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25 So be careful and do not refuse to listen when God speaks. Others refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth, and they did not escape. So it will be worse for us if we refuse to listen to God who warns us from heaven. 26 When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once again I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was made—things that can be shaken—will be destroyed. Only the things that cannot be shaken will remain. ~ Hebrews 12:25-27
Today, we return to our study of Hebrews 12. As you know, the book of Hebrews is written around five warnings: the warning against drifting away (2:1-4), the warning against disobedience (3-4), the warning against falling away (5-6), the warning against willful sin (10:26-31), and, the warning against denying the Lord which is the subject of today's passage which is the fifth and final warning in this book.
In v.25 of today's text we read, "So be careful and do not refuse to listen when God speaks. Others refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth, and they did not escape. So it will be worse for us if we refuse to listen to God who warns us from heaven."
God has a long history of speaking to man. In Romans 1:20-23 we read, "For since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do. 21 They knew God, but they did not give glory to God or thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish minds were filled with darkness. 22 They said they were wise, but they became fools. 23 They traded the glory of God who lives forever for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people, birds, animals, and snakes."
These verses underscore the fact that man is without excuse for not trusting God for God has communicated Himself in a multiplicity of ways to man. In fact, this book of Hebrews began with the words, "In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." God's most profound words came to man through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God entered into man's natural world through sending His Son. He could not have been more intimate than He chose to send His Son to die for our sin.
God did all of this and yet man rejected Him. Man rejected God because man wants autonomy. The problem with this is: left to ourselves to run our lives means utter ruin for us. God could have let us go our own way, but His heart of compassion reached out. In fact, He has been reaching out to rebellious man since the Fall so long ago.
The writer of Hebrews warns us to be careful to not refuse to listen when God speaks. God has clearly spoken in many ways and at many times down through the centuries. He has communicated because He desires to connect with us. He is not an idea to be thought about. He is a person to be listened to and understood and enjoyed and obeyed.
The word that God spoke by His Son is His decisive word. It will not be followed in this age by any other word. This is the Word of God, the person of the Lord Jesus and His teaching. And, it is in a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that we are able to make sense of His messages to us.
In v.26 of today's passage we read, "When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Once again I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.'"
When God spoke at Mount Sinai, the whole mountain shook. God speaks into our lives by causing or allowing circumstances into our lives that disturb our sense of normalcy and gets our undivided attention. He "shakes" those things that can be shaken in order to reveal what can't be shaken. And, there is coming a day when He will shake not only the earth, but heavens, as well. When He does this, the whole universe will collapse. All the stars will fall out of the sky and the heavens will rolled up like a scroll. At that moment all will know what is truly substantive and eternal.
In v.27 of today's passage we read, "The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was made—things that can be shaken—will be destroyed. Only the things that cannot be shaken will remain."
The writer of Hebrews refers to the prophet Haggai who wrote, "Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but heaven." One day soon, God will wipe out the entire universe, leaving only that which is eternal. Only the eternal things are going to remain. With this in view, we, daily are left with a clear choice: to choose to invest in the temporal things of this world which will not endure throughout eternity or to invest in the substantive things of eternity.
Clearly, God has warned us about what is going to happen at the end of time, as we know it. And, this reveals His heart of love for all of us. He has shown this love to us most profoundly at the cross of His Son through whom He has provided a way of escape from the influence of the evil one. Will we refuse and reject what God offers? Or, will we realize our great need for His intervention in our lives.
The Bible is full of prophecies spoken by God hundred and thousands of years earlier which He has fulfilled hundreds and even thousands of years later. In fact, 700 years before Christ, God told the prophet Micah to prophesy that the Messiah would be born in the then insignificant little town of Bethlehem. Micah penned this prophecy some 700 years before Christ walked this earth. And, 700 years later, the prophecy came true when Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There are dozens of prophecies just like that, throughout the Bible, which God has fulfilled. God does not ask us to believe without evidence. He calls us to believe because of evidence. And, He has given us lots of evidence.
Finally, I have known a few times when my world has been shaken. The first was when my mother died when I was five years old. I refused to hear Him then. And then, when I was seventeen years old, my father died. This time, I did not refuse to hear Him and boy am I glad I listened. We must be diligent to not refuse Him who has spoken so much. If we do, our eternity and the eternity of those whom we love are at stake. Diligent attentiveness is a must in order to reject refusing His voice.
