Hebrews 12:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 12:26

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God’s voice shook the earth at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, for we read, ‘mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly’ (Exodus 19:18, also Psalm 68:8). These fearful physical phenomena accompanied the giving of the law to convey to that largely unregenerate people a sense of God’s majesty in terms that they could understand. But the prophet Haggai takes up these events and speaks of a further shaking, which will include not only the earth as before, but even the heavens. We must not forget that the contrast is still running: Sinai was physical, Zion is heavenly. Sinai was terrifying physical, but Zion represents the message of grace, Christ showing us his suffering and death, inviting us, calling to us to come to him for salvation. The first shaking is the shaking of Mount Sinai when the law is given. We may think that the second shaking is surely the Lord’s return at the end of the world, but no, the second shaking is not initially a physical shaking, though there will be physical shaking later. The meaning is most carefully pursued in our Reformed tradition and by all the old commentators of time past. It continues to consider the contrast between Moses and Christ, and this is actually the eighth such time in the epistle that this contrast has been drawn. It is the total shaking up of the world, and the old institution of worship of Judaism, the temple, the ceremonial law, when Christ comes. We know that, because the prophecy, from which this is quoted, tells us so. Haggai prophesies, ‘For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts’ (Haggai 2:6-7). When Christ shall come, the earth will be shaken for the second time. Once more, and only once more. But, unlike Sinai, this shaking will not be physical, it will be spiritual, just as Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem are spiritual. Did that happen at the coming of Christ? Yes, stable things like heaven and earth were shaken up. Things that had lasted for centuries were totally shaken. The Gentiles were shaken and hearts opened among the pagan nations to the gospel. The law, which had run for so long among the Jews, the law was shaken, the Mosaic Law and all its requirements in its details and its typical worship. The priesthood, these things which to the Jews were as stable as heaven and earth were shaken and ended. What is referred to is that Christ will come, and Christ will carry out his atoning work, and then there will be the day of Pentecost, and the birth of the church, and the shaking of the coming of the Spirit. Subsequently there will be the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, and the end of the old order, and then there will be the growing church, that turns the world upside down as Christian conversion goes into every part of the world. That will be the last age of the world, when grace is preached everywhere. Then finally at the end Christ returns, and there will even be physical signs and wonders with him.

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When we teach like this that there is a new order – that the Jewish order and the economy of Moses is ended and the gospel age is in, and now it is the international church of Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles together – people say, ‘That is a dreadful thing called replacement theology. You are saying that the Jews are completely set aside and the church, mainly Gentiles has taken over. All the promises that were addressed to Jews in the Old Testament are now redirected to an entirely different company, namely Gentiles, in the church of Jesus Christ. So the church has replaced the Jews’; that is the accusation that is made. But we do not teach replacement theology. We teach something quite different. All the Old Testament promises, included the calling of the Gentiles, were made to Jews and to Gentiles in the coming age of Christ. These promises were plentiful and very clear, such as that in Haggai 2: ‘the desire of all nations shall come.’ It is not that the church replaces the Jews; it is that the Jewish promises are fulfilled to elect Jews and elect Gentiles in the international Jewish Gentile church of Jesus Christ. It is not replacement, it is fulfilment. It is the uniting of Jews and Gentiles into the church of Jesus Christ. But it is said, ‘It almost replacement because we do not see many Jews in the church of Jesus Christ.’ Actually there are very many Jews in the church of Jesus Christ. Bear in mind that ethnically the Jewish nation and the Jewish people are a tiny proportion of the world's population, and you will naturally expect that all nations will outnumber only the one nation, which is among them. ‘We do not see all Jews converted’, no, but you did not see this in Old Testament times. You see elect Jews and elect Gentiles are now together in the new order. Who knows but we may see vastly more Jews converted by the end of the age, because it could very well be, although this is something that we cannot be absolutely certain of? It may be that Romans chapter 11 indicates that there will be a great ingathering of Jews at the very end. If it were so, what a testimony to grace that would be! Jewish people despite all their privileges and have for the most part resisted the grace of God for centuries. How typical, you may say, of the grace of God to overwhelm the hearts of a vast number of Jewish people at the end, and that may well be.

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Hebrews 12:26 Commentary and Bible Study