A KINGDOM WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED

Hebrews 12:25-29 See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things, which cannot be shaken, may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom, which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.

The first sentence of the lesson text is a warning from the Hebrew writer. Jewish Christians, as well as all Christians today, are not to refuse to hear Him that speaketh, that is Jesus Christ, and those He ordained to carry His message of salvation to all nations the world (Matt. 28:18-20). Christians are not to be like the children of Israel, who, more often than not, refused to heed God's instruction through Moses and all other prophets of God. The writer of Proverbs gives us this wise admonition: He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding (Prov. 15:32).

The nation of Israel broke the covenant God made with their fathers by refusing to hear His words of instruction (Jer. 11:10). Zechariah tells us that the Jewish people refused to hearken to God's commandments. They pulled away the shoulder, (and) stopped their ears, that they should not hear (Zech. 7:11). Just as children shrug their shoulders at instruction; just as children put their fingers in their ears in order to keep from hearing parental discipline, so did the children of Israel toward God's instruction. Even Luke tells us that the nation of Israel refused to hear God's word spoken through His servant Moses (Acts 7:35).

They, the Israelites, escaped not His wrath for their refusal to hear and obey God's will, which was spoken on earth through His prophets, including His servant Moses. Throughout the Old Testament account of the children of Israel, we are assured that not one, that disobeyed His will, escaped God's wrath of just punishment. During the Jewish Dispensation, God spoke to the nation of Israel from Mount Sinai. Today He speaketh from heaven through His Son, Jesus Christ with this warning,hear ye Him (Matt. 17:5). But just like the disobedient Jews, the Hebrew writer assures all Christians, both those in his day, and we today, that no one shall escape God's just recompense when they turn away from Him, refusing to hear and obey the gospel message of His Son Jesus Christ.

When God spoke to Moses from Mount Sinai, His voice then shook the earth (Exod. 19:18). Speaking through His Son, Jesus Christ, God's voice is, not only earthshaking, but it shakes the very foundations of heaven. This promise of God seemed to be the prophecy of Haggai (See Hag. 2:6-7). With the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the world, as it was known from the beginning of time, was completely overturned. The law under which mankind lived for centuries, was no more. The New Covenant of God with mankind, made the previous law old. To those that refused to believe, and accept, Jesus Christ as the Messiah, it is said that the preaching of the gospel message of salvation by Paul,turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). He was regarded as a babbler, and setter forth of strange gods. And why, ...because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection (Acts 17:18). God's booming voice from Sinai shook the earth immediately around the mountain, but God's voice of eternal salvation, spoken by Jesus Christ and His apostles, shook the universe.

The New Testament, which contains God's plan of salvation, allowed truths from the Old Law to remain and be included in the New Law - those things which cannot be shaken may remain. However, the temporary nature of the Old Law, a law that could not reconcile sinful man with our righteous God by the remission of sins, was nailed to the cross of Calvary, and was replaced by God's complete revelation through His Son, Jesus Christ, who told us that Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away (Matt. 24:35). The reign of Jesus Christ over His kingdom is forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end. It is a kingdom which cannot be moved. It is a kingdom which offers eternal salvation to all that believe, accept, and obey the will of God, as found in His holy word - the New Testament.