25Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. 28Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29For our God is a devouring fire.
Hebrews 12:25-29
Now I come to the crux of the challenge the author of Hebrew put initially to the Jewish Christians of his day, and by extension to those of us reading the letter in these days. There are more connections I need to make for you my readers, but allow me to begin with the obvious point this author makes. Have you seen the prime repetition in this passage. I have emboldened it for you. There are five repetitions of shaking in five verses. Actually there are five repetitions within three verses with an introductory and a closing verse. It is unequivocal that this is a major concluding point of the author.
God’s voice shook the earth around Mt Sinai when He spoke to the Israelites. It is true that the earthquake, the fierce wind and the fire shook not only the surrounding mountain but also the Israelites themselves. In 1 Kings 19, when Elijah fled to the Mount of God expecting God to speak, his expectation was to experience wind, earthquake and fire. After all that is what happens when God speaks isn’t it? That was why Elijah went to Mt Sinai, to hear God’s voice; but what he expected was to be shaken. It is probably true for us all, that to hear God’s voice was to expect to be in for a shaking. The author has been comparing the Hebrew Christians in the time of Nero with the Israelite experience in the wilderness in Moses time. We have seen already that the Israelites in the time of Moses were shaken to the point where they cried out to Moses to be the intermediary.
All the people, experiencing the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the smoking mountain, were afraid—they pulled back and stood at a distance. They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t have God speak to us or we’ll die.”
Exodus 20:18-19
Now the author tells us God makes another promise, “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” Haggai 2:6
We are informed by this well-read author of all things Hebraic, that there is more shaking to come. Where does he get this idea? From the prophecy in Haggai. What is meant by ‘shake not only the earth but the heavens also’? Just that! This coming shaking will shake not just the earth but the heavens as well. The meaning is clear that the whole earth will be shaken and so too the heavens. What is the meaning of [οὐρανός – ouranos]?
According to Thayer’s Dictionary there are two meanings to the use of ‘heavens’
- 1 a) the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it
- b) the universe, the world
- c) the aerial heavens or sky, the region where the clouds and the tempests gather, and where thunder and lightning are produced
- d) the sidereald or starry heavens
- 2) the region above the sidereald heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect, where God dwells and other heavenly beings.
d sidereal is a term meaning “pertaining to the stars in the constellations and beyond”, not the immediate planets and heavenly bodies of our Milky Way galaxy.
It was clearly the first of these meanings which the author intends here. This coming shaking predicted by Haggai was talking about a shaking which would affect the earth and the universe around it. The heavenly bodies, the planets and the stars. This next shaking will be a shaking like no other shaking in human history. I asked the question in the title of this Gem – Do you sense a world wide shaking happening? Oh we can debate climate change, the frequency in earthquake activity and many other worldwide phenomena but this coming shaking the Bible is referring to is a shaking that will encompass the heavens and the earth. Yes, if the Israelites were fearful in time of Moses standing before the unbridled {uncontrolled, unconstrained, unrestrained, unrestricted} power of God, imagine what it will be like facing that moment when the whole earth as well as the heavens will be shaken. Just pause and take in the thought even just for a moment.
New Zealand over the last weeks has been shaken more than most people would imagine. We have had a series of devastating floods in the same regions as have been hit before with three supersaturated cyclones which have poured unprecedented amounts of rain on the same parts of the country. Many have been flooded multiple times. Throw in a couple of earthquake tremors and you can imagine the feelings of disquiet. Now we hear Vanuatu has been hit by two cyclones and an earthquake in the same week. Need I mention Turkey and Syria suffering the brunt of two massive earthquakes and California experiencing freak snow falls.
I think I have got your attention by now, dear reader. The shaking may well be literal shakings in the sense of what those early Israelites felt. But they could also be figurative shakings in the sense of what was coming on the Jewish Christians prior to the persecution of Nero. It is a strong probability that this letter we are analysing was written between AD 64 and 66. AD 66 was the date of the first Jewish revolt in Rome and then followed the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. He was not talking of something theoretical. There could have been no debate or conspiracy theories back then; it was all pending fact.
Now allow me to spell out what the author of the letter WAS saying. He was not meaning that the heavenly realms2 above will be shaken. Quite the contrary. It is that which will prove to be unshaken. In fact all these things will happen to prove that the things of God and of heaven can not be shaken. Only the things which cannot be shaken will remain. Namely, the Kingdom of God which we are in the process of receiving. It is that which we are receiving – the Unshakeable Kingdom of God! The author of Hebrews is telling us the eternal things of the Kingdom of God cannot be shaken. It is the temporal things which will be shaken in order to reveal that which cannot be shaken.
The use of [νῦν nun] “now” in the statement “Now yet once more I will shake not only the earth . . .” Hebrews 12:26 indicated the shaking was imminent. Applied to the Hebrew Christians at the time of the letter being sent it was indeed imminent. There will come a time when the “now-ness” of that final shaking will come upon us. Of course, people have been predicting the end times for centuries. But one day it WILL INDEED come upon us. Since we know with certainty we are receiving the Life of the Age to Come (Eternal Life), it is for that reason that that author of Hebrews tells us we have come to the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem (Mt Zion). We know therefore that Kingdom is unshakeable. The shakeable things are those related to the temporary realm; the unshakeable things are those which are eternal.
All of this is set in the context of the writer’s warning about us heeding the warning of the One Who speaks from heaven. This author has taken great pains to prove to us that Jesus Christ is far above all others. His whole letter has been written to prove that Jesus is the ultimate Message of God. In past times and in diverse ways God spoke through the prophets but now He has spoken to us IN HIS SON (Hebrews 1:1-2). The Israelites in the wilderness refused to heed the voice of God and asked that Moses be the means of communicating God’s message, but they stubbornly refused to listen to him. “If they did not heed when God spoke through an earthly messenger, THEN HOW MUCH MORE WILL WE CERTAINLY NOT ESCAPE IF WE REFUSE THE ONE WHO SPEAKS FROM HEAVEN.” Hebrews 12:25
This is technically called a kal-ve-chomer argument in Hebrew: a light to heavy principle. If one thing is true concerning a light, lenient principle, then much more so will be the outcome if a heavy principle or argument is applied. If the outcome or the result was true of the lighter sentence or application of the principle, then certainly the heavier case or argument will apply. If God’s judgement came on those who refused to listen to Moses, how much more severe will be the judgement of those rejecting Jesus?
Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29
The size and height of the tree determines how heavily the ground will shake when it falls. The cassava tree falls and not even the pests in the forest are aware. The baobab tree falls and the whole forest looks empty! Such is human life!
Israelmore Ayivor
Sometimes chaos is the very thing that deliberately shakes up our neatly ordered world’s in order to get us out of the neatly ordered ruts that have kept us stuck.
Craig Lounsbrough
For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Isaiah 54:10
Do you sense a world-wide shaking coming? Do you know the One Who speaks from heaven is trying to get your attention? Will you listen?
Ian