Genesis 1:31, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” It wasn’t merely good from God’s perspective, it was very good, and it could not have been good unless God made it. That means He imparted Himself into all which was made in order for it to be good. Here begins, a closer look to find the attributes of God Almighty intrinsic to all that was made. i am by no means a scholar, nor do i consider myself scholarly. i simply try, read, make notes, and truly have a heart to know the Lord. As i’ve said before, God is the most important person in the universe and He has the most important things to say in the universe. i’d really like to know Him and hear what He’s got to say, more than knowing myself, you, or anyone else. The simple glance of His eye is more important than the deepest things born of flesh and blood.
i reckon a great place to start is by looking at the book of “first things”, Genesis. What did God hide of Himself in The Heavens. Let’s “BREAK IT DOWN”.
There are two parts to the concept of “heavens”, one is physical which includes all that is above the earth, and the second is in reference to the beautiful base camp and dwelling place of God. For the sake of brevity, i’ll keep it to the physical.
In 1530 the word was translated as only the “visible dome or arch of the sky”, but at a closer look, God made it so much more. In Gen1:8 the heavens are referred to with the word “expanse” attached, which brings with it the idea that God “hammered” it out, so to speak, when He created the “vault above the earth” known as “the heavens”, that plasma blue dome over our heads. From my limited view of things, i imagine the Lord in the never ending extension of His dwelling place developing the “expanse of the Heavens” by holding His concept, like a malleable ball, in His hands. With His fingers, He pressed it down, pushed it over and stretched it back, rolled it all out flat, folded the sky back together, then rolled it out again, stretching and pressing outward until He got it to the right size according to His design parameters. Then with a precisely shaped Holy Ghost hammer, He tapped it all into place to become what we now see over our heads.
When the Lord created the heavens, that in and of itself was an infinitely incredible feat of wisdom, engineering, and rolling creativity. Isaiah40:22 says the Heavens are stretched and spread out like a tent or a curtain. From the Heavens we get sunrise, and sunset, sun, moon, stars, rain, snow, thunder, etc. Clouds and birds constantly find their course in the space we call the sky or what God created as “the Heavens”. We have many idioms and metaphors in reference to the heavens, like when Israel was disobedient, the Lord said He would make “the heavens like iron”, a metaphor meaning no rain and He would give a deaf ear to them except to hear their repentance.
The heavens tell of the glory of God in Psalm 19:1, they declare His righteousness and praise Him according to Psalms 50 & 69. The O.T. word is spelled in such a way so as to indicate that the Lord is revealed and also concealed in all He made, and i do believe something moves in our heart when we look into the expanse of the sky. Something deep within us responds to God who has hidden of Himself, wonder and eternity in the Heavens. The very idea of “the heavens” was designed for us by the Lord as a shelter, where God, who is the very geometry of creation, connects to us like a flowing stream. In English, we just say heavens, but God intends us to realize it is much larger than simply saying “the sky”. In all things which He made there is a common thread of God revealed and God concealed … “Deus absconditus/Deus revelatus” (God concealed/God revealed)….in other words, for many He is hidden from reason, and to others He is totally discoverable to them who press on to know Him.
Through the Heavens, the personification of the geometry of creation connects to us through the door by which the first breath, the spark of the Spirit ignites our imagination. Through the door of the heavens, God breathed the first breath on all things living. He created a need in the heart of man for the vastness of perpetual endlessness He calls “the heavens” as a reference to His great love for us. He gave it to us to look up and wonder, for us to know His goodness while watching the moon look back at us from behind night clouds. You may think this odd, but i must admit, i…have dreamed, in fleeting moments, of having tea with the stars and catching lunch with the morning breeze. We need the expanse of the Heavens.
A poet named Queenie wrote: Some people are like stars, so close yet so far away. Some people are like the moon, Shining so bright, but rarely noticed.
Some people are like comets, They burn so bright and so fast that they don’t last. Some people are like constellations, They look so put together when really everything is far from it. Some people are like the night sky, They look so dark far away, but really are filled with light.
Romans1:20 reads that God’s invisible things, as his eternal power and Godhead, “are clearly seen” in the creation of the world, “being understood by the things that are made.” i can see how especially the heavens leads us to the knowledge of God. The expanse of the Heavens over our head preaches of God’s glory all night and all day, with each day always pointing to the next, declaring His salvation in all languages to every soul under the dome of the sky, in every part of the world, without ceasing. Now that is an amazing thing the Lord made. What do you think?
i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name ministries.