When Everything is Shaking Put Your Confidence in the King of an Unshakeable Kingdom(Hebrews 12:25-29)
Through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, you can obey God and do His will! There, I said it—no more excuses. You and I can love God and our enemies because Christ has reconciled us to Father God. But obedience necessitates listening to the One who speaks and acting on what we hear.
Hebrews 12:25 admonishes:
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
The “they” referred to in this passage is Israel. They promised to listen and obey but failed to follow their declaration of obedience. Instead, they chased after other gods and the lusts of their flesh. They turned a deaf ear to God’s grace to:
Live empowered for the victory that comes through a relationship with Him.
Find security in the discipline of God to help them be fit for the race before them.
Receive the fullness of God’s covenant blessings.
Keep in mind the audience of the book of Hebrews. These are Jewish converts to Christ who are suffering under intense persecution. They are listening to the voice of the persecutor, telling them that God is only found in legalistic works and not grace.
The writer reminds the Hebrews of a truth most modern Christians try to avoid. What is that truth? God often uses pain and problems to wake us up and bring us to repentance so that we will open our ears to Him. I know that is hard to swallow for some of you. A steady diet of Christian teaching that denies suffering has made us soft.
Israel is not exempted from God’s correction simply because they are His child. No! It is precisely because of their relationship with Yahweh that correction is warranted. They did not escape from the consequences of their disobedience. They turned away from His voice and, in doing so, positioned themselves to receive the Father’s rod and staff (see Psalms 23).
God will shake everything that can be shaken, including our comfort. Hebrews 12:26-27 tells us:
At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
The voice of God thundered from Mt. Sinai and shook the earth. Now, God has spoken from heaven by His Son through the Cross. The Cross changed everything. It shook the earth and heaven calling all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). It rattled the created order of humanity and forever settled that Jesus is Lord.
Now, not all is doom and gloom. Yes, the things of this world will be shaken, and they will fall. But those who’ve called on the Lord—those who are listening for His voice—can rest in the promise that we are…
…receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
Do you ever feel like the world is shaking and crumbling around you? I do! It’s not a great feeling. God uses that emotional upheaval to stir our hearts and unstop our ears to His voice. When His voice becomes clear in our ears, He will reveal to us those eternal things that matter and help us let go of the temporal stuff of Earth.
As believers in Jesus, we only have one option when everything around us is rocking. You and I must put our confidence in the Lord of the Kingdom. He cannot and will not be shaken.
God is a consuming fire! God sends purging fires to burn away the things we have picked up to replace His Lordship.
Matthew and Luke record the story of John the Baptizer’s preaching to the people about the Messiah. He told them that this Savior of the World would come with
“…His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
A winnowing fork is a shovel. People harvested grain and piled it up. The wheat had to be separated from the chaff (the husk of the grain and the broken stalks) before it could be made into good flour fit for use. The winnowing fork could be used to throw the grain into the air. The wind would separate the chaff from the grain.
Once the chaff was gathered, they used the winnowing shovel to pick it up, throw it into the fire, and burn it.
Jesus said:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
When Jesus is ready to accomplish a mighty work among His people, He first sends a shaking. He sends circumstances into our lives to shake us. The goal of these divine disturbances is not to make us afraid. It is to remind us that our only hope is Him. These events call us to reconnect our confidence in His unchanging and all-powerful hand.
The world might shake, but our feet are planted in an unshakeable kingdom. Therefore, we can hear and obey God’s voice and accomplish the purposes for which we are sent.
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