “waters that are above the firmament.” This is analogous to the spiritual realities which are mirrored by the physical realities, Hebrews 11:3. This mirroring by analogy is the doubling which is indicated by the Hebrew dual form hashâmayim, “the heavens.”

However, 2 Corinthians 12:2 gives Biblical justification for the idea that there are three heavens. These are: the first heaven where the birds fly, (Genesis 1:20); the second heaven where the sun, moon and stars are, (Genesis 1:14-15); and the third heaven, which is Paradise, (2 Corinthians 12:2-4); where Paul saw things that were not lawful to utter, probably indicating the Name of God which was considered by the Rabbis as too holy to be pronounced. It is the first and second heavens that mirror each other. The third heaven is only mirrored by spiritual realities.

In the Book of Revelation, we know that John viewed the starry heavens from the isle of Patmos in chapters one through three, where he saw Christ holding seven stars and speaking to the angels of the churches. Then in chapter four, John saw a door opened "in heaven" and was invited to come up there. Immediately John was "in the Spirit" where he saw visions of God and of His throne. This was probably understood to be that third heaven.

Paul's experience of seeing the "third heaven" was such that he could not say whether he was in the body or out of the body, but it seems that John was "out of the body" in his experience, for it is clearly stated that he was "in the Spirit." The things which he saw, then, are described in terms of the analogy of spiritual realities expressed in terms of physical senses and realities.

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.com.]