and trumpet's sound, and voice of words; which they that heard, excusing themselves, declined [the] word being addressed to them any more
Hebrews 12:19 sits inside a picture of Mount Sinai, where God gave Israel the law. The scene is fire, gloom, a trumpet blast, and a voice speaking words. The people who heard that voice begged for it to stop. Why was God's own speech the one thing they could not bear?
The verse names two sounds. One commentator weighs them against each other.
There was a trumpet's sound, never heard before or since, growing louder and louder in its awful summons. And there was a voice of words that every soul could hear as God's. It was more terrifying than all the rest, in its majesty and in its deadly meaning for the conscience. So above everything else they begged to hear this voice no more. Let Moses hear for them instead.
At Sinai God spoke actual words. This was speech, not noise. What that speech did to the hearers is the point.
The mountain burned with fire from the presence of God. With this came an awful darkness. Out of the darkness the sound of a trumpet summoned attention. And then came a Voice more dreadful than all, speaking distinct words, but not a gospel. For what was the effect on those who heard and saw? They could not touch the mountain, for even a beast that touched it had to be stoned. Their terror was so great that they begged to hear that word no more.
The words themselves were not violent; they were God's requirements. That is what made them unbearable to people who could not meet them.
The words spoken carried the righteous demand of God to the ears of the people, but not one of them could listen to it. They set out nothing except what man ought to be. He owed God everything he was asked to pay. And there were signs of power to enforce that demand, or to carry out wrath where it was not met. The people could not bear to hear the full measure of their duties read out in their ears. They fled from the sound of the voice of God.
God was not shouting them down. The terror came from who was listening, and from the covenant those words belonged to.
They fled away from God when He began to speak with His people as their Lawgiver and Judge (Ex. 20:18). They begged not to have to listen to a voice that seemed to speak of death and not of life. God spoke only in His natural tone. Angels, who had not sinned but kept their first place, were ready servants in setting out the glory of that covenant. Yet when He speaks from Sinai, His voice is fatal to the sinner. They did not know, until hard experience taught them, what those sights and sounds of terror really were. They belonged naturally to a covenant that shut out every knowledge of God except as the holy Avenger of His broken and dishonoured law.
Their plea was not only for silence. They wanted someone to stand between them and the voice.
At Sinai there was nothing but terror, and God meant it that way so that they might cry out for the Messiah, the Saviour. They never thought of Christ. In fact they cried out for Moses as the mediator between them and God. But God's mind was to give a far better mediator; and this was kept quite distinct from the law, its fears and its distance.
The passage is built on a negative: "you have not come." That negative makes room for what Christians have come to instead.
But we have not come to anything like this. We are not called to hear what we ought to be thundered into our ears out of the thick darkness and the devouring fire. There the lightnings flash in anger before our frightened eyes. They are ready to strike to the ground the unhappy creature who does not bring the full payment of his debt, down to the last penny. We have come to the hill of grace. We have come to the city bright with the glory of God, and to an order of things that speaks in our ears of the kindness and love of God.
- The voice, heard. God spoke clear words at Sinai, and that voice was more terrifying than the trumpet, the fire or the storm.
- The voice, demanding. Its content was what man owes God, with power behind it to enforce payment — distinct speech, but not good news.
- The voice, fatal. God used no unusual tone. The dread came from the hearers themselves, so the voice seemed to speak death, not life.
- The voice, deflected. They begged for someone to stand between them and God, and asked for Moses. God's purpose was to give a far better mediator.
- The voice, replaced. Christians have not come to that mountain of demand. We have come to the hill of grace, where what reaches our ears speaks of the kindness and love of God.
(for they were not able to bear what was enjoined And if a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;
At Sinai the mountain burned with fire, and God warned the people to keep back. The rule was so strict that even a stray animal touching the slope had to die. Hebrews recalls that order to show what kind of ground the law is.
The people could not bear the order God gave. One writer sees in it a picture of what the law demands, and what it never produces.
The mountain was one that could be touched, and yet they were forbidden to approach it. Sinai was all on fire. Darkness, blackness, smoke and tempest covered its summit. It was a solemn, striking sight, tied to the giving of the law. God was speaking, and the people begged that they should not hear His voice again. They could not endure the command. The lawgiver himself said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." What a picture of what the law does! A holy and righteous God makes demands on man, and man cannot meet them. The people withdraw to a great distance, but the effect is not to produce righteousness. Soon they are making an idol and dancing round the golden calf, with Sinai's awful summit only a little way off.
Everything about that day pressed the people back. The penalty for touching the mountain went further than death.
Every detail leading up to the giving of the law showed the infinite majesty of God. It also pressed on sinful man that his natural place is far off from the Holy One. The "mount burned with fire." "Blackness, darkness, and tempest" covered its summit. The command not even to touch its edges was urgent in the extreme: "If so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart" (Heb. 12:18-21). The offender was not only to die. His presumption counted as so gross that even those who killed him were not to handle him.
This writer quotes an older English version, which adds "or thrust through with a dart." The ESV reads simply, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."
The example is not a rebel or a criminal but a beast. That choice carries the argument.
The law can only kill fallen man. Indeed, here we are told of the proclamation at Sinai: if so much as a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned. Yet a beast, having neither guilt nor conscience, is incapable of moral responsibility to God. So if one beast devours another, no one thinks of murder in the case. But at Sinai God would mark that the law was full of the threat of death on every side. Sinful man under it stood in the worst case of all. Who can deny that he is more guilty than a beast? Fallen man has a conscience which constantly bears witness against him and his sins.
Another writer takes the comparison higher, to creatures who never fell.
Note too that even a beast could not approach the mountain, and a beast is not a morally evil creature. No creature at all can come near the holy presence of God on the ground of its own merit — not even an unfallen creature, such as the angels of God. How much less man, who is sinful!
The word behind "touches" is rare in the New Testament.
The Greek word thingano means 'to touch lightly.' … It occurs in Hebrews 11:28 and Colossians 2:21, and elsewhere only in Hebrews 12:20.
One writer sets the two side by side: Israel at the mountain, and those who confess Jesus in the gospel.
Such was the way Israel approached God when they were about to hear the law. Their own scriptures declare that this, and things like it, was the only way God appeared toward them — this was their feeling and their state before Him. Certainly this is not how those who confess the Lord Jesus approach God in the gospel. There we hear of the gift of His love in His only Son, given so that whoever believes may have eternal life. He is the One who suffered for our sins on the cross. … Suppose some of the Jews who confessed such a Saviour were growing weary and turning back to Judaism. Let them weigh what they give up in the gospel, and what they must return to under the law.
- Command. The order at Sinai was one the people could not endure — a picture of the law making demands on man that man cannot meet.
- Distance. The command not to touch even the edges of the mountain taught sinful man that his place before the Holy One is far off.
- Beast. A creature with no guilt and no conscience died for one touch. If that was the sentence on an animal, the guilty sinner stands in the worse case.
- Merit. No creature at all — not even unfallen angels — may come near God on the ground of what it is in itself, and man least of all.
- Contrast. Believers have not come to that mountain. In the gospel God gives His Son in love, so turning back to law means giving up that gift.
and, so fearful was the sight, Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and full of trembling;)
Hebrews 12:21 ends the picture of Sinai with its most startling detail. The man who went up the mountain for Israel was terrified too. If even the mediator shook, what could the law do for anyone else?
The verse looks back on a scene made of warnings: fire, darkness, storm, a trumpet, a voice. The mediator's confession was the last and loudest of them.
God's law is and must be crushing to what man claims to be. Israel were sinners like everyone else, and to such people the law could only be a ministry of death and condemnation. If law is the ground of action, how could God acquit the guilty? … The mountain blazed with fire, the symbol of God's destructive judgment. Adding to the horror, there was gloom and darkness and storm. Above them a trumpet sounded its alarm, and a voice of words more terrible still. Most ominous was the command given: who of mankind could endure it, when even if a beast touched the mountain it was to be stoned? If that must be the doom of unconscious animals, where should the sinner appear? Yes, even the mediator of the law was honoured by God and knew His presence well. Yet at that fearful sight he could only say, I exceedingly fear and tremble all over.
Older versions read "I exceedingly fear and quake" here; the ESV has "I tremble with fear."
Exodus describes the day the law was given. One detail only Hebrews supplies.
If we turn to Hebrews 12:21, we discover a detail which is not mentioned in Exodus. Exodus tells us that the people trembled, but that Moses, accompanied by Aaron, went up into the mountain. Hebrews tells us how he quaked as he did so.
Moses had met God before and had not reacted this way. What changed was not his nearness to God but the terms on which God was appearing.
The Lord put this momentous meeting with His people into the mediator's hands. Yet even he fell sick with dread when he discovered God's majesty in this unfamiliar form. Moses had spoken face to face with Him in other ways. To look on God had always been a fearful thing. He hid his face while listening to the words of mercy… But now deadly fear filled his heart, instead of reverent awe. He put his feelings into words. "I exceedingly fear and quake" was his admission. Those feelings showed that he shared the common distance man is driven back to, when justice and not mercy is the platform on which they meet.
The terror was not Moses' private problem. It shows what always follows when God requires what people cannot give.
They could not endure what God commanded. The lawgiver himself said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." What a picture of what the law does! A holy and righteous God makes demands on man — demands which man cannot meet.
The chapter sets a second mountain against Sinai. The gospel's voice sounds nothing like the one heard there.
The sweet voice of the gospel is so different from all this! By the grace of God "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven … and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Heb. 12:18-24). How wide the contrast drawn here! Law demands, terrifies, and repels. Divine grace attracts, gives freely, blesses, and makes its undeserving objects happy in God's own presence.
The two mountains stand opposite each other. So which one does a believer keep looking at?
Do not be afraid. You have not come to the mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire. Turn your back on it. The more firmly I have turned my back on it, the more firmly I have met and answered the grace and wisdom of God, and given the obedience of faith. Am I to keep turning my head — looking over my shoulder — giving it glances? Is that the obedience of faith? … I was introduced by my own self-confidence to law and found nothing there for me. Now I have turned my face right round and I see everything for me.
- Sight. Sinai was fire, gloom, storm, trumpet and voice. Even an animal that touched the mountain had to be stoned.
- Shaking. Hebrews adds what Exodus omits: the man who climbed the mountain trembled while doing it.
- Standing. Moses had met God before without this dread. Now justice, not mercy, was the platform on which they met.
- Signal. His terror pictures what the law always produces — demands from a holy God which no one can meet.
- Second mountain. Against Sinai stands Zion. Law demands, terrifies and repels; grace attracts, gives freely and makes unworthy people happy in God's presence. So faith turns its back on the one and its face to the other.
but ye have come to mount Zion; and to [the] city of [the] living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels,
The verse turns away from Sinai, where Israel trembled at a law given in fire, and names what believers have already come to. Against that mountain stands a whole list of blessings — and notice the tense: you have come.
Zion is the counterpart to Sinai, and its history explains why. It became God's chosen place only after everything in Israel had collapsed.
No mountain in the Old Testament stood in such formal contrast with Sinai as Zion. The one was the scene, never to be forgotten, where the nation took on responsibility to the law. The other was the Lord stepping in with grace for His king when everything lay in ruin. People and priests were alike wicked. The Philistines had taken the ark. Israel's king and his sons had been killed. The Jebusite was not only in the centre and stronghold of Jerusalem, but defiant and insulting. That was when the Lord chose Mount Zion, the mountain He loved, just as He had chosen David.
Even the name carries the change of atmosphere, and the place still has a future attached to it.
Mount Zion means 'sunny' rather than dark. It is the earthly centre of blessing in Jerusalem, promised by God for the coming day of Israel's glory — a state of settled blessing for the nation. Faith rests in that hope even now, because it believes that God's purposes cannot be shaken.
Israel's arrival at Sinai was something they could see. Ours is not. Is it any less real?
We have come to all this by faith, and we are waiting for the hour when it will all be seen — an hour that is surely drawing near. Israel came to Sinai in a way they could see, and they were terrified. Our coming by faith to Zion, and to everything tied to it, is just as real, and in coming we are greatly comforted and steadied.
A Jewish reader hearing "Zion" would picture the city he knew on that hill. The verse points him somewhere else.
When Mount Zion was mentioned, a Jew would naturally think of the earthly city around that famous mountain. But the Holy Spirit says, this is not your portion. You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem; not to the city of dying David, but to the city of the living God.
That city is not kept for one group only.
The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, gives us the certainty of future heavenly blessing for all those for whom God has prepared that city. Though it is no doubt the Bridal city, named for the Bride, the church, it still includes all the saints of past ages, and the martyrs of the tribulation period too.
The list is not one blessing described three ways. One small word keeps the items apart, and quoting the verse without it runs them together.
"And" is left out after "Zion," and before "the city." But it is essential for marking each new object. Zion is the highest point, as it were, on earth; then follows what is above it, "a living God's city, heavenly Jerusalem." This was Abraham's hope, the seat on high of the saints who shared his faith.
At Sinai one angel came with a law of fire. Here the contrast could hardly be sharper.
There are angels beyond counting — not one angel with a fiery law, but a company of angels no man could number. They all attend the Son of Man. They are all there as worshippers of the Son of Man... Angels beyond counting attend Him in the day of His coronation, to do homage to Him in the sight of the whole universe. All the mighty angels in the whole of God's dominions will gather to do homage to the One who is to take the throne on Mount Zion.
- Grace, not law. Sinai stands for what man owed and failed to pay. Zion stands for God stepping in after the nation, its priests and its king had all broken down.
- Chosen after ruin. God chose Zion at the lowest point of Israel's history. Its name means sunny, and it is the centre of blessing God promised for a coming day.
- Higher than Zion. The next item lifts the eye off earth: not the city of dying David, but the city of the living God. Abraham waited for that city.
- Counted separately. The small word "and" keeps each object distinct. The city of the living God is not another name for the mountain below it.
- Already, not merely ahead. Israel came to Sinai and were terrified. Believers come to Zion by faith. That coming is just as real, and it brings comfort and steadiness while we wait for the day it is all seen.
the universal gathering; and to [the] assembly of the firstborn [who are] registered in heaven; and to God, judge of all; and to [the] spirits of just [men] made perfect;
Hebrews 12 sets two mountains side by side: Sinai, which the people shrank from, and the scene of grace that faith has already reached. Verse 23 sits in the middle of that second list. It raises three questions: who the "firstborn" are, why God is called Judge here, and who the perfected spirits are.
The older English wording joins "general assembly" to "church of the firstborn," as if one crowd were meant. Writers on this passage read it differently, tying the phrase back to the angels of the previous verse.
In Hebrews 12:23 the words "GENERAL ASSEMBLY" should be joined to verse 22, reading "and to the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly:" the word "and" dividing the subjects.
Each "and" marks off a fresh object, so the verse names distinct companies rather than blending them.
Each one is marked off from the one before it by the connecting word "and." That clears away the confusion of "general assembly, and church etc." … "General assembly," or "universal gathering," is a further description of "myriads of angels."
"Firstborn" here is plural — firstborn ones. It is a word about rank, and the assembly holds that rank because of its link to Christ.
The Firstborn is a designation of rank and dignity. Our blessed Lord, as Firstborn, takes the chief place over all creation. In the same way His Assembly takes the chief place of blessing and glory among all the companies of saints from the different periods of God's dealings.
Some have taken "church of the firstborn" as a special inner class ahead of others. One writer answers that the phrase is the widest description of the church anywhere in Scripture.
"The general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven" — this is the fullest, largest expression about the church in Scripture. The word translated general assembly means the "assembly of a whole nation," especially for a public festival, or the like. To treat "firstborn" as marking off a special class who come in ahead of others is a mere delusion.
Their names stand on record in heaven. Angels belong there by nature; this company belongs by God's choice.
It is the assembly of the firstborn whose names are inscribed in heaven. They were not born there, not indigenous like the angels, whom God preserved from falling. They are the objects of the counsels of God. It is not just that they reach heaven. They are the glorious heirs and firstborn of God, according to His eternal counsels. In line with those counsels, He registers their names in heaven… They have the anticipation of no other country or citizenship than heaven. God Himself prepares heaven for them. It is the highest place in heaven, above His dealings on earth in government, promise, and law.
At Sinai the people drew back from God. Here the same God is called Judge — yet He is someone believers have come to, not fled from.
We are brought to Him, the One who will judge the ungodly, but who will never condemn His people, though He judges their ways. We have come to Him; we no longer shrink from Him, as Israel at Sinai did.
A judge does more than sentence the guilty. He also clears the wronged. So this title works for the believer, not against him.
The Lord, even in judgment, is for us, because one part of a judge's work is to vindicate the oppressed.
This company comes last, after God Himself. One writer calls that placement striking, and reads the group as believers of earlier ages, still spirits apart from their bodies.
If it had been up to us, we might well have set them first. But the aim was to correct the Jewish leanings of those addressed here, and to give prominence to what was heavenly… They are, I think, clearly the Old Testament saints… For they, and not the church, are a class that could be most fittingly described as the spirits of just men made perfect. They were then separate from their bodies, and they still are.
"Made perfect" does not mean everything is finished for them.
The spirits of all the saints who lived before the church are truly blessed. They now enjoy the benefit of Christ's finished work. The work of redemption is done. They know their blessing rests on righteousness, and they trace it to the death of Christ. Yet they still await the full completion of blessing. Perfect in their spirits, the just men wait for the moment when the power of God's salvation will touch their bodies. That will be at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Come — Faith has already reached this scene. Each company named is one believers have come to, not run from.
- Counted — Each "and" marks a new company: the angels with their universal gathering, the firstborn ones, God, then the perfected spirits. Read them as one crowd and the picture is lost.
- Chosen — The firstborn are not natives of heaven like angels. God's eternal counsels enrolled them there, and their rank flows from Christ the Firstborn.
- Cleared — God appears as Judge of all, yet believers come to Him instead of drawing back. He judges His people's ways but never condemns them.
- Completed — The just men of old are perfect in spirit and blessed now. Their bodies still wait for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant; and to [the] blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel.
Hebrews 12 ends its great contrast by naming the last two things believers have come to: a Person and His blood. Everything before it in the list — the city, the angels, the assembly, God the Judge — rests on these two. The verse then sets one voice against another.
The wording is careful. It does not say we have arrived at the covenant, but at the One who stands behind it.
We have come "to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant." We have not come to the covenant itself, but to Jesus the Mediator of it. I am linked with Him who is the Mediator. That is a higher thing than only coming to the covenant.
The word for "new" here is not the usual one used elsewhere for the new covenant. The difference carries real comfort.
Here "new" means "fresh" or "recent." That is a quite different word and thought from the usual "new" covenant, which means a covenant on a new principle: not letter but spirit, not man's responsibility as at Sinai but God's grace in Christ. The added comfort is this. In days to come the LORD will make the new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will then be as "fresh" as when the great Mediator shed the blood by which He founded it on His death before God.
Commentators differ on which Old Testament picture the phrase points back to. One reads it against the ceremony that launched the first covenant:
Here it is called the blood of sprinkling, and it is linked with the New Covenant. There had been a matching sprinkling of the book and of the people when Moses set up the Old.
Another traces it to the Day of Atonement. On that day the blood went on the mercy seat — the golden lid of the ark, where God met His people:
This points, we are sure, to the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat, and in front of it, on the day of Atonement. The blood on the mercy seat made propitiation. That is what formed the effective ground of God's relationships with His people… The precious blood of Christ is the foundation of all blessing. This cannot be said too often or too strongly. In it God has declared His righteousness and revealed His heart.
Cain murdered his brother Abel, and Abel's blood cried out to God. Setting the two bloods side by side shows what "better" means, and where that better voice was first tested.
The blood of Jesus speaks of better things. It does tell of a ruthless murder. It is a terrible witness to the guilt and condemnation of a world that chose darkness and not light. But as the blood of sprinkling, it declares better things to God and to His people. It speaks to God of full atonement made for sin. It speaks to us of perfect and lasting peace with God… The blood of sprinkling first proved its power on the very men who murdered Jesus. All in Jerusalem who gladly heard the word of grace found full remission of their sins in that precious blood (Acts 2:36-41).
The verb matters as much as the noun. The verse says the blood speaks, not that it spoke.
The word "speaks" is a wonderful word. It stands in contrast with the blood of Abel, which cried for vengeance. It stands in contrast too with the blood of bulls and goats, which spoke only for a moment and achieved nothing real. But this blood speaks on and on, with a quiet, unending voice of power, until the day of full redemption.
Arno C. Gaebelein, quoting Henry Soltau
Abel's blood called down a curse. Christ's blood works in the opposite direction, though the full result is not visible yet.
The voice of the blood of sprinkling does not cry for vengeance and curse as Abel's did (Gen. 4:10-12). It speaks of reconciliation for the earth, and indeed for all things. That reconciliation rests on the blood, which alone is precious and effective with God. This is a real guarantee, but like the others we have seen, it has not happened yet. We have come to these things in hope — yes, in full assurance of hope — but we do not yet see them. So we wait for them all with patience.
- Person first. The list does not end at a covenant but at Jesus its Mediator. Coming to Him is higher than coming to the covenant itself.
- Blood as basis. The blood of sprinkling is the foundation under every blessing in the list. In it God declared His righteousness and revealed His heart.
- Voice against voice. Abel's blood called for vengeance on the man who shed it. Christ's blood spoke full remission to the people in Jerusalem who shed His.
- Still speaking. Animal sacrifices spoke for a moment and achieved nothing real. This blood speaks on and on, until the day of full redemption.
- Not yet seen. Its voice promises reconciliation for the earth and for all things. We do not see that yet, so we wait in full assurance of hope.
See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if those did not escape who had refused him who uttered the oracles on earth, much more we who turn away from him [who does so] from heaven
This warning follows a long list of all that believers have come to. It sets two voices side by side: one that once spoke on earth, one that now speaks from heaven. What happens to the person who turns away from the second?
The voice from heaven is not a new one. The same God who spoke at Sinai speaks now, and He does it through the gospel:
Do not question that the Lord is still speaking from the same heavenly glory. This is the teaching of Hebrews 12:25… As truly as He once spoke on earth at Sinai, the same One is now speaking from heaven. In whose person did God speak on earth? It was in the Son. Now He speaks in His Son emphatically, as Hebrews 1 declares. When the gospel goes out to your ears, it is God speaking to you from heaven in His Son.
The change is not only in where God speaks from, but in what He says:
How does Christ speak from heaven? Is it that there is a day of judgment, and you must prepare yourself for it? He comes and speaks to man, and deals with man on the ground of His being a Man in heaven. If He speaks from heaven, He speaks not merely of mercy, but of grace, on the ground of an accomplished work. He appeals to our hearts on the ground of what He is and what He has done. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, because He has nothing more to do in making out a righteousness for us… He does not reproach you. He comes and tells you: Do you think I do not know what sin is? I bore it. He knows what the consequence is as no one else can know it.
The verse argues from lesser to greater. Refusing the voice on earth left no escape from judgment. Refusing the voice from heaven leaves even less:
When God spoke on earth, He required righteousness from man. The one who disobeyed that voice found no escape from judgment. Much less will there be any escape from judgment for those who refuse the voice of God now, when He speaks from heaven in grace that brings blessing to man. As Samuel Rutherford said, "The vengeance of the Gospel is heavier than the vengeance of the law."
Refusing this voice is not neutral. One writer sets out what each side is left with:
So if you refuse Him who speaks, you have nothing but your sins now and the wrath to come. In their earthly sacrifices the Jews had no forgiveness, only a reminder of sins… Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. He will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who look for Him, for salvation… That second time He will appear to His people for salvation. Then their bodies will be saved, as their souls are saved now. But if you refuse Him, destruction awaits you.
The warning comes just before a promise: God will shake heaven as well as earth. The believer still lives among the things that will go:
Here is the contrast: Christ speaking now from heaven, and before that on earth… The word spoken says, "Yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven; and this word, Yet once more, means the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made." And those things, dear friends, are what the saint is in now — not of them, but in them. So, surrounded by them, he is warned not to turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. There is nothing else to rest on but the word of Jesus, and that word is perfectly stable. It cannot be shaken; everything not tied to it will be removed.
The command has a positive side: listen, and let that voice outweigh every other:
The gospel speaks of all these things, and calls us to them. Now we get the call, "See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking." The word is the revelation of God in Christ. By this word God forms us for the place He intends to give us, and it is a very blessed place… That voice is to sound louder and sweeter in our hearts than all the voices of the world. May we not be found turning a deaf ear to it.
- One Voice. The Speaker at Sinai and the Speaker from heaven are the same: God in His Son. So the gospel reaching your ears is God speaking to you.
- New Message. From heaven the voice no longer sets out what man owes. It announces grace, resting on a finished work. Christ sits, because nothing is left to do.
- Heavier Refusal. The greater the speaker's position and the kindness of what He says, the graver the sin of turning away — "the vengeance of the Gospel is heavier than the vengeance of the law."
- Empty Hands. Refusing this voice leaves nothing else to fall back on: only your sins now, and wrath to come.
- Steady Hearing. Everything around the believer will be shaken. Only this voice remains, so let it sound louder in the heart than all the voices of the world.
whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, Yet once will *I* shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
When God gave the law, His voice made the mountain tremble. The writer of Hebrews points that memory forward: one more shaking is coming, and this time it reaches beyond the earth. Is that promise a threat, or is it good news?
The first shaking belongs to the day God gave the law. The people had just promised obedience, and the quaking mountain answered how long that would last.
The people insisted they would never disobey. But they could not deceive Him who knew the evil and treachery of the human heart. He knew there was nothing but ruin ahead for that age. It seemed to open with the people gladly agreeing to the terms the Lawgiver laid down. So as He spoke those terms, the mountain shook so hard that the people drew back and stood far off. The shaking showed that nothing set up that day would last.
Now a voice speaks from heaven, and the contrast carries the force of the passage. That voice does not repeat demands no one could meet.
It was wicked to refuse the divine warning of the law; it is far worse to turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. For He does not speak of the yoke that neither the fathers nor the children could bear, nor of their rebellious struggling under it. He speaks of redemption through His own blood. He was wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities. He speaks of peace already made through the blood of His cross, by Him who sits at God's right hand as the proof that all who believe are fully accepted. To turn away from His voice is the most serious sin and the surest ruin.
The words quoted are borrowed from the prophet Haggai, and the weight falls on one small phrase.
Here the writer of Hebrews gave a free rendering of a prediction first spoken by the prophet Haggai. He quoted it to put the stress on the word "once." Let us mark it well! "Once more" — then, since no further shaking will take place, it will be the final thing. It will be an act of God. That is why the next verse explains that the 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." So we know how everything that sin has undermined will end. And we need not be surprised if there are shakings today.
Why should the shaking reach heaven as well as earth? The answer lies in who holds power there.
The heavens are the seat of Satan's power. He is called "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2), and under him there are "rulers" and "authorities," "the cosmic powers over this present darkness," and "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). Satan's seat of power in the heavens directs much of the evil that fills the earth. God is going to judge the sin and the evils that fill the earth below. He will also judge the satanic powers above, which direct it all.
The verse does not say God has threatened. It says He has promised, and that one word changes everything.
Yet such is the power of His work that for those who believe it is a "promise." … So what is a dreadful threat to unbelievers is a promise to faith. Even the quaking of the universe "He has promised." It is no threat to us. His love will rest on us then as much as ever, and we shall enter in peace into all that is for His glory.
The same promise works as a test of where a person's heart rests.
Everything not founded on the word will be shaken. Terrible as that is to flesh and blood, it is a positive promise to us … How far can you take this as a promise? If your heart is resting here, you cannot. You can test it easily: how far is your heart attached to Christ in heaven, unseen except to the eye of faith?
Removing what can be shaken leaves standing what cannot, and that reaches into daily work.
He reminds us that the visible things, so impressive in the world today, can be shaken and so will be removed. But God's people belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken … If we work and serve God in line with His purpose, our work will last when the whole earth is moved away, however weak it looks.
- Then — God's voice shook the earth when He gave the law. The trembling mountain showed that nothing set up that day would last.
- Once — Haggai's words stress "once more." That means one final act of God, with no shaking after it.
- Heaven — the shaking reaches upward too. The heavens are the seat of Satan's power, and he directs the evil on earth from there.
- Promised — God did not threaten this, He promised it. What terrifies unbelief is good news to faith. It also tests how far the heart is attached to Christ unseen.
- Remains — God clears away what can be shaken so the unshakable kingdom stands. Work done in line with His purpose outlasts the earth itself.