Hebrews Chapter Twelve, When God Speaks

 

Hebrews 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, [26] whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven.”

 

The contrast is made again with the Sinaitic covenant between God and the Jews, and the Heavenly, eternal covenant made in Christ. The author has been exploiting this imagery since verse 18 to help his Jewish readership ascertain the benefit of knowing Jesus as Lord, and relying solely on Him for one’s eternal destiny.

First, we come to the injunction that people ought not to refuse Him who speaks. First the identity of the speaker is requisite before acquiescence or refusal may occur. Who is He that spoke at Sinai? “And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God,” Exodus 20:1, 2. God declared to Jeremiah, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh,” Jeremiah 32:27. Abraham said of God that He was, “the Judge of all the earth,” Genesis 18:25.

 

So God reigns as Israel’s Lord or Master, the God or Maker of all that lives, and as the righteous Judge of anything that falls in the sphere of His dominion. This is what Christ our Lord was attempting to convey to the Jews when He told them, “if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins,” or, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM,” John 8:24, 58. Jesus claimed full deity, equal in terms of His fundamental nature with God the Father, John 10:30. The Jews understood this, and because they understood and did not believe, they attempted to kill Him for it, John 8:59, 10:31. Modern cults like the SDA’s or Jehovah’s Witnesses likewise disbelieve His claim to deity, and so cast theological stones.

 

These stones, in the form of human reason interpreting Scripture, creates a bastion of defense for those who seek to escape moral accountability to God, and to drag Jesus down from His throne so that we can climb up and at least assist Him in saving ourselves through obedience. But it is written of such arguments, that we are to overthrow them. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5.

 

Yahweh spoke from earth and it trembled, as did the people who bore witness to it. The people, of whom it is said that they did not escape, was the generation that accompanied Moses out of Egypt, but fell short of the Promised Land through disobedience and rebellion, or a lack of faith that was demonstrated by said action, Hebrews 3:18, 19, Numbers 14:22, 23.

 

It is the same Person that spoke on earth that also speaks in Heaven, according to this passage. Yahweh addressed Israel on the mount in His glory, and God speaks from Heaven a message of reconciliation between an offended, holy Deity, and the offending, sinful race of Adam’s heirs. How will Adam’s heirs be reconciled? Through the blood of Jesus Christ, by faith in what our Lord has done on our behalf. “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:12. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” Matthew 28:18. When Saul of Tarsus was busy persecuting Christians to death, the risen Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus, asking him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Acts 9:4. The gospel of salvation, the message of reconciliation between an offended God and sinful mankind, was the impetus of the church. That message dealt exclusively with the person of Jesus Christ, namely with His death, burial, resurrection, and the personal witness of those that saw Him when He rose, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.

 

So it is Christ who speaks from Heaven, through the Holy Spirit He has given the bride, His church on earth, John 16:13-15. From Israel’s earliest days God has told them that if they were obedient to His commands, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people,” Leviticus 26:12. Later, He reminds the Jews, “For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy,” Deuteronomy 32:14. His ardent desire for us, for our good, is His presence intimately felt among those called by His name. For the Jews He was the God of Israel, a title He owned more than 200 times in as many verses in the Old Testament. Now we, the saints after the cross, are called by that noble name of Christian, 1 Peter 4:14.

 

God speaks, and these last days he has spoken to us not by the prophets, but by His Son, Hebrews 1:2. All authority has been rendered to Jesus our Lord, because He is the Son of Man, John 5:27-29. When He speaks, it is with an authority both objective and universal. His purpose is to reconcile a lost world back to Himself; but man may refuse this generous offer. In Hebrews 10:39 we are informed that professing Christians may turn back from the message of salvation, the eternal gospel God uses to draw all men to Christ. In this verse it is added that people may turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven. When someone is speaking and you turn away from them, what does that portend? You’re bored with the message; you don’t find it to be relevant, or applicable, or believable at its core, so you turn away. You intimate that you’ve lost interest and demonstrate that the topic doesn’t involve a personal stake for you by the gesture. Many churchians pretend at being Christian but do not believe (or have even heard) the gospel by which we are saved. When genuine hardship rears its head the professing Christian turns not to the voice that speaks from Heaven, but solely to human instrumentality to deliver them. That may be a therapist, a divorce attorney, an abortion doctor, a drug dealer, a bartender, et al. Where we go and what we do when trouble comes reveals the quality of our faith. Do we practice what we preach? Do we believe a modicum of what Scripture says of the Father’s comforting presence and power? The old axiom that actions speak louder than words is very apropos here.

 

In verse 26 we find God’s voice shaking the earth, once more referencing His descent to Mount Sinai. The verse further quotes from Haggai 2:6, which states, “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land.” Material creation will be once more shaken; this final time connotes an idea of permanency that it solidified in our present study. Haggai 2:7 includes the nations outside of Israel, whom He will also shake, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and God will fill His temple with glory. Christ will reign in Israel from the throne of David and the nations will come to the Hebrews, knowing that God is with them, Zechariah 8:22, 23. The inclusion of heaven (or the heavens) in this second instance of shaking indicates a universal occurrence. The shaking will trouble the nations and they will come to Israel, or rather specifically to the King of Israel, who will reign from David’s throne, Revelation 20:4, Zechariah 6:12, 13, Psalm 110:2.

 

The King that reigns is Christ, who the Old Testament clearly also refers to as God, whom the pagan or Gentile nations will hearken to in the latter days, seeking the salvation found in Him. It would behoove us to possess the wisdom and humility to recognize our own need of Jesus, not as a part of our salvation, but as the source, instrumentality and summit of it. The Jews needed to be reminded that the Old Covenant was temporary, provisional, and localized, dealing only with the Jewish nation. The everlasting covenant is permanent, unconditional, and universal, dealing with all of humanity from inception to conclusion. As for the heavens and the earth, God willing, we will learn more about their fate in the next verse.