Let’s have a look at this second heaven, if indeed my thoughts are correct, and this is in fact referring to the cosmos. These are the work of God’s hand, perhaps the earliest of His efforts in Creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Ge 1:1). I think it rather telling that the earth, at this juncture, is formless and void and cloaked in darkness (Ge 1:2), but let me save further comment on that for a few sections hence.
From earliest times, we see the heavens producing wonder in the hearts of man, and used to communicate to man. I think, for example, of God’s covenant with Abraham. “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars…” (Ge 15:5). Bearing in mind that light pollution was effectively unheard of at the time, this was to suggest looking out at the stunning display of the Milky Way passing overhead and suggesting taking a census of its contents. Indeed, it looks beyond, even as we are able to look beyond. It takes in Andromeda, which would be but a dot in the sky, and yet contain stars by the billions. It takes in the globular clusters that are our near neighbors the Magellanic Clouds and adds their contents to the sum. But, observe: All of these are contained in ‘the heavens’.
At the same time we have references such as Deuteronomy 28:12. “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand” (Dt 28:12a). These clearly indicate the more immediate expanse of the sky. Thus, we have the birds of the heavens (1Ki 14:11), which are no space ships. This is, I think, the full extent of the intended tower of Babel. When the people think to lift up a tower to reach the heavens, it simply cannot be thought that they had in mind a space elevator of some sort, nor even a tower so tall as we have come to know from experience. It is simply saying they wanted to build a really, really tall ziggurat. Consider the size of the pyramids, and that probably pretty well defines what was possible for the craftsman of that period, so far as size and height go. So, Babel was to exceed that in scale, it would seem, but certainly it wasn’t planning to surpass, say, Mount Ararat for size.
I want to turn next to a passage from the Psalms. “Praise Him, highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away” (Ps 148:4-6). Now, this is interesting in that it sets some portion of the waters above some portion of the heavens. Mind you, our psalmist is not here concerned with laying out rules of physics, but with glorifying the God who made the rules. He is not purporting to give out a true accounting of the construction of the heavens, or their layers. He is taking imagery from his experience, and offering the best description that comes to mind. So, sure. There are clouds above the immediate heavens of the sky, from whence the rains come. This is quite evident to one and all, and I should say it is quite evidently true. Rain comes down. Ergo, it is of necessity above. The heavens, at least from the perspective of the earth’s surface, are also above, yet we can stand into the heavens in their nearest approach, whereas we can’t, generally speaking, stand into the clouds.
Let me skip forward to Isaiah, as he has caught my eye this morning. As he decries and ridicules the pursuit of idols, he observes to the one who would make for himself an idol how worthless such an inanimate object must be. Then he says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in” (Isa 40:22). Again I note that this is a period in which the full majesty of the night time sky was clearly observable, if not in the cities of man, then not so very far beyond their walls.
As is the way of authors of antiquity, the imagery is rich, and richly painted, in order to relay the message in pictures clear to the experience of all. Look! He says. It’s so obvious from all that is around you! You opt to worship a bit of wood that some clumsy artisan has given a degree of form. You want form? Check this out! Look above you. Where is the artisan who crafted that? Honestly, if you wish to worship the work of a craftsman, here’s the Craftsman you need. Yet, this is not the Architect of Masonic fever dreams. This is God Almighty, maker of the heavens and the earth, the One True God who alone reigns supreme over all the works of His hands. And let it be known that all that is not God is the work of His hands. These other claimants to the label of god, whether they be idols or alternate systems of religion, or even, as is more common perhaps today, merely popular movements: They are all demons, the outworking of sin in sinful men, who seek to deny God in favor of their own constructs and to corrupt those who will succumb to corruption and join them, for if misery loves company, sin loves it even more.
[09/24/19]
Yet, for all the craftsmanship that is in evidence in all the works of His hands, from the wonders to be seen in up-close portraits of the Orion Nebula to the little spider crossing my desk this morning, we are duly informed that it is all temporary. “But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2Pe 3:7). “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2Pe 3:10). This is not something we face with trepidation, but with the assurance of hope. As Peter continues by observing, “What sort of people out you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2Pe 3:12-13).
We expend a great deal of energy and wealth in pursuit of understanding the mechanics of the cosmos around us, and scientists posit all manner of theories to explain how it has come to be, and what shall be its end. There is absolutely nothing wrong with such pursuits. God invested us with outsized curiosity, and capacity for understanding the workings of His creation, and for this we ought rightly to be most thankful. It is not the achievements of science, nor the advances of man as to ability that are cause for concern to the faithful, but rather the approach to science as a new religion, a moral arbiter, and a guide into all truth. In this, science is forced into a role it cannot fulfill, and the wise scientist knows this. His is to explain the how of the functioning of Creation, but he is not in any position to pronounce on the moral value of that function, nor the morality of pursuing whatever science might make possible. As is often said, the fact that a thing can be done is not evidence that it should be done. But, to nobody’s surprise, I digress.
My intended point is this: For all that we seek to understand how the cosmos functions, how planets form and move, how stars age and change, how to explain those behaviors that don’t fit the current model, and so on; all of this energy is being spent on a temporary phenomenon. It comes to an end. It seems the physicists recognize this. They just can’t quite come to terms with how it might end, any more than they can pin down the mechanism, nor even the timeframe in which it began. The problem with theories is that they can only hold so long as new data continues to fit the theory. If the data doesn’t fit, the theory must quit. In this case, we have agreement on the matter in some degree. Heavens and earth will come to an end. This doesn’t require that we stop paying them any attention. We are not called to some life of purely spiritual asceticism, as if our bodies could even manage such a thing. We are created to be curious, but in our curiosity we are not to lose sight of Him Who made the heavens and the earth.
“And I saw a new haven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away’” (Rev 21:1-4). This is home. This is what we long for. The current heavens and the current earth have more than sufficient wonder in them. However long the Lord chooses to tarry before He comes once more, man shall not exhaust the exploration of those wonders. We are forever encountering new things, whether on land, or under the surface, or in the farthest reaches of the universe that we are able to perceive. Yet, for all their wonder, these things must not have our worship. Rather, it is God alone who is to be worshipped and adored, while the works of His hands come to us as precious gifts, to be appreciated for their beauty, yes, but to be appreciated primarily for their Giver.
