Heaven

by S. Stoope, Melbourne | Category: General | Apr 1958

"Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (Psalm 73.25).

One hesitates to embark on such a profound subject as heaven, yet because it is the promised future abode of every child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is profitable to get acquainted with our home by examining the Scriptures. It is the Father's house wherein are many abiding places (John 14.2). It is where our incorruptible and undefiled inheritance is reserved; where our treasure (if nay) is laid up (Matthew 6.20). A wise migrant will study as much data as possible on the country to which he intends to migrate; so may it be with us who are sojourners and pilgrims.

"Glorious things of Thee are spoken, heavenly city of our God.

He, whose word can ne'er be broken, formed Thee for His own abode."

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12.2, recalls a notable incident in his life, how he was caught up to the third heaven and there heard words unspeakable (verse 4). It is not unreasonable to deduce from this portion that a first and second heaven are in existence. The smoke of the city of Ai that ascended up to heaven (see Joshua 8.20), would surely not be the heaven to which the apostle was caught up, nor would it be the heaven of the stars and constellations (Isaiah 13.10). It could only be the atmospheric or first heaven where smoke dissolves. The earth-dweller looks skyward at the first heaven to behold the

everchanging cloud formations where "He bindeth up the waters in His thick cloud" (Job 26 8) where "the bow shall be seen in the cloud" (Genesis 9.14) and where "the fowl of the heaven" have their habitation near the springs in the valleys that run among the mountains (Psalm 104. 10 12) Moses at the LORD'S command stood before Pharaoh and sprinkled the handfuls of ashes (soot) of the furnace towards the heaven in his sight (Exodus 9.8). It is the same heaven where the swift eagles soar (Lamentations 4. 19). Surrounding this terrestrial orb, called earth, which is hung on nothing (Job. 26.7) is the heaven inhabited by the birds and insects, the dust-laden atmosphere that causes the gold-tinted sunsets, and the rosy hues of dawn.

"By His Spirit He hath made beautiful the heavens" (Job 26.13, Newberry Margin).

When God prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there; when He marked out the foundations of the earth, Wisdom was by Him as a Master Workman. This is He who hath been "made unto us wisdom from God" for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1.24, 30). Believers, young in the faith, must clearly understand that the visible things including man are not, according to the modern trend of thought, the product of a long process of evolution.

We do not know the age of the earth itself, but pseudo-scientists are wide of the mark when they aver that man has existed on the earth for fifty thousand years and more, for we know from the Scriptures that man's history is far less than that.

The second heaven or starry firmament shows God's handiwork in the night seasons ; indeed the Psalmist tells us that the LORD is very great ; " Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain " (Psalm 104.2), moreover " He telleth the number of the stars; He giveth them all their names" (Psalm 147. 4). In orderly fashion the Mazzaroth (sign of the Zodiac) pass the meridian with rigid precision led by Him (Job. 38.32), whose glory is above the earth and heaven (Psalm 148.13), albeit who humbleth Himself to regard those same heavens and the earth (Psalm 113.6, R.V.M.).

He has made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. God hath done great things past finding out; yea, marvellous things without number. "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out; He is excellent in power" (Job 37.28). One answer to the theory of evolution is the inexplicable design of the starry heavens, and where there is a design there must also of necessity be a designer. The heavens are the work of His fingers, in them hath He set a tent for the sun with its retinue of planets. David noted that the starry heavens had no speech or language; no voice is heard, yet their words go to the end of the world. Night unto night showeth knowledge, day unto day uttereth speech and from time immemorial they declare the glory of God. The bright Sirius is reputed to be eight light years distant from our earth ; in effect, the light shining from Sirius in 1958 will not be seen by earth-dwellers until 1966. But many of those distant suns are placed by Him beyond the reach of even Polomar's two-hundred inch reflecting telescope. Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways: And how small a whisper do we hear of Him! " (Job 28.14). Great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend" (Job 37.5). The things that are seen are temporal; this brings to mind the temporary nature of the host of heaven.

"and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fadeth from off the vine" (Isaiah 34.4). Peter tells us the heavenly bodies shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3.10).

The third heaven to which the apostle was caught up, as before mentioned, can only be known by faith. It is redundant to express God's dwelling place in terms of distance, whether innumerable millions of miles or innumerable millions of light years. Faith alone grasps the heaven from whence Jesus came (John 8.28) the same heaven to which He was carried up (Luke 24.51).

"Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates; yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory" (Psalm 24.9, 10). Christ passed through the heavens to become, among many other things, a Great High Priest over God's heavenly people on earth. He who voluntarily went into death that we might live, is now the "Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1.18). God made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come.

" Lo, the tokens of His passion

Still His glorious body bears,

Cause of endless exaltation

To His ransomed worshippers."

We cannot locate the place of heaven in the visible heavens ; only faith, which is the test of things not seen, enables us to know that Christ has entered into heaven itself now to appear before the face of God for us. "In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore " (Psalm 16.11, A.V.).

The queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, and came to where the king was in residence. She saw the meat of his table, the sitting of his servants, the standing of his ministers, and their apparel his cupbearers and the burnt-offering which he offered in the house of the LORD, and there was no more spirit in her. Then she said: "Behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard" (1 Kings 10.7). How much more

will it be with us when we shall see the greater than Solomon, the King of Glory!

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed then unto us by His Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2.9, 10, A.V.).

Believers who have yielded to the Teacher that indwells their hearts, being found in the house of God have in Christ a Great Priest who is over the house of God He functions as such in heaven wherein is "The true tabernacle though the house of God is on earth The tabernacle of Moses was only a copy of the things now in heaven the holy place in the tabernacle was a pattern of the true May we who are in the house of God take courage boldly to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus on the Lordly morning. Let us draw near with a true heart (not a trace of hyprocrisy), in fulness of faith (not a trace of wavering) and with gladness and joy as becometh a redeemed people offer the sacrifice of praise to God as a holy priesthood, through the great Priest who is over the house of God.

There is a constant preparation taking place in His Father's house in heaven for each of the redeemed every day of our sojourn on earth, and when He descends from heaven with the shout, and we are caught up by Him and behold the glory, which the Father has given Him (John 17.24) in heaven, the third heaven, our eternal home, where " there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth " ; then every thing that distressed us on earth shall pass away as a dream, a vision of the night.

S. Stoope, Melbourne | Apr 1958
General