If we assume God is good, or glorious, then the heavens must be just as glorious. Indeed, they are. Most English translations of the Bible render the first sentence of Genesis, "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.
As with previous posts, I will explore the ancient Hebrew alphabet pictographs that make up the word "the heavens" and attempt to explain what might be contained therein.
I numbered this post "Part 1" because it will be but one of several posts about "the heavens". I wish I could say how many there will be, but I simply cannot. I know I will post on Noah and the flood, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, and Abraham as they are all contained in "the heavens", but I'm not sure exactly how far this will go. It could just be the entire story of the Old Testament. Just as God is infinite, so too may be "the heavens".
"The heavens" is comprised of 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 peoples 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 peoples or nations).
The word mayim (spelled in Hebrew MEM YOD MEM) is the Hebrew word for water. Therefore, we see in "the heavens" BEHOLD (HEY), DESTRUCTION (SHIN) by WATER (MEM YOD MEM). More specifically: BEHOLD, the WORKS (deeds) of your HAND will be CONSUMED/DESTROYED by WATER. I have provided a visual representation of hashamayim below. Please note, this post continues below the graphic, so keep reading about Noah and God's covenant below.
Okay, so Noah...The name Noah in Hebrew is pretty cool, too. In Hebrew, the word for Noah is essentially the same with a little more throatiness involved, it is Noach. The Hebrew letters are NUN (N)(pictured as the seed of life or sometimes a fish, meaning seed or life). Just an aside, when you see the pictograph of NUN below, you have to wonder how in the world the ancients knew what a "seed" looked like so long ago (without a microscope), I did anyway. And CHET (Ch)(pictured as a wall or fence, meaning to cut off). So, the name Noah in the ancient Hebrew pictographs is LIFE will be CUT OFF.
Curiously, Noah spelled backwards in Hebrew is the Hebrew word for grace, chen. Regarding Noah and the flood, I cannot help but to think of the word chen (grace) like I am looking in the rear view mirror of a car: grace looking forward, Noah and the destruction of the flood looking backward. LIFE will be CUT OFF, but after LIFE is CUT OFF then GRACE.
Therefore, I believe we can also see hashamayim as BEHOLD, God's GRACE is that there will never again 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." In light of the Noah/Grace connection, take another look at "the heavens" graphic above and read Gen. 9:11 one more time.
As additional evidence of my rear view mirror example, look at the covenant God makes with Noah. God says, "I have set my bow..." 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).
So, God's covenant, the bow (queshet) is: look to the HORIZON after the DESTRUCTION and you will see God's COVENANT. See bow below.
"The heavens". Five letters, five pictures, yet so rich, so deep. But, there's more. I'll explore that in Part 2.
The Rest of Genesis 1:1: