See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:25-29 ESV
The book of Leviticus is a fundamentally about worship. Particularly, it is about how a sinful people were to worship the holy and sinless God. The seriousness and solemnity of that privilege is made evident by a brief narrative that is found in chapter 10:1-3:
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'” And Aaron held his peace.
There is a large tendency among Christians to read such Old Testament passages with great gratitude that God is no longer “like that.” For it is largely believed that Jesus came to put an end to God’s angry phase back in the Old Testament. Of course, we do live under the age of grace, where God’s special grace is being poured out through the gospel across the globe and God’s common grace upon all men has never been more blatant. Our previous passage gave us a marvelous portrait of the far greater grace that we have under the new covenant in Jesus Christ. However, we should not imagine, as many have done, that God’s character has changed between the Old and New Testaments. As the author of Hebrews has pointed out numerous times already, he now warns once more that the unparalleled display of God’s grace goes hand-in-hand with an unparalleled display of His judgment that is still to come.
DO NOT REFUSE HIM WHO IS SPEAKING // VERSE 25
In many ways the passage before us is the climax of Hebrews, while chapter 13 is all resolution (to speak in narrative terms). Our previous passage gave us a sevenfold vision of the new covenant that Christians have already entered through the once for all sacrifice of Christ. That mighty revelation paralleled the sevenfold vision Jesus as the divine Son of God in 1:2-3. Now the author continues onward to parallel the very beginning of his sermon-letter, which reads: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:1-2a). Christ is the definitive and perfect Word of God, for unlike any prophet Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature. In all His words and deeds but also by His very being, Jesus communicated the nature of God to us.
Yet even though Christ has ascended to the right hand of God the Father after having perfectly accomplished His priestly work of redemption, He has not gone silent. As the author has been showing through this written sermon, God is still speaking by His Son through the Scriptures. Particularly, the author has labored to show how the Old Testament still speaks to us about who Jesus is and of the gospel that He came to accomplish. Indeed, all throughout the letter the author introduces Old Testament citation by saying he says or as the Holy Spirit says. Thus, by the sermon-letter of Hebrews, which is itself Scripture, and by the Old Testament passages that it has quoted, God is speaking to all who read these words. Though it may not seem as spectacular as God’s audible speaking to Israel at Sinai, it is a far greater revelation that we are hearing, and it is imbued with more grace and even an even greater glory.
Thus, we now begin the author’s final warning of the book: See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. This is the same command that the author gave in 3:12, saying, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” So we could similarly say here: Take care that you do not refuse him who is speaking. This is a matter worthy of your utmost attention and focus.
In Luke 10:38-42, we read the well-known account of Jesus in the house of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary, we are told, sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching, while “Martha was distracted with much serving” (v. 40). After Martha demanded that Jesus make Mary help her, Jesus simply said this: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (vv. 41-42). This was a loving rebuke to Martha that even serving, as wonderful as that is, is not ultimately necessary. Gladly listening to and knowing Jesus is the one thing in this life that necessary, for it is the good portion that not even death can take away. Martha was failing to receive that good portion because she was too distracted to listen to Jesus.
Notice that the author of Hebrews here indicates that having read or listened to his letter means having heard Christ speak; therefore, if you refuse Him, you are not simply being distracted away from the one thing necessary. You are openly rejecting Him. The remainder of the verse adds to this warning:
For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
Again, this is not a new point that the author is making. The new covenant that Christ has inaugurated is marked by great grace that far exceeds the grace that was given through the old covenant; however, the judgment for refusing is also far greater. As 2:2-3 said, “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” Or in 10:28-29:
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of one or two witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Indeed, remember the similar phrasing of 10:18 and 10:26. After spending chapters 7-10 describing the priestly work of Christ, the author finished by confirming Jesus’ once for all sacrifice by saying, “Where there is forgiveness of [sins and lawless deeds], there is no longer any offering for sin.” And we cry, “Amen!” Christ has paid it all. He has made the complete and final sacrifice for our sins, so there is nothing more that we need to give or could ever give to make our salvation more secure. Jesus has done it all!!
Yet in 10:26, the author used almost the same wording but put it in a different context: “for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” In this verse, the same truth of Christ’s sufficiency takes on a terrifying tone. For if we reject the only sufficient sacrifice for sins, what else remains? To what other hope will we turn when we have rejected the salvation given through the shed blood of the Son of God?
That again is the question that the author sets before us here. If those who refused God’s speaking from Sinai did not escape the judgment that came for them, those who refuse God’s speaking through His Son from Mount Zion will certainly not escape an even greater judgment of God that is still to come.
THE GREAT SHAKENING // VERSES 26-27
In these verses, the author turns his attention upon that coming judgment, using the contrast between earth and heaven as his point of connection:
At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken–that is, things that have been made–in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
Briefly the author references the shaking of the earth that marked God’s speaking to Israel at Mount Sinai, but then he quickly moves on to contrast that shaking of the earth with God’s promise in Haggai 2:6 to shake both the earth and the heavens.
Jews who had returned from the exile needed encouragement to rebuild God’s temple, so the Lord promised to shake “the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”
In its immediate context this promise meant that he would compel the nations to contribute their wealth to his sanctuary (Hag. 2:7-9). Yet Haggai’s imagery transcended its immediate application, as he was evoking imagery used previously by Isaiah to portray the coming day when the Lord’s vengeance would bring destruction not only to the earth’s inhabitants but also to the heaven and to its starry host (Isa. 13:13; 34:1-5).[1]
Indeed, the author of Hebrews notes specifically the phrase “yet once more” as an indication that God will be removing all things that can be shaken, that is, the things that have been made. What are the things that have been made? Genesis 1:1 gives us a pretty concise answer: “In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.” That means that all things were created by God, and also as the New Testament notes, through Christ. For Colossians 1:16 says, “For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulers or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him.” So, saying the heavens and the earth is a way of saying everything, the whole cosmos with both its physical and spiritual realms.
And that is what God will one day be shaking away.
Of course, this is not an idea new or unique to Hebrews. Back in 1:10-12, the author quoted Psalm 102:25-27, which spoke of the heavens and the earth perishing and wearing out like a garment. Isaiah 65-66 tells us that the present created order will be replaced with a new heavens and a new earth. And in Revelation 21, John sees a vision of that very event: “Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (v. 1). Yet perhaps 2 Peter 3:10-13 is most evocative:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavenly bodies will be burned and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
If the entire created order, both physical and spiritual, will be erased and remade, how could we ever reach the new heavens and the new earth that God has promised?
KINGDOM & WORSHIP // VERSES 28-29
There is only one historical global event that gives a proper foretaste of the apocalypse that the author of Hebrews is reminding us will surely come: the great flood. Peter makes this very comparison earlier in chapter 3, where he says in verses 4-7:
They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Noah and his family alone were spared out of all the earth from the deluge, and they were preserved via the ark. Along with a sampling of each kind of animal, they floated safely above the waters that covered the entire earth until God retracted the waters and renewed the dry land. In the same way that God provided the ark for Noah, He has also provided a way for His people to endure the day of His wrath and be brought safely to the new cosmos that He will establish. This new and better ‘ark’ is the Son of God Himself. It is belonging to the kingdom that He has established in Himself. As verse 28 says, Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken
Only God’s kingdom will endure the dissolving and remaking of the cosmos. As mighty as the kingdoms of earth may seem for the moment, they cannot endure the passage of time, let alone the day of judgment! I am certain that it was difficult for the original readers of Hebrews to believe that. Despite the supernatural spreading of Christianity, it was still so small and insignificant, especially whenever compared with the great power that was the Roman Empire. Indeed, because Christianity gave worth and dignity to every human, it was most popular with women, slaves, and the poorest of freemen. From a secular point of view, the contest between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Ceasar was a joke. Yet as Richard Phillips notes:
Today Rome’s great power, which the Christian readers of this letter understandably feared, is but a memory. Meanwhile the kingdom of Christ is with us still, its strength unabated. The impact of the two kingdoms has been described quite cleverly by comparing Nero, the emperor who probably was involved in this persecution, and the apostle Paul, whom he had put to death. “Today people name their dogs after Nero,” it is said, “but they name their sons after Paul.”[2]
Indeed, that is the perspective that we are now privileged to have two thousand years later. How much in light of eternity? Each day’s headlines give us plenty of things to be frightened of. But we should be diligent to remind ourselves of the great hope and security that we have in belonging God’s kingdom in His Son.
Indeed, placing our faith in the finished work of Christ is how this unshakeable kingdom is received. During the flood there was no mountain high enough to outclimb the waters that rose. So too are none of our own works righteous enough to earn us God’s favor. Christ alone has given Himself as a sufficient offering to forgive us of all our sins. And worship is the proper response to receiving God’s unshakeable kingdom: and let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
There is a very common idea within our culture generally but also among Christians specifically that God is obligated to accept anything we do for Him so long as we do it sincerely. Now do not hear what I am not saying. Sincerity is certainly an important element of worship. However, our sincerity does not force God into accepting anything from us. Instead, God repeatedly commands us in Scripture to worship Him as He commands and then to do so sincerely. Indeed, the great problem with someone saying that their time on the lake fishing or working in the garden is more worshipful than going to church is that worship is not primarily about us. Worship is about glorifying God, which we do by loving Him and obeying His commands and laws. We have no right to do whatever feels best to us and call it worship. As the One being worshiped, God dictates what is acceptable or unacceptable worship.
Indeed, when verse 29 reminds us that our God is a consuming fire, the author is referencing Deuteronomy 4:23-24, which is a command about properly worshiping God:
Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Christ has not abolished our need to worship God acceptably; He has made it possible through Himself for us to worship God acceptably, which is a worship marked by reverence and awe. The deadly sin of Nadab and Abihu was an irreverent and presumptuous view of worship. They did not fully consider the weight of being sinners in the presence of the Holy One, and they were consumed with the fire of God as a result.
Again, Noah is our positive example, for 11:7 said this of him: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” This fits the pattern that is established for us. Although Noah’s own hands built the ark, he did so by the command of God and could only do so because God warned him of the flood and he then obeyed in faith. The very first mention of Noah is Genesis 6:8: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” That is, God gave His grace to Noah. From that gracious favor, we read in 6:22: “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” 7:5: “Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.” 7:6-9 says that Noah, his family, and the animals went into the ark “as God had commanded Noah” and again in 7:16, “as God had commanded him.” Noah’s building of the ark was reverent and acceptable worship to God because Noah did all that God commanded him. He obeyed God’s voice. He did exactly what God told him to do.
With not a flood but a great and all-consuming fire coming to shake away both the heavens and the earth, should we not seek to imitate the faith of Noah? Again, this was the very point that 2 Peter 3:11 made: “Since all things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness”? Or, as the author of Hebrews said earlier:
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Hebrews 12:12–17
Let us not be unholy, secular, and worldly like Esau, for people of the world will perish along with the world. Instead, let us strive for the holiness that God is producing in us through His fatherly hand of discipline. Let us strive to be “imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). Like Noah, may our lives of obedience reflect that we belong to God’s unshakeable kingdom.
In verse 28 of our text, we find that being grateful is a crucial element of acceptable worship. John Brown notes that the author literally says, ‘have grace,’ which was an idiomatic way of saying be grateful or to express gratitude. That seems sound to me, since gratitude is one of the first marks of having grace. Indeed, the New Testament does not have a category for a thankless Christian, especially when Romans 1 speaks of God giving people over to their sins specifically because they were not thankful to Him. Paul also gives us this mighty command in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Such a command is only able to be obeyed by those who have received the grace of God through Christ.
Although we tend to call the Table set before us the Lord’s Supper or Communion, many also call it the Eucharist, which is simply an English transliteration for the Greek word for thanksgiving. While we may not typically associate the Lord’s Supper with thanksgiving, it is worth noting that each of the four accounts of Jesus’ institution of the sacrament tell us that He gave thanks before distributing the bread and cup to His disciples. But it is ultimately the sacrifice of Christ that this bread and cup symbolize that enables and instructs us in how to properly give thanks. For upon the cross of Christ, we see the love of God displayed for us in full. It upon gazing at Christ’s work upon the cross that we can say along with Paul in Romans 8:32-33:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Let us, therefore, give thanks as we eat this bread and drink this cup that we have indeed received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
B. C. Newton 