Weekly Devotional 1-23-17 The Three Heavens
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ever gone into heaven (The third heaven) except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13), and yet 2 Kings 2 v. 11 says, “And it came to pass, as they (Elijah & Elisha) still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” How are we to understand this? In that Jesus could not be wrong, that no one had ever gone to heaven except Him, we need to understand this in relation to time.
Elijah was caught up into heaven, but what heaven? The apostle Paul said that he, Paul, had been caught up into the third heaven (2nd Corinthians 12:2). This presupposes that there is a first and second heaven. The first heaven is our atmosphere. The second is the vast expanse of the universe. The third being where the throne of God is. To which heaven then was Elijah caught?
The English translators, in translating 2nd Kings 2:11, either didn’t understand the meaning of the Hebrew word “shâmeh” (translated heaven in English) or perhaps assumed that people would understand that 2nd Kings 2:11 was referring to either the first or second heaven, not the third. It is the same word used in Genesis 1:6-8 where it describes the firmament, the area between the waters on Earth and the water vapor canopy that was originally at the outer edge of our atmosphere. Thus, there is no contradiction with Jesus’ claim that He was to be the first person caught up into heaven, the third heaven. Elijah was taken up into the sky, the atmospheric or galactic heaven. This is the same place where all believers went before the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
Jesus speaks of this place as being Paradise in the Gospel of Luke. We read, “19There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21desiring to be fed with £the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried” (Luke 16:19-22 NKJV).
Jesus also spoke of this place when from the cross He said to the thief on His right, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43 NKJV). Jesus was the first fruits of all redeemed persons’ spirits who are taken into the third heaven at death. His body was the first resurrected body taken into the third heaven.
Paul in his second letter of encouragement to the Corinthians wrote, “1For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” 2 Corinthians 5:1-6 (NKJV).The Lord is in heaven and to be present with Him (v.6) we must also be in heaven, where He is.
Today, in the church age, when we as redeemed persons pass from this life, we do not go into the first or the second heaven, but into the third and there we will be in the very presence of God. What a wonderful truth.
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