5. THE HEAVENS or space = SHAMAYIM
BY DR. EARL PARVIN, 6/2/21
GOD’S GLORY REVEALED ABOVE THE HEAVENS “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” [PS 8:1]. “Sing for joy, you heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel” [Is 44:23]. Habakkuk said “His glory covered the heavens”. The Psalmist adds, “The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands” [Ps 19:1].
“In the Beginning Elohim [God] created the Heavens and the earth.” [Gen1:1]. What is Moses seeking to convey by saying God created the heavens? The immediate concept generated in the mind would naturally be “where the birds fly, or where the sun & stars shine.” Clock ahead to the 21st Century individual who reads this, he can immediately imagine; wind & rain, the atmosphere, where airplanes fly or where the International Space Station is located. Maybe he conjures up the moon or the solar system is located there. Maybe the military person thinks of the US Space Force newly created. Thus, the word heaven can have multiple possible meanings, determined by the context as well as the times and culture of the reader.
The English dictionary suggests the word “heaven” could mean: sky, universe, abode of God or supreme happiness such as “Oh, that is heavenly”. The Hebrew lexicon suggests for heaven: high, lofty, place of stars [Du4:19] “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven…”, place of future glory [Is.65:17]. Obviously, the place of the stars can mean “galactic space” or our Solar Bubble located in the Milky Way [MW] Galaxy.
1. GOD’S GLORY as REVEALED ABOVE GALACTIC SPACE
Among other things, the very first thing God did was to create THE HEAVENS or “SPACE”, [space as defined in the dictionary is “a place to put something”]. What was God about to create but an entire cosmos with trillions of stars & galaxies aplenty. They now predict Billions of galaxies, but there was no place to put them! God being a Spirit had no need for space. But space was needed; therefore, space was created! It was “Unfurled as a gigantic scroll” [as in Rev. 6:14] “ And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together;]. The Scriptures indicate that the shamayim [Hebrew for heavens] was
SET in place: “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place [Prov. 3:19, 8:27, Is. 51:16]. The space did not explode in place as in a big bang followed by millions of years or always there. It was “spread out as a tent” to live in [that is, very carefully [Is.40:22 , “that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:]. The heavens were spread out as if by “His right hand” [with purpose in mind {Is.48:13}]. In fact, Genesis 1:6 reveals that on day 2, before God’s Son, the Builder, even started His creative activities [Jn. notes, “without Him nothing was made that was made” [Jn 1:3], God prepared space [a firmament, from the Latin] to receive his cosmological creations [Gen 1:8 Firmament = Hebrew “raqiah”, fabric of universe] as the stars were created, named, numbered [Ps 147:4] and SET in place [Gen 1:17; Ps 148:6]. NOTE, the “fabric of the universe” was thought to include the idea that gravity meant that matter attracted matter as taught by Newton in the 1600s. However according to Einstein [1900s] gravity was reinterpreted to mean the bending of the fabric of the universe as in the “time space continuum”. This is interpreted to mean that the curvature of that “fabric of the universe determines the movement” of things in space not gravity as it had been for centuries. [Cosmology, Quill, 2021, “Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Unveiled A Dynamic and Bizarre Cosmos”. Newton’s theory of gravity had put God’s theory of Gravity in focus! It is gravity which controls orbits in their “rachias” or planes in the fabric of space. Einstein effectively sought to remove God and replaced HIM with natural law [which by the way God created]. The world has meekly followed with starry, wondering eyes, not really comprehending, but thinking this sounds really good! God’s glory hangs in the evolutionist’s balances. But, I hasten to add, one day they who have so nonchalantly sought to erase God from the equation will discover that God has “SET HIS GLORY IN THE HEAVENS” [as recorded by the Palmist 19:1] not to be erased permanently.
Not only did God create space, He prepared that space not to be empty but to house his creation in an orderly fashion, not haphazardly by clouds of galactic dust. The reasons for His preparing space with the ‘fabric of the universe” [rachia] are legion. However let us summarize by saying not only is God super orderly, but He knew the vast numbers of celestial items [Ps 147:4;Gen 2:1; 15:5] that would soon occupy His created space including “Walls of Galaxies”. He knew that it would be necessary for there to be Super Voids between the galaxies in that fabric of space. The largest void being 1.5 billion light years in diameter. That void is dubbed, “The Great Nothing”.
The purpose of making the heavens by the Almighty was several fold; therefore, let us now change the analogy of God as Creator to Credentialed, Tenured, Teaching Professor [Mat. 7:29; 13:54]. The heavens now become a superb teaching tool. A giant display board for the Master Teacher. The heavens is worldwide. Wherever one might be the heavens are completely visible. A sunrise is a sunrise everywhere visible at some time. A sunset is a sunset. It can be a superb painting in complete vivid colors. It can be a streaming video as in Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis, the Northern or Southern Lights . It is better than Zoom. We can envision God’s great glory revealed.
My mind takes me back to teaching children in Pakistan. It was often outside under a tree in the shade of the hot sun. There were few visuals. The students were fortunate if they had a personal charcoal tablet & charcoal piece with which to take notes. The teacher’s primary modus operandi was rote memorization as he led the whole class in unison memorizing the lesson. Think how much more interesting, challenging and memorable that teaching would have been with illustrations on some white board.
I remember in Meru, Kenya, I had a white board, 4 foot by 8 foot, on which to illustrate some thought for the seminary students. There were colored markers with which to write…that is if they had not dried out.
Not so with God’s Great Scroll in the heavens. His message could be quite clearly displayed and seen by everyone to be taken to heart: [Note it was written on both sides].
“ I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll.2 He asked me, “What do you see? ”I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide, 3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. [Zech 5:1-3]. God didn’t want anyone to miss the message. He used both the eye and ear gates to communicate.
Just how big is that space God created? Even Moses was moved to say that it was VAST. “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array [Gen 2:1]. Many have ventured a guess. There are problems measuring space but then there is the problem of defining what space? Is it the observable space? What shape is space? Is it donut-shaped. Is it a sphere? Is it an infinite plane? Can man even measure the speed of light, let alone how it can get here from Deep Space at the accepted speed of 186,000 miles per second [m/s]. They are suggesting that the observable space is 93 billion light years [ly] in diameter. [A light year is the distance light can travel at that speed in a year. [Which is by the way is 6 trillion miles]. [Notice, 93Bly x 6Tm = 558billion trillion miles]. That speaks to God’s omnipresence, does it not? “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there [Ps 139:8].
Fascinating I found this astounding statement in an article on the internet about the edge of the universe, where they could find no more continued structure, “this is the End of Greatness!” I thought this says it nicely about God’s Glory in the Heavens. However, they were unfortunately putting their emphasis on the greatness of space not God. I thought, only God could do this.
Oh yes. They think the Universe is expanding…not sure at what speed? [think 76.4 k/s/3Mly] NASA QUIPS: “Space can be a wondrous place, and we've got the pictures to prove it!” 2/26/21
2. GOD’S GLORY AS SEEN IN THE STARS
The Scriptures declare that God’s purpose in creating the stars was to give light to His Earth. “And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the GREATER LIGHT to govern the day and the LESSER LIGHT to govern the night. He also made the STARS. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day” [Gen 1:14-19].
God has gone to great careful planning in constructing the night sky as a giant magnificent display of colorful lights. Each month through the calendar year the configuration of the stars and planets in the night sky allows for a changing beautiful panorama with the naked eye. A telescope can add to what one can see in more detail. As Dr. Faulkner of Answers In Genesis exclaims, “Each star has a story to tell”. The brightest stars are Blue stars like Giant Betelgeuse, or Orange Arcturus, or Bright Red as Super Giant Antares. You may get a glimpse of one our Planetary System such as Jupiter or Uranus. Another possible sighting could be the Constellation Orion with its Giant and the three stars Asterism in his belt. The Bible mentions the Pleiades star cluster. You might be fortunate to see our near neighbor Galaxy Andromeda. Wow, God is Master of the heavens
There is mention of the SUN, MOON & STARS as light givers or reflectors. The Scriptures speak of God as LIGHT. [Jn.8:12]. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” God’s glory is displayed in the light from where ever it is flowing. The heavens show the light on the earth as it is shown forth from the Greater Light as He named it. We know it as THE sun, which is a very special star. In fact IT IS THE ONLY SUN [of which there are many] which makes life sustainable on planet Earth. [That is not to say that Evolutionists are not passionately looking for other earths in the “green zone” of other sun-like stars about which they are orbiting at the right distance]. God only promised planet earth to be inhabited [Is 45:18].
It is interesting that God chose to designate the sun as the Greater Luminary and the moon as the Lesser Luminary. It is only the sun as well as all other living stars which are true light givers from their atomic furnaces converting hydrogen into helium . However the moon as a reflector of the sun’s light [called albedo light because moons do not have atomic furnaces], has a special beauty all its own, even though not supplying the light. What can be more breath-taking than moon light reflected on a body of water at night? Or on broken cloud cover? It also helps show the beauty of the Lord.
Our sun [which is called a Yellow Dwarf star, [though it has 432,000 mile radius] has gained special attention with the Parker Sun Probe news. Unfortunately the probe has gone silent, but it has sent some wonderful closer up pictures of the corona plasma surface [temp.10,000 degrees ]. The sun is a real hot item [core temp. 27 million degrees] which shows the glory of the Lord in its own place in the heavens. That place is super critical, because if it were closer [93 million miles] by only a little to the earth, we would burn up [8 minutes for sunlight to get here] or a little further away we would freeze to death. God shows His glory by playing close attention to “little” details. It is interesting to note that search as they have for extra solar systems to support life, among great searches, none has been found. For instance a search of the net makes this boast, “Are there planets orbiting other stars beyond our solar system? We do not know for sure, but with the recent discoveries…the weight of evidence is now so strong that only a “devil’s advocate” denies the conclusions. [2019 posting].
Neither did God need to depend on the latest electronic planetarium to display His wonders of the starry heavens as in the wonderful planetariums in the Institute for Creation Research in Texas, or in the Answers In Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky. God, the Architect, could teach astronomy or cosmology first hand. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, The Builder, could say, “Let Be” [Hebrew “yahi”] and the stars would come forth from the waters [a mixture of all the elements God had created and put in suspension or solution in the universal solvent water] from which they were formed. He named them and “SET them in their place” to orbit and rotate on their axis in their ecliptic stellar or galactic planes [rachia] as right on schedule [Ps 8:3; Gen 1:17]. It is quite clear by endless observation that the stars are not helter-skelter in space, but seem to be placed in some order in super clusters, most in galaxies. [Not, if you will, having been marshalled by gravity in some stellar nursery around some accretion disk from clouds of dust, plasma & gas leftovers from an ancient explosion].
“…He made the stars also” [Gen 1:16]. After three verses about the Greater and Lesser Lights He makes this reference almost as an afterthought…”He made the stars also”. Mind you. The stars are nearly numberless. They are almost infinite in number. Numerous passages make reference using the analogy that something is as numerous as the stars in the heavens. This fact says something about the glory of God’s Omniscience.
Stars have a complicated and astounding beauty beyond their number. That is just as one would expect about God’s glory. Stars are almost always found in “clusters”. Then these clusters of stars are found in multiple clusters in galaxies. Then would you believe these galaxies can become Hyper Galaxies! Some stars become Hypergiant Stars like VY Canis Majoris.
It is important to note here that both the clusters of stars and their galaxies seem to be organized. They are said to be symmetrical or “designed”. And this is to be expected by the Christian, because the Scriptures indicate that God, “Marshaled [tsavah = set in order or commanded] the starry host” [Is.45:12]. There is nothing random in this.
Stars in their galaxies can be in pairs or “filaments” like strings of stars or strings of galaxies which can be light years long. What beauty is that?
Note also, God did not need help in creating earth, or any planet by having the stars explode into novae and bring the gold or heavy metals to the earth as having been created by their atomic furnaces. I would like to suggest that God was fully capable of creating all the necessary ingredients [matter or “eretz”, and put them [table of elements] in suspension or solution in the universal solvent water [H2O] as the Bible calls it in Hebrew [tehom or deep, Gen.1:2].
Scriptures speak of the stars as having a special splendor all of their own even star from star. “The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. [I Cor. 15:41]. The word splendor is translated from the Greek [doxa]. In the Scriptures it is often used with reference to God’s splendor. Language strains to express God’s splendor. Is it not fascinating that this word is used with reference to stars having diversified splendor! They exist by the trillions. Some say they are infinite. Each with a name; each having been placed in its designed and designated plane in the fabric of the universe, God’s tapestry.
That design parallels the splendor of DNA or Protein or the trillions of CELLS in their microscopic world, building the human body. We might compare what DNA is to the microscopic world, to what the FABRIC OF UNIVERSE is to the galactic world. Both manifest the Glory of God. In all that activity a lot of design is “Hyper” obvious.
Looking up in the night sky on a clear night at the Milky Way Galaxy and its spilled milk look, one can see only 9,000 of its up to 400 Billion stars. That sounds like a lot, but consider the guestimate that there may be SEPTILLION [1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000] STARS in the universe.
There are many types of stars which would require a telescope to distinguish. The most common type of star would be called the Red Dwarf. Though it sounds harmless, the internet warns that they can sport stellar flares which are deadly gamma rays.
To really see a star, in spite of its grand size, in its full splendor, one needs to use a telescope. That is because the stars are so far away as measured in light years. Further, to avoid earth’s atmospheric distortions and city light interference one must seek remote elevations.
3. GALAXIES
They speculate there are 200 billion galaxies of different sizes and shapes. There are three shapes though the spiral galaxy is the most common. The others are the elliptical and irregular.
Our home planet Earth, along with the other 7 solar planets, is said to be located in the Orion arm, one of the 2 arms, of the special, spiral Milky Way Galaxy. It is one of millions of galaxies located in the host Milky Way [barred] Galaxy [MW]. The MW is said to be 200,000 ly in diameter and 1000 ly thick, containing up to 400,000 stars & equal number of planets. [By the way at the speed of light it would take 100,000 years to cross it]. The MW is rotating around a supermassive Black Hole, known as Sagittarius A, at 600km/s or 373 miles per second. The BH is 14 million miles across. The Earth is located 27,000 ly from the BH. [Most galaxies have at least one BH. There is a lot of space, called voids between galaxies which are filled with dust & gas.
Rotating around the MW are two other irregular dwarf galaxies called the Magellanic Clouds [galaxies] 163,000 ly away. These galaxies are members of the Local Group of galaxies which is a part of the “Virgo Supercluster”, [110 million ly diameter] which is part of the “Laniakea Super Cluster” of 100,000 galaxies, which CLUSTER is [520 million ly diameter]. The name of this Super Cluster, Laniake, is Hawaian meaning “IMMEASUREABLE HEAVEN”. Note, you can see that most galaxies cluster together under the influence of gravity, moving at 600 k/s or 373 million miles per second. I note that part of God’s glory is seen in the sheer number of galaxies, as well as the galactic space as measured in light years and the voids between.
I note, that when the trillions of stars were created, they were placed in their orbits in the fabric of the universe in Globular Clusters. The evolutionist would say this Clustering happened by Gravity influencing them into the Clusters from the dust of the cosmos. I would like to suggest that Gravity holds them in their orbits as they orbit a BH, but God determined their original location, in their Cluster, because the Scripture says they were SET in their places in the fabric of the universe. This means they did not Wander there by gravitational force from some “starry nursery”.
I would say the same thing about the Clustering of the Galaxies. It was not by chance, but by directed choice. The Great Wall of galaxies known as CfA2 is a “filament of galaxies” some 1.4 billion ly long. Other Great Walls might be: the Massive Wall, which is 1.37 Bly long; the Boss Great Wall, 1Bly; the Great Wall, 500 Mly; the Sloan Wall,; the Boots Wall,; the Giant Wall, 9.7Bly; and largest of all = the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, 10Bly long. NOTE, these filaments of galaxies are located in deep space far away from our Milky Way Galaxy and Earth by 17 BILLION LIGHT YEARS. This kind of distance was only measured by a gamma-ray burst of electromagnetic radiation from a telescope called an x-ray telescope carried aloft by a satellite or balloon.
Since we are located in the MW there is an area behind the galactic plane of the MW where the sky is not visible to us called the “Zone of Avoidance”.
The MW has a bulge above & below the BH. Above the bulge are huge “Fermi Bubbles” of Gama Rays, thought to be extending above & below for a total of 50,000 ly and 300 ly wide. These two beautiful purple Fermi Bubbles are visible only by x-ray, such as by the MeerKat Radio Telescope an array of 64 antennae in So. Africa. Would you believe they can merge the signals of so many telescopes of the same object into one image? When this “Square Kilometre Array” is completed it will include Australia.
Galaxies and Hyper Galaxies are collections of vast numbers of stars [400 billion]. These galaxies are said to be “the large scale structure of the universe”.
4. GOD’S GLORY AS SHOWN IN PLANETS
Solar Planets [those in the MW are not the only planets] also occupy THE HEAVENS; therefore, they too show forth the glory of the Lord. A Major Planet is defined as a spherical body that orbits the sun, is not a satellite of some object and does not undergo nuclear fusion. There are also planet-likes which are smaller which are called Dwarf Planets, even though they are light years in diameter.
Everything in our “solar bubble” rotates around THE SUN, a very special star to which clearly, God the Son gave special attention in forming, naming and setting in place. He designed this sun to be orbited by a planetary System of eight planets whose orbits are each widely separated so they do not perturb each other. Each of those planets was specifically placed [set] in their planned location with reference to the sun and each other. [There is some speculation about a “Titus-Bode Law” which observes a formal spacing of each planet’s location mathematically] from the sun.] Further, the third planet in the order of location from the sun was named Earth and is of primary importance because God planned for it to be inhabited by mankind [Is 45:18]. “he who created the heavens, he is God; he who FASHIONED and MADE the earth, he FOUNDED it; he did not CREATE it to be empty, but FORMED it to be inhabited‘. Note, God used five English terms to translate four Hebrew words to signify how planet Earth came to be: 1. fashioned [yatzar], 2. made [asha], 3. Founded, 4. created [bara] & 5. formed [kuun]. The Hebrew concept is that the same God [Elohim] who created the heavens created the Earth. Then he adds; 1. He fashioned the Earth as would a master potter would mold a prized vessel with great pride [like the Garden of Eden]. 2. He set the Earth up for occupancy [liquid water]. 3. He made every provision for that occupancy [oxygen]. 4. He created the Earth to be inhabited [yashab= to keep house {ripe fruit}]. He makes it clear the Earth is not to be empty [tohu=empty space, see Gen 1:2 {kinds}]. May we note that this passage is seeking to convey that there was a Mastermind behind the creation of planet Earth. It was not a “roll of the dice” appearance, but a fait accompli par excellence. The evolutionist is determined that it just happened by chance, after a violent explosion, a cooling off period, with the passage of time molecular clouds of galactic dust gathered forming a protoplanetary disk and planet earth took shape with other planets following.
The other planets in the solar system were definitely placed with a relationship with the earth and its sun. The first four closest to the sun include Earth as the so called terrestrial planets because they have rocky surfaces.
1. Mercury [3,000 mile diameter] is the closest to the sun and smallest. It takes 8 days to orbit the sun. It protects the Earth from drastic temperature changes of daytime 840 F to -290 F. It also protects Earth from Meteors, as evidenced by its crater pockmarked surface.
2. Venus is Earth’s twin in size. It is scorching hot [900F] with a caustic atmosphere. It spins slowly east to west opposite to all others. It is brightest of visible planets. It takes 243 days to rotate. It has an iron core producing a magnetic field helping deflect solar wind from the Earth.
3. Earth is third from the sun and has a strong magnetic field surrounding & protecting it from solar radiation. The magnetic field also causes the beautiful Aurorae Borealis & Australis. Planet Earth is called a “water world” being in the “Goldilocks Zone” for liquid water making it habitable & life sustaining. Earth has the only proper atmosphere. Earth’s atmosphere is highly free oxygenated. It rotates at 1,000 m/h taking 24 hours & orbits the sun at 18 m/s, taking 365 days to orbit the sun. A beautiful blue dot in the heavens makes it a breath taking view showing the beauty of the Lord. Note: This is what God did, not a Solar Nebula as some say it happened, after 200 million years.
4. Mars is the fourth and so called Red Planet located west of Earth. It has a diameter of 4,000 miles and orbit of 687 days as well as Earth-like days. This desert planet is half the diameter of Earth. The temperature is -80 F. There is no magnetic field. Large dust storms can last months. It has an elliptical elongated orbit with longer seasons and unstable tilt. Its atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide. There are two moons. The planet is rife with failed missions to it over the years. NASA is still planning missions which have been 40 by different countries. Musk is still planning trips to colonize Mars with his SpaceX’s shiny Starship “Crew Dagon” from a planned space station rotating in the sky.
5. Jupiter is twice as large as all the others combined with an 87,000 mile diameter. It is a gas giant as is partner Saturn. Jupiter has a colorful, Red Spot cloud 10,000 miles wide, with anticyclonic storm winds swirling at 400 m/h. The strong magnetic field helps control the 75 moons. It takes 12 years to orbit the sun.
6. Saturn, the Ringed Planet, has a diameter of 75,000 miles. Well known for its colorful rings of frozen Hydrogen & Helium gas plus rock. It orbits the sun in 30 years. The 6th planet’s outer ring is 7,000 times the planet’s diameter. The gas giant is the 2nd largest planet. The other 3 gas giants, Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune are called “Jovian”. The Ringed Planet is the least dense. The wind in the atmosphere can reach 1100 m/h. The rings can be 30 feet thick and 3,000 miles wide. It has 62 moons. Saturn protects Earth from asteroid impact with its strong magnetic field.
7. Uranus is much different from the others rotating east to west like Venus. Its equator is at right angle to its orbit, thus orbiting on its side. Seasons last 20 years. It has 27 moons. Its orbit takes 84 years for its 32,000 mile diameter mass to transit the sun.
8. Neptune is the last of the solar planets and known for its supersonic strong1500 m/h winds. It has a rocky core. Its orbit takes 165 years. The “blue planet” has a strong offset magnetic field 27 times as strong as Earth’s. It is about equal to Earth’s mass. It has 14 moons. It is coldest planet at -391 F. Another strange feature, Neptune has many Trojan Asteroids surrounding it. I wonder about this furthest planet from the sun looking like a sentinel or guard dog. It has so many different features by God’s design.
Other Planetary systems than our known Solar Planetary System, rotate around our Sun, a very special medium-sized Star. There are many other Systems, but none like ours. However, they too must show His Glory, because He created them too! After all their suns are but not so special stars.
NASA notes, “We know of more than 2,000 one-planet systems, and progressively fewer systems with many planets. The discovery of Kepler-90i, the first known exoplanet system with eight planets, is a hint of more highly populated systems to come”. [Don’t you wish!]
6. GODS’S GLORY AS SHOWN IN OTHER SYSTEMS
I note other unique features about this Solar System . As mentioned above the planets seem to be evenly spaced. That is except Mars & Jupiter. Between these two planets is an Asteroid Belt.
Main Asteroid Belt [called the Inner Solar System]. There are other groups of asteroids with millions of “Minor Planets”, smaller and primarily made up of rock. The largest is named “Ceres” which is 952K across. There are at least a million smaller rocks orbiting the sun. These can be a threat to Earth as one the size of a car does annually impact the Earth. When it does it is known as a meteorite. Fortunately most Asteroids burn up entering Earth’s atmosphere. However asteroids can be 600 miles across as a minor planet or planetoid. Meteorites hitting the earth are named and one in Africa ways 60 tons and now is a national monument.
Kuiper Belt is another object in the solar System called the Outer Solar System 55AU [1 Astronomical Unit = 93 million miles] away from the sun.
Comet’s come from the furthest distance in the solar system way beyond Neptune. The secularists call this furthest region the Ort Cloud beyond the Kuiper Belt. Comets come from an icy world where they are formed of ice and stone. As they orbit closer to the sun, they leave on icy trail. As the earth passes through that trail it may cause a spectacular meteor shower in the heavens.
Constellations. It is impossible to think of the heavens and not realize that they have been divided, in the minds of men, into various segments, for various reasons from time memorial. One of those divisions has become now 88 Constellations. The heavens are divided north & south of the Celestial Equatorial Plane. That plane passes through 16 of these constellations. I chose ORION as the constellation to highlight for several reasons to express God’s glory. 1. Orion is globally visible to every one’s naked eye, in both hemispheres AS THE LARGEST. 2. All peoples have traditions attached to Orion as a perceived person, or especially his three-star belt Asterism. Orion has the ability to become culturally adaptable to any culture as illustrated by being known by three different titles: The Three Kings or Three Sisters or The Great Hunter. 3. The belt’s stars are highly visible in the heavens, all being Hypergiants; therefore, super bright & colorful. 4. The 3rd star west in the belt is a triple star, making it rare. 5. It also has a highly colorful Orion Nebula as one of three stars in his sword. 6. A second nebula is the Horsehead Nebula. 7. A third nebula is The Flame. 8. Then there is The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex also called Bernard’s Loop which is very colorful. 9. Finally there is an annual excellent fireworks display called “Orionids” a Meteorite Shower as the earth passes through the debris trail of Halley ’s Comet’s routine orbit every 75 years.
7. GOD’S GLORY REVEALED IN HEAVENS LEADING ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT
When God called Moses to return to Egypt to lead the Israelite People out of their bondage in Egypt, and into the promised land, He indicated that He would be with them all the way [Ex 3:12]. Further I note that these acts of God also displayed His glory as seen above in [Is 44:23 “He displays his glory in Israel”].
After Pharaoh experienced that God meant business by the death of so many in Egypt, he urged them to leave immediately [Ex 10:33]. They were able to travel day or night, because God was to lead them with signs in the heavens, because they numbered more than a million Jewish souls plus others. “ The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds” [Ex12:37-38]. The signs in the heavens were: “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people’. [Ex13:20-21;14:23-25; Nu14:14; Ne9:12, 19]. The word “fire” [H. esh] as in “pillar of fire” would have been to the Jews a clear reminder that it represented Elohim God was leading them.
For Moses it would have reminded him of his “burning bush “ experience earlier [“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up”]. Many times Moses would have these encounters with God. Many times would the Jewish people hear from heaven. So also will we if we will but listen. [Heb 12:25].
8. THE SECOND COMING
Every eye will see Him [cosmos is said to be 93Bly diameter containing 7.8 billion people,in 2021] as He comes instantly, accurately and convincingly, convictingly or lovingly in full living color [Rev.1:7]. That passage indicates He is coming with the clouds. It will not be on a day with clear blue skies evidently. His “glorious coming with signs in the sky and power” will be accented by filmy, billowing, colorful clouds, which will make it all that more spectacular! [Reminiscent of His rapture in [Acts 1:9] and the promise of His return in this same fashion V.11]. He will “gather the elect from the four winds, from one end of THE HEAVENS to the other with an angelic trumpet call” [Mat24:30]. The title of the book of Revelation indicates that this book is to be THE REVELATION of Jesus Christ. But, to see Him in the heavenly tapestry in full living color in the heavens, can only be other worldly. It would take one’s breath away.
SUMMARY
Let us summarize this study on what the Psalmist believed he was being led to convey by saying, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your GLORY in the heavens”. We did not research what it was that was being displayed in the heavens about God. Most of the many translations were consistent in translating the Hebrew word for glory [howd] as “glory”. However other translations were: splendor, majesty, shining greatness and honor. They are all correct and do seek to express the wonder about our God displayed. I found this statement which states what I felt: “The wonderment of the universe”. The Hebrew dictionary adds: grandeur and excellency.
Note what we found. Everything about heaven or “space” speaks of God’s glory in a variety of ways. Our observations do not exhaust what is here.
1. The Hebrew word “shamayim” translated “heavens” can just as well [and I suggest more realisticly with the total Hebrew text] be translated “space”. 2. The size of Space [93Bly] speaks of His omnipresence , 3. Space is not empty but has a “fabric” [rachia], a foundation for organizing countless objects which would be moving in numerous ways such as spinning on an axis and on a tilt, all the while orbiting a central black hole while being influenced by gravity, centrifugal forces and neighbor objects which could perturb. 4. Stars are numberless and are discovered in clusters or superclusters where they were set in galaxies as commanded by God. Stars are found in various sizes from Neutron stars [5-10 miles in diameter], White Dwarfs the size of earth, to Hypergiants which can be1500 times the size of our earth. They can have temperature [as high as 25,000k] and color. The color is controlled by the temperature of the star. Another feature of stars is their luminosity up to 20,000 x that of our sun.
2. A Pulsar is a type of Neutron star which pulses. Another strange star is called the Cepheid variable star. They change in size as well as luminosity on a timed frequency.
3. Constellations are a wonderfully massive display of the Glory of God as portrayed by Orion Constellation’s Hypergiant’s many brightly shining stars and its regular Meteor showers. Is it not amazing that all of humanity can revel in the reminder of God’s Gift of Salvation through confession of their sins and accepting God’s forgiving grace through the willing death of His Son on a cruel cross.
4. Stars can die when they exhaust their supply of Hydrogen. This action is called a Nebulae. They are very colorful and beautiful in the heavens. There is beauty in death? It reminds the believer that God is preparing for us a beautiful eternal home with Him for all eternity, after we have passed from spiritual death to “spiritual life’ [Jn 14:2-3]. “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” AMEN.
5. Today I visited NASA’S “Eyes” site [2021] and marveled at their tenacity in searching for a potential glimmer of some hope of finding life even in our Milky Way Galaxy in which they have found over 3,000 planetary systems in which there are over 4,000 other planets, but sadly [FOR THEM] only Earth has any form of life. But it must be out there [THEY SAY], after all life evolved here. Why not somewhere else? Is it not sad intelligent men cannot accept the beautiful promise of the Word of God, it was only Planet Earth He made to be inhabited!
6. Yet, NASA’S STILL ON TRACT FOR “Artemis 1, which is scheduled to launch late this year, will be an uncrewed test flight around the moon...NASA views Artemis as a steppingstone toward crewed Red Planet missions, which the agency aims to start flying in the 2030s. Lunar exploration has broad and bicameral support in Congress."
7. Truly as Job of old has said, “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens…” [26:13];
8. One final observation about the spiral Galaxies. Not only are the beautiful wispy spiral arms filled with countless sparkling stars but they are the clear indication of God’s Young Earth or Recent Creation. If they were made billions of years ago they would have spun out.
9. The Lord’s glory is shown in the heavens whether it is day or night. Even at twilight, the Solar Terminator it is called, the transition between day and night. It is where the sun’s light stops. Consider Gen.1:4, where God created light, it says, “and God divided the light from the darkness”. That is the “solar terminator.”
10. So I conclude this study with the Psalmist’s words, “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens”. We began this study with the Psalmist’s words “You have set your glory above the heavens” [PS 8:1].