The Glory of "the heavens"

I hope that when we think about the heavens we imagine a place that is glorious beyond our wildest dreams because I think those imaginings would be correct. The heavens are more glorious than we could ever imagine.

Here is just a sample:

The first mention of the heavens is in Genesis 1:1. Most English translations of the Bible translate Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The Hebrew word for heaven is shamayim; the Hebrew word for "the heavens" in Genesis is hashamayim.

In earlier hubs, I have shown In the beginning, God, and created. In those hubs I have demonstrated how Jesus is revealed as God’s true covenant from the beginning. I believe this is also revealed in the Hebrew term for covenant (God’s True Covenant) and in the word Hebrew (The Language of God).

In the Hebrew language, Genesis 1:1 is comprised of seven words, mirroring the seven days or time periods of creation. The structure of Genesis 1:1 is such that all of God’s covenants are revealed perfectly in the ancient Hebrew pictographs that make up those seven words.

The first three words in the ancient Hebrew reveal the Son of God and His redemptive work on the cross. The last three reveal God’s Old Testament covenants with Israel and the New Testament covenant. Moreover, these covenants are signed and sealed with God’s Signature right in the center (the fourth of the seven words).

I will now explore what the ancient Hebrew alphabet pictographs reveal, in part, about "the heavens" and God’s covenants with Israel.

The ancient Hebrew alphabet is comprised of 22 pictographs that represent letters, numbers and have symbolic meanings. "The heavens" is spelled with the Hebrew letters HEY (similar to our letter "H", and represented in the ancient Hebrew pictographs as a man standing with open arms, and meaning grace or to behold); SHIN (Sh)(pictured as two teeth, and meaning to consume or destroy); MEM (M)(pictured as waves of water, and meaning waters or nations); YOD (Y)(pictured as the arm from the fist to the elbow, meaning my hand or works); MEM (M)(pictured as waves of water, and meaning waters or or nations).

The word mayim (within the word hashamayim - "the heavens") is the Hebrew word for water. Mayim is spelled in Hebrew MEM YOD MEM). Therefore, we see in "the heavens" BEHOLD, I will DESTROY the WORKS of your HAND by WATER. I have provided a visual representation of hashamayim below. This hub continues below

Any discussion of the flood must include Noah, so in Hebrew the word for Noah is Noach (it is essentially the same as in English only with a little more throatiness at the end). The Hebrew letters are NUN (N)(pictured as the seed of life or sometimes a fish, meaning seed or life). Question: when you see the pictograph of NUN below, do you wonder how the ancient Israelites knew what a "seed of life" looked like (with no microscope)? And the letter CHET (Ch)(pictured as a wall or fence, meaning to cut off). So, the name Noah in the ancient Hebrew pictographs is LIFE is CUT OFF.

However, Noah spelled backwards in Hebrew is the Hebrew word for grace, chen. Thus, LIFE CUT OFF is the reflection of GRACE. Sound familiar? God's grace after the destruction of mankind is the reflection of God's grace and the salvation of mankind through the destruction of Jesus.

Therefore, I believe we can also see hashamayim as BEHOLD, God's GRACE is that never again will LIFE be CUT OFF or there be DESTRUCTION by WATER, just as God says to Noah in Gen. 9:11, "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

Take another look at "the heavens":

Let’s look just a little deeper, shall we?

God says, "I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth." Genesis 9:13. God's seal on the covenant is the bow, or rainbow. The Hebrew word translated bow is queshet, spelled QUPH (Q)(pictured as the sun on the horizon, meaning time, new/old, beginning/end, etc.); SHIN (Sh) (pictured as two teeth, meaning to consume or destroy); and TAV (T)(pictured as 2 crossed sticks, meaning mark or covenant). Thus, God’s covenant of the bow is: Look to the HORIZON after the DESTRUCTION for God’s COVENANT.

If the glory of "the heavens" ended there, I would still be awestruck by the extent of the richness and depth. But, there is so much more.

I will next show how Moses and the parting of the Red Sea are also revealed in hashamayim ("the heavens").

Moses, in Hebrew, is Moshe. Moshe is spelled MEM (M), SHIN (Sh) and HEY (H). When Pharoh's daughter finds Moses in the river,"[S]he named him Moses, saying, 'I drew him out of the water.'" Gen. 2:10. Hashamayim is also a visual representation of Moses being drawn out of the water.

You can actually see Moshe being drawn out of the water.

While I believe the story of Moses is represented in hashamayim in other ways as well, the other most notable example is Moses' dramatic parting of the Red Sea.

Quickly, let's look at Exodus 14:21-22:

• "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left."

Here is the picture of Moses parting the Red Sea:

This is hardly the end of "the heavens". In later hubs, I will show how Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are also revealed in "the heavens". I believe I can also show references to Ezekiel and others.

"The heavens", I believe, are the entire story of the Old Testament, and perhaps more. As God is infinite, so too may be "the heavens".