Faith that cannot be Shaken

Hebrews 12:18-29

This aspect of the letter to this Hebrew church and to us is about a kingdom that cannot be shaken.  If you have been around for as long as I, you have experienced the shaking of kingdoms.  Great powers like Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America, all have experience decline.  Once more, we must as Christians look not to what is seen, but to what is promised.  The writer is reminding them of the exodus from Egypt and Moses on Mount Sinai with God.  He is telling them that they have entered by faith into a kingdom that cannot be touched, much unlike what their fathers had experienced at Mount Sinai.

The writer is giving us a picture of what they experienced at Mount Sinai, and it was a fearful place even for Moses.  I hope you will let your imagination explore the writer’s word picture, “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.  For they could not endure the orders that were given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.  Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”  Mount Sinai was a personal encounter with Creator God, and like us they cried out in fear, they needed someone to be the intercessor between God and man.  Once we come to the understanding that God is not like us, that He does not change and He is holy and requires holiness for all who will enter into a relationship with Him.

I am so glad that the writer did not say, if you do this great act you may come, but look at what he said; “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, 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, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”  Our righteousness is found only in Jesus, our intercessor, our mediator; it is Christ in you the hope of glory.  And once more let your imagination go to your real home, Mount Zion, and what is awaiting you, a big party, and a party like none this world has ever seen.

My hope is that you are not trying to earn acceptance to Mount Sinai, it’s a fearful place, a place that is terrifying, but Jesus has paid in full your passage into the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, and He has prepared for you an everlasting home, and it comes with a eternal guarantee.  If you read on, verse 25-29, the message is so clear, one God, one way to God, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ, He is the door that all must go through to have access to the city of the living God.  And listen, the writer tells us that God is going to shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.  It is of the utmost importance that your faith is established on what cannot be shaken, for the Scriptures are clear, your world is going to be shaken.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice