In Isaiah, chapter fifty-one, verse six, “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.” The establishment of God’s eternal kingdom on earth will involve the destruction of the present heaven and earth and the death of all who oppose God and His righteousness, as in chapter twenty-four, verse four, chapter thirty-four, verse four, chapter fifty, verse nine, Hebrews one, verses ten through eleven, and Revelation nineteen, respectively.
In Isaiah fifty-five, verse nine, the beginning starts with “For as the heavens are higher than the earth.” Therefore, this scripture tells that there is more than one. At the end of Second Corinthians twelve, verse two, states, “such an one caught up to the third heaven.” This verse indicates the third heaven does exist. Let’s be clear – nowhere in the Bible does the term first or second heaven appear in any of the scriptures. So what does the theme verse mean about the “heavens shall vanish away?”
With that in mind, let’s consider these three heavens. There is the sky above the earth, the stars and the galaxies, and the third heaven is confirmed by the previous verse in Isaiah. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” as in Psalm nineteen, verse one. In James five, verses seventeen through eighteen, Elijah prayed that it would not rain, then prayed again, and it did, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. In this instance, the Psalmist uses the word heavens, referring to the sky or the atmosphere around us, where the glory of God is revealed in the skies and the clouds that we see.
If the atmosphere and the sky are the first heaven, then you could consider the stars and galaxies the second heaven. Again, as a reminder, the Bible does not use this term; This is for clarification or distinction only. In Psalm eight, verse three, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.” If the first heaven can include what we can see, then the second heaven begins to go beyond what we can see. The first and second heaven is considered the area where the evil spirits dwell that attempt to disrupt the prayers of the saints from reaching God and disturb people from praying to Him.
Now, believers know what heavens will be vanishing away when God fulfills the theme verse at the very beginning.