Hebrews 12:18-29--A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

Hebrews 12:18-29 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.12.18-Heb.12.29
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This 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. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

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We return again to the idea of holiness and how God is other and separate from us and we may not approach Him in any way that we want to, and simply approaching the mountain if you were not called to come up and meet with Him when He gave the first covenant was enough for a death sentence.  You may hear that mountain referred to other places in the New Testament simply as "Sinai," "Mount Sinai," "Mount Horeb" or occasionally like here "the mountain of God."  This is the same mountain where God revealed Himself to Moses with His covenant name, YHWH, meaning, "I AM."

As is the usual style of the author to the Hebrews, Mt. Sinai is contrasted with a "better" mountain--Mount Zion which is not only the location of Jerusalem in the present day, but Zion has been the prophetic term for the eternal kingdom of God and can be applied to the New Jerusalem that we see in Revelation 21 and 22.  God has brought us to this "better mountain" where we can live among God, the angels of God, and the redeemed, purified and sanctified people of God.  This is made possible only by Jesus our Great High Priest who mediates a New Covenant through His own blood.  If the ground called out to God when the innocent blood of Abel was shed by his brother Cain, how much so has the whole earth groaned and cried out when the innocent blood of the Son of God was spilled by all those that were lost?  What kind of punishment awaits them?  Cain was cast out from the presence of all the other human inhabitants of earth, but those who rebel against God and His plan will be cast outside of the holy city and will experience nothing but eternal punishment, agony, and torture to pay for their sins against and infinite God.

There is coming a day when all that has been made by Christ will be destroyed as all of creation has been corrupted by sin.  We read about this earlier in the epistles of Peter when Peter warns that a day is coming when the elements themselves will melt and dissolve and Jesus will come to judge the fallen angels and those who who have aligned themselves with that kingdom--the kingdom of darkness--by rejecting God and saying they would make their own way and be their own god.  We must accept the invitation of our Lord and Savior to be made new creations and to become citizens of a new, eternal kingdom with a King that will reign from His eternal throne in the New Jerusalem forever and ever.  And He will be our God and we will be His people, and His kingdom and His people will not be shaken in the coming judgement.  Our response to this should be to live our lives in such a way where we are living sacrifices constantly offering worship and expressing our reverence and awe for the eternal King of Heaven.   Let us conduct ourselves as citizens of the kingdom that we belong to.