What is the “Heavens and Earth?”

I have been preaching on a number of different images from Revelation and tracing the Biblical Design Patterns throughout the rest of Scripture. It has been fascinating seeing where the images come from and what the Biblical meanings are - as compared to what I have grown up with believing. Today I want to look at one such phrase, “Heavens and Earth.”

1. Revelation talks about a “New Heaven and Earth” coming down to Earth as the “Old Heaven and Earth” had passed away. Taking this literally doesn’t work as the new Earth coming to the old Earth that had already passed away doesn’t make sense.

2. Jesus helps us understand that this was a phrase that had meaning. He uses it in Matthew 5:18 saying that until Heaven and Earth will pass away, the law remains. However we are under grace not law but “Heaven and Earth” have not passed away in a literal sense.

3. Jesus uses this phrase again in Matthew 24:35 when talking about the Destruction of The Temple. To Jesus, “Heaven and Earth” represent the way in which we relate to God through the Temple, sacrifices and so forth.

4. This picture of “Heaven and Earth” representing how we relate to God is consistent throughout Scripture. Think Jacobs ladder, the Tabernacle, The Temple, The Holy of Holies and so forth. It’s where heaven and Earth meet.

5. Peter discusses the destruction of the “Heaven and Earth” and the establishment of the “New Heaven and Earth” in 2 Peter 3 and adds that the “elements” (stoicheion) would be destroyed. This word refers to the law. (See Galatians 4, Colossians 2, Hebrews 5)

6. It seems that Charles Spurgeon believed this “Heaven and Earth” phrase meant how we relate to God too. He said the following, “Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer, or any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacles, or the dedication? No, because though these were like the old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live under new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of the divine teaching is concerned. The substance has come, and the shadow has gone, and we do not remember it.”

7. Therefore, the “Heaven and Earth” that passed away is the old covenant way of relating to God through law, sacrifices and temple. The “New Heaven and New Earth” is shorthand for talking about the New Covenant way of life that Jesus has delivered for us. God is now among us, wiping away our tears, and making all things new!