I believe that a good and perhaps the best interpretation of the scripture text in Genesis 1:1 is that God originally created the heavens on the first part of the first day. I think this heavens was originally made of water as was the case for the earth in Genesis 1:2. God says that there was still some waters in the heavens above the earth's firmament on the second day. It has been scientifically proven at a laboratory at a university in California, United States and confirmed at other locations in the world by reputable scientists that light can be created just by bombarding water with sound waves. This would be like created light from water by God speaking his word to it. There has been proven to be still scientifically abundant resources of water in the nebula in our galaxy and perhaps beyond and now in some of the planets discovered around other stars by the detection of the spectrum of water in the light from these sources. These discoveries indicate water is still very common in the heavens. When our telescopes become more sensitive they will probably be able to detect water in other galaxies further and further away from earth. God could have on the first day made the stars or other luminescent bodies to start shining by speaking His Word to the waters in those parts of the heavens and causing them to give light. God speaking His word to these waters could also have caused the hydrogen and oxygen in the water by nuclear fusion or transmutation combine into heavier elements to make the matter of the stars, the sun, the planets, other heavenly bodies and the heavenly gas and dust. All this is both scientifically and scripturally realistic. The heavenly bodies would already be fully formed and mature on the first day of creation. The scripture reference of God's initial creation of the heavens in Genesis 1 is as follows:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1
Later on the 1st day God said let there be light and there was light. I heard this wasn't a creative act of light at that time but just making the light appear on earth in a less clouded sky. This sky could be still partly cloudy so only the light in an undistinct way could be seen from earth as opposed to distinct heavenly bodies. I believe these days were literal twenty four hour days as the same Hebrew word yom is used elsewhere in the Old Testament for twenty four hour days. One especially important example is in Exodus 20 with the Ten Commandments God relates the Sabbath as the end of a literal 7 day week with the initial week of creation implying the creation week was of six literal 24 hour days. This certainly wouldn't be too hard for an almighty and all-wise God such as the God of the Bible. On the fourth day the Bible says God said let there be lights in the firmament. These lights weren't actually in the place of the firmament which would probably be only several miles or tens of miles above the earth's surface. Instead these lights in the firmament just started to appear there so that with the clearing of clouds on earth so the heavenly bodies could appear more distinctly as seen from the surface of Earth. God made the Day and Night with the Day when the sun was shining and the Night when the stars shine dominated by the moon or the Lesser Light when it is in the Night sky. This is all still the case and scientifically sensisble. God said he made all these things which in this case that he made them to appear but created them on the beginning of the first day of creation. According to the Hebrew of that time the stars would also include the planets, asteroids, meteors, comets or other heavenly bodies other than the sun and moon. The periods mentioned specifically are days and years which are the period of earth's rotation and the period of earth's revolution around the sun. One of the periods not mentioned here is the week that is the primary, ancient period of time that is not based on astronomy. This suggests from the use of the week as a measure of time in almost all cultures that it was based on accounts of God's original creation of the world and mankind in six days and resting on the seventh day. The only other major period of time is the month that is based on the period of the moon around the earth and moon going through its cycle of phases but is not used in verse 14 either. The scripture reference from Genesis 1 of God making the light and heavenly bodies to appear in earth's sky in the first week of creation is as follows:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. Genesis 1:3-8
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19
Although the term host or multitude is not used for the components of the heavens (or earth) in Genesis 1 of God's creation, it is used in Genesis 2. This host of the heaven in this case would mean the galaxies, stars, planets, asteroids etc. that are components of the heavens. This would include our sun, moon and planets or our solar system as well as stars, planets or moons of other stellar systems. The term host of the heavens in the sense of the components of the heavens is used elsewhere in the Old Testament part of God's word the Holy Bible such as in Isaiah 45 mentioned later in this article. In some of those other scripture passages God mentions His creation work as stretching out the heavens and sometimes including the host of them. This could be understood also as providing more details of the creation account given in Genesis 1 and 2. Even though Genesis 1 and 2 do not mention specifically God stretching out the heavens as part of His creation of the universe or heavens and earth. However in Genesis 2 the original creation account does also call the universe that God made the (earth) and heavens and the host of them so that is shows they are both related to the same creation work of God. Although I believe this indicates that God's word states that God stretched out or expanded the universe consistent with the Big Bang theory. I also believe that God still created especially the sun, moon and especially the earth specially with more direct divine intervention or God working beyond strictly through natural processes. I also believe God created the universe from nothing in a material sense but just with His creative power and word and He likely used some of His miraculous power to create the right constants of physics and ratio of chemical elements to make a universe where large scale life is possible. I also believe this means God didn't take about 13.7 billion years to create, stretch out or adjust the universe to the present point in time but just within the six literal day creation week. I also believe that the universe in a finished form such as having galaxies, stars and planets have been expanding or God stretching them out and the space time that contains them since that creation week for about 6 to 10 thousand years. I also belive that God is continuing to be stretch the heavens out to explain what in general astronomical terms is called the expansion of the universe. The scripture reference from Genesis 2 of God making the earth and the heavens and the host of them and that this is a consistent term to other scriptures stating God stretched or is stretching out the heavens and the host of them leaving room for the original creation report in the Bible consistent with an expanding universe is as follows:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, Genesis 2:1-4
In this verse in Deuteronomy 4 God is giving instructions to the Israelites and indirectly people of all other nations or times concerning observing the astronomical or celestial bodies. Not just the sun, but in the night the moon, stars, planets and Milky Way would be quite remarkable to the Israelites of that time since they lived in a fairly dry climate with frequent clear skies and virtually no light pollution, the latter which is increasingly common and drowning out the view of the night sky for us now. God didn't condemn the Israelites for looking up and admiring the stars, planets, Moon, Sun and other physical host of heaven and expected them to do this using an expression of lifting up your eyes giving a sense of wonder in the people at the host of heaven. What God here did condemn here however was the possiblity and the actual practice of of some of the Israelites, that was partly borrowed from pagan Egypt but that they were influenced in a similiar way at other times from Babylon and Mesopotamia, to worship these astronomical objects themselves or in association with false pagan astral gods particularly associated with some of these stars, planets, Moon, or Sun or other astronomical objects instead of to lead them to worship the LORD, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Divine Trinity or other ways of putting it of the God of the Bible as the true Creator God of all these objects as well as the Creator of the Israelites and all other people and things in the universe. God is still against people worshipping the creation above the Creator in a religious or secular way with respect to astronomical or cosmological objects in the sky today. Although it is in the context of instructing the Israelites not to worship the astronomical bodies, the reference in Deuteronomy 4 is useful to note something else. That is that in this verse God instructs the Israelites through His spokesman Moses that another term for the stars and also the sun and moon is the host or multitude or armies of heaven. I still believe God created especially the sun, earth and moon distinctly and that God created all these things around 7000 to 10000 years ago rather than millions or billions of years ago. However I would agree with the idea that God used and guided some natural or spontaneous processes to create the stars and galaxies but still within the six day creation week. (The cosmic evolutionists now rely on an initial phase of the big bang they call inflation when they say the universe expanded faster than the speed of light so it is not unreasonable for creationists to say the Creator God who controls space time and the constants of creation could expand the universe faster than the speed of light.) So the reference in Genesis 1:14-16 of God creating the stars and sun and moon could also be said to be God creating the host of heaven in a physical or inanimate sense rather than a reference to angels. Some other references to stars in the Bible can be viewed as a main part of the host of heaven if this suits the context and some other references to the host of heaven in the Bible can be viewed as especially giving reference to the stars if the context suits it. The reference in Deuteronomy 4 of the host of heaven being comprised of the stars and sun and moon is as follows:
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, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. Deuteronomy 4:19
Although the similiar reference in Deuteronomy 4 of the Israelites looking up or lifting up their eyes to the heavens when they just carried out this action to be in awe of the astronomical objects themselves or to worship them or false gods associated with them was discouraged by God as part of the sin of idolatry, God does encourage the Israelites and them and people of all other nations today and other times to look to the heavens and admire or wonder at these astronomical objects as a way of giving glory to God as Creator of these astronomical things. God mentions in Isaiah 40 that He is the one who stretches out the heavens from when He created them by His hands and word in one place at the beginning of physical creation and this expanding or stretched out universe. God also instructs the Israelites and each of us of all nations and times to lift up our eyes or look towards the heavens and admire the astronomical, cosmological or physical heavenly objects as transendent or beyond humanity and what we have created but also to point us of all nations today also to even look further beyond ourselves, beyond the sun, moon, stars, planets, Milky Way or other astronomical or heavenly objects to the God of the Bible the true Creator God and the Divine Trinity including God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit as Creator of all these astronomical objects, of ourselves and all other things in the universe with God as the one who is worthy of our worship, awe and wonder even beyond the astronomical objects (these things in the heavens in verse 26 in and of themselves). I have always been interested and marvel at the astronomical objects and the vastness, pristineness, order and intricacy all my life but this was one main factor that led me when I was in university to look beyond this aspect of creation or what some would call nature or the universe to the Creator God and then to receive Him as my personal Lord and Saviour and God through His Son Jesus Christ as I continue to follow today and going forward. The scripture reference in Isaiah 40 of God encouraging people to look up or lift up their eyes to the heavens and the heavenly objects and get evidence of Him as Creator of the astronomical objects, human beings and all other things in the universe is as follows:
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle (or sphere) of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: ... To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things (the sun, moon, stars and planets and anything on them in the second or astronomical, or cosmic heavens), that bringeth our their host (sun, moon, stars, planets etc.) by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah 40:21-22, 25-26
Although I didn't used to believe the universe expanded from one point or area such as is called the big bang by mainstream astronomy, I do now agree this is likely what happened but by God speaking it into being. not randomnly from a quantum fluctuation and only recently about 7 to 10 thousand years ago. I believe the creation and expansion of the current universe occurred not randomly by a quantum fluctuation 13 or 14 billion years ago as taught by mainstream astronomy or cosmic evolution perspective scientists or teachers. I also believe that most of the current contents of the universe including the stars and galaxies were quickly spread out and created on the 1st or 4th literal day of the initial creation week by God directing processes of His creation but that He created the Earth, sun and Moon specifically by His more direct intervention. I also believe that these references in Isaiah in God's word, especially about the work of God's hands, indicate that God intervened above usual natural processes or included miracles in His creation of the heavens and the host of them and in stretching out the heavens. I believe God's creation and stretching out the heavens and and stellar host gives the scientifically observed amounts and ratios of chemical elements and isotopes even with a young universe age of about 7,000 to 10,000 years. I think that a vast amount of time of billions of years for the age of the universe isn't needed to arrive at what we currently observe of the universe. I believe this reference to God stretching out the heavens is not just to His stretching out the stars and galaxies and planets the host of heaven in the heavens but that these references in Isaiah are a reference to God stretching out the space-time fabric of the 2nd or astronomical heavens. I also believe God is continuing to stretch out the universe as observed by science but that the initial spreading out of the univese including stars or the host of heaven among the stretched out heavens was in the initial creation week and that it didn't take millions or billions of years for the first stars to form in the universe. I also believe other planets of our solar system and around other stars were created by God around our sun or other stars in the initial creation week. However I acknowledge there are still currently some debris disks or protoplanetary disks around some stars in which stars and some planets or asteroids etc. seem to be currently forming and that these are the exceptions but still guided by the Creator God and some of the host of the heavens that He continues to stretch out. I believe what seems to be recently formed stellar systems out of debris disks etc. could be referred to in the phrase that God bringeth out their host by number in Isaiah 40 in relation to God's continuing stretching out or expanding the heavens. However I believe that the great majority or the stars, galaxies and planets in our universe were created in the initial creation week about 7 to 10 thousand years ago as described in Genesis 1 on the 1st day and probably made visible to the surface of Earth on the 4th day of the creation week. The references in Isaiah 40 and 45, including reference to God creating man on the earth, give the understanding that when God created man on the earth as well as other life He created us and them with the ability to reproduce and continue the kind or species after our kind (and not to evolve into another kind as macroevolution holds). In the same way the most important part of the heavens and the host of them was done by God in the 1st creation week of six or seven 24 hour days and not 6 or 7 ages of millions or billions of years about 10,000 years ago (not over 10 billions years ago). However God is continuing to stretch out the heavens and continuing the natural processes in the heavens He set in motion in the 1st creation week but that these natural processes are also subject to God's supernatural intervention or miracles beyond His natural processes. That is God continues to use both natural and His supernatural or beyond natural processes in His ongoing stretching out the heavens including in some now much more uncommon cases, than in the original creation, producing new stars, planets or stellar systems or destroying some existing stars by supernova. This ongoing more limited creation by God including at this time can be both by natural and supernatural creation or forming by God including effects on the chemical element and isotope composition etc. in His continuingly stretching out or expanded heavens and could be referred to in Isaiah 40 with the phrase "(God) brings out their host by number".
I believe, and would encourage the reader to take note as God just showed me and act accordingly, that God encourages the reader of His word and humans as His created intelligent beings to look to the heavens to think of or worship the Creator God who created the heavens as in Isaiah 40:26. However I believe God discourages people to look to the heavens in order to worship or serve the heavens themselves such as in idolatry, astrology, astral projection or just a naturalistic philosophy. I think it is good that people look beyond themselves and have wonder at the heavens or astronomical objects but not good that they don't ackowledge the true Creator God mentioned in the Bible as the Creator of those objects and all other things including humans and all life on Earth. The scripture references in Isaiah 45 and 40 of God stretching out the heavens corresponding to the big bang but on a much more recent and quicker time scale including the hosts of them or the stars and galaxies and most of the planets or our solar system or around other stars and to some extent the sun, moon and earth which He however more specifically or directly formed are as follows:
Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. Isaiah 45:11-12
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? ... It is he that sitteth upon the circle (sphere) of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: ... To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power: not one faileth. Isaiah 40:18, 22, 25-26
God (especially the Father but including the Son Jesus) the LORD said: "And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. ... For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. Jeremiah 33:7-9, 17-18
And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah saying, Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night (the Earth's rotation), and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven (sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies etc. in the heavens or space-time) cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. Morevover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances (laws) of heaven (including stretching out the heavens or space-time and guiding the host of heaven being stretched out with the expanding heavens or space-time and of the orbits, rotations etc. of the host of heaven, sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies etc.) and earth (such as rotation and revolution of the earth etc.); Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob (Israel), and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy upon them. Jeremiah 33:19-26
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts (of the multitude of astronomical or angelic host) is his name: If these ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 31:35-37
In this Psalm of God's creation, Psalm 104, the psalmist does himself and encouages other people to praise God for the wonders of His creation of the universe or the heavens and the earth and the things in them. The psalmist mentions that God clothes Himself with majesty (or power). This reference to God clothing Himself (with majesty) would most definitely be related to the next verse where the psalmist mentions that God covers Himself with light as a garment which is how God clothes Himself in this universe. The light in this case would be the lights of heaven that is the galaxies, stars and indirectly planets that shine by reflected light as God says through the psalmist later in the same verse as this light that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain. God stretching out the heavens is again a reference to God continuing to expand the universe after He originally brought the universe into being by His power with some miraculous intervention by His hands and His word from the time of what general science calls the big bang. With God's miraculous intervention in how the universe was and is being stretched out and in the production of atomic elements and nuclear isotopes or versions of elements with different number of neutrons God could and I believe did create the universe only perhaps 10,000 years ago not 13 or so billion years ago. God covering Himself with the lights of the heavens or universe is spoken of as being covered as a garment in this case this means the whole heavens are like a garment covering God but with the lights or galaxies, cluster of galaxies, stars etc. of the heavens or universe being like bright designs on that garment. In Psalm 102 verse 25 and 26 the heavens in general are called a garment covering God but in that case it is a reference to the end of the present heavens that will be at the end of the coming 1000 year Millennial or Messianic Kingdom when God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ visibly rules all the earth after His glorious Second Coming from heaven to earth. In Psalm 104 the heavens or universe that God is continuing to stretch out or expand since His creation of the heavens at the big bang is compared to curtains. This could be compared to the largest scale structure of the universe that look like curtains with the walls, nodes and voids that clusters of galaxies in the universe are arranged in. This use of the term for the heavens being stretched out or expanded by God as curtains is similiar to the picture of God stretching out the heavens as curtains used in Isaiah 40:22. The scripture reference of God (continuing to) stretch out or expand the universe or heavens as a curtain and as a garment to cover or clothe Himself with the lights or the heavens (clusters of galaxies, galaxies, stars etc.) in Psalm 104 is as follows:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothes with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Psalm 104:1-2
In the first part of this chapter of Isaiah 50 God speaks especially to His chosen earthly people of Israel that He can deliver them from their problems of their enemies partly brought about by their sins such as His drying up the Red Sea to deliver them from the Egyptians. A little later God mentions the Messiah Jesus in Isaiah 50:4-6 who came to earth to deliver all especially willing people from our spiritual enemies of sin, the world system, the devil and the old or fleshly nature and death associated with these. In the context of these examples of God's deliverance to His earthly or spiritual people (Israel and those of the nations that join themselves to the God of Israel and the true Church respectively) God mentions His power in His creation generally. In verse 3 God mentions His continuing power with His respect to His creation in the heavens. God through His servant the prophet Isaiah mentions His power that God creates blackness (or sackcloth) to clothe or cover the heavens. Of course we all know the heavens or universe is mostly black due to the vast distances between stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies that are the objects that give off light or even between stars and planets that can shine by the reflected light of their parent stars. This blackness in the heavens is increasing as God continues to stretch out the heavens or expand the universe and there is an increasing distance between the major light giving objects in the universe of the galaxies or cluster of galaxies as in Psalm 104 or Isaiah 40 and as consistent with scientific observation. The heavens as clothed with blackness would be like part of a darker part of a garment or piece of clothing but the brighter parts of the garment would be like the parts that particular clothe God as in Psalm 104 with God the source of all light and power in the universe. The scripture reference in Isaiah 50 of God creating or clothing the heavens with blackness as He stretches out the heavens or expands the universe and makes more distance between the main physical light giving objects of the heavens (lights or some of the host of heaven) is as follows:
Thus saith the LORD, ... I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. Isaiah 50:1, 3.
The previous reference of God's creation of the heavens and its contents such as galaxies, stars and planets and stretching out the heavens and its contents the reference to God stretching them out was to God's hands. The reference to God's intervention by His hands was especially to His likely intervening by miraculous means to guide the speed the heavens are stretched out and the bulk and chemical element amounts or ratios at different times is expressed as the work of God's hands. However, although that is a good picture of God creating and making the heavens and their host, there is another scripture that I believe is talking about the same things describing God creating and miraculously altering from natural processes the creation and stretching out of the heavens and the host of them. This other reference is in Psalm 33:6. The reference in Psalm 33 expresses God creating the heavens and its host or contents such as galaxies, stars, planets in terms of the word or breath of God which also shows His infinite power and wisdom. This reference of God creating the heavens and its host would also include God stretching out the heavens after His initial creation of it and its host. This reference of God creating the heavens and their host would also include God using both natural and supernatural events or processes in large scale such as at the level of galaxies, stars and planets and small scale extents such as of chemical atoms and isotopes. These ratio of isotopes of God's creative acts produce the heavens and their contents we humans including astronomers or scientists with powerful telescopes or other scientific observing equipment observe now about the universe. This is in reference to the observed heavens currently and of it going back in time at more distant objects that would be seen farther back in time since light from them would take more time to reach us than closer objects. However, if we consider that God could and did intervene such as with His hands or breath or word, then the heavens or universe and the host or contents of them we observe could be explained by a universe that is only about 7 to 10 thousand years old instead of about 13 to 14 billion years old. Of course the older age is what is used and promoted in mainstream science including astronomy and which is based on only naturalistic processes or assumptions of the expansion or stretching out of the heavens and their creation and is excluding any intervention by the Creator God. The scripture reference of God creating and implied stretching out the heavens and their host and His using supernatural or miraculous as well as natural processes to create, adjust and stretch out the heavens and their host in terms of using His word or breath in the creation of the heavens and their host is as follows:
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6
In Psalm 102 the Psalmist states that these heavens and earth are God's work which according to the above scriptures would be by God specially guiding His creation and streching out of the heavens such as by His hands or word in a recent creation such as around 10,000 years ago. The Psalmist in this part of God's word then states that these heavens and earth will ultimately be destroyed, which will be in a little over 1,000 years from now at the end of the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Millennial or Messianic Kingdom will start when the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) comes from heaven with His Church and Old Testament saints, holy angels and the glory of God the Father to judge the world and set up God's Kingdom on earth at the end of the 7 year tribulation or 70th week of Daniel. God says through the Psalmist that although God will destroy this heavens and earth God Himself will endure even after He destroys this heaven and earth. The Psalmist then expands on God's destruction of these present heavens by saying these heavens will wax or grow old like an old garment or piece of cloth and God will change them such as into a new garment which will be the new heavens (and earth). The Psalmist also affirms the eternity and self-existence of God in stating that compared to these heavens and earth God does not change and will live and exist forever. Lastly in this Psalm the Psalmist refers to the children of thy servants which means Israelites or Jews and Gentiles and the true Church or true Christians who all with our heart believe in God as the true God. This belief in God includes to believe Him according to what light we have of His Annointed One, Christ or Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth. This means all believers will also continue with God beyond this heaven and earth in the new heavens. This continuation with God of believers in Him of all ages will be in our eternal including sinless nature and resurrection or changed into immortal or spiritual and heavenly bodies. The scripture reference from Psalm 102 of God creating these heavens and earth, ultimately destroying them at the end of time but that God and His saved or believing people of all ages will continue with God beyond the time this heavens and earth to enjoy His new heavens and earth is as follows:
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou (you) shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. Psalm 102:25-28
In this chapter, Isaiah 51, God first appeals to His chosen earthly people Israel to remember His covenant with them through their physical father or ancestor Abraham. God promises the Israelites including the Jews that those among them that turn to God will eventually come into His blessings on them through their part of the Abrahamic coveneant as in Genesis 12 and 17 on earth in the Millenial or Messianic Kingdom. In the Messianic or Millenial Kingdom God will heal the land of Israel and bring more fertility to the waste or desert or wilderness places and make them more like the Garden of Eden and bring more joy in Him for the inhabitants then. God says His chosen earthly people Israel will be blessed also physically on this earth then when they generally are more faithful to Him and His law. However there will then also be a bigger part of new birth by God's Holy Spirit for the Israelites on Earth and in trust in Messiah Jesus or Y'Shua. God also says the people of the other nations in the Millennial or Messianic age will also wait on or be faithful to Him and trust in Him again through His Messiah Jesus or Y'Shua and God will probably to some degree. God will also physically heal or make fertile and perhaps take away other problems or corruption from the Gentile lands such as viruses and parasites that could be more part of the curse rather than God's original good creation. These viruses and parasites still currently are a plague to better development of some nations especially tropical nations where these type of lifeforms seem to thrive more. After all this in verse 6 that is after the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom God says He will bring an end to this current heavens and earth and according to other scriptures immediately after that make a new better heavens and earth. God says in verse 6 of this chapter that the human inhabitants on earth who had not by then personally trusted in the true God of the Bible including His Messiah Jesus of Nazareth will be brought out of God's heaven and earth and not be present in the new heavens and earth. This is because, according to other relevant scriptures like Revelation 20, God will put every human being who doesn't trust in Him through His Son Jesus Christ from the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom and all previous ages including this present Church Age or Dispenstation in the Lake of Fire forever. However God then restates that those of Israel and the nations including the true Church from this Age we can now say won't be refused from the new heavens and new earth but be able to enjoy it forever with God and His Messiah Jesus (Y'Shua) as our God, Lord, object of trust and Saviour. The scripture reference from Isaiah 51 about the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom blessing to the faithful to God of Israel and the nations and God's promise to destroy this heavens and earth after that time but let His faithful people continue with Him in a new heavens and earth but not let those people who don't trust in Him or receive His salvation continue with Him in His new heavens and earth is as follows:
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increaed him. For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Isaiah 51:1-8
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