Hebrews 12 : 14 – 29
CONSIDER HIM WHO SPEAKS FROM HEAVEN
First, He speaks to our consecration.
To succeed at anything, one must put great effort into practice and performance. To live peacefully with others and to be holy in God’s sight requires great effort on our part. “Make every effort to….be holy…” [1]
Holy: holiness:
– properly, purification, i.e. (the state) purity; concretely a purifier:
KJV– holiness, sanctification. [Strong’s] – to be set apart to God;
sanctification (NAS) i.e. holiness = “the putting on of sanctification”
We are to be holy in all that we say or do. In our striving to keep the peace with other believers, we should “put on” sanctification. This will help in our peacekeeping. We “put on” sanctification by “putting off the old self” and by ”putting on the new self”, without such sanctification, we will not “see” God. [2] “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up…” To be alienated from Christ is to fall away from His grace, placing oneself outside the scope of divine favour. Bitterness brings hate into our life and will certainly rob us of our peace with God and with others. [3] “See that no one is godless like Esau, who, when he wanted to inherit {the} blessing, he was rejected.” One who is “godless like Esau” is one who is at a low level in his outlook of life and does not value divine things; “he was rejected” by God and his father because God’s blessing was through his father; he was rejected because he did not find the place of repentance – the sin had been committed and the consequence was that he lost his birthright. Rejected because he only regretted his loss of the birthright, his sorrow was not a godly sorrow but a worldly sorrow. A trading of our spiritual birthright for the temporary pleasure of worldly things will deprive us of God’s blessing. [4]
Secondly, we need to heed and respect what He says.
“You have come to a mountain……The sight was so terrifying…” [5] This is a description of the awesome occasion on which the Law was given to Moses at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai was a mountain that could be “touched”, had it not been for the forbidding of God with severe penalties; and so were the ordinances. The New Covenant through Jesus Christ is not a threatening covenant; therefore we should not consider returning to the old Covenant. “But you have come to….the heavenly Jerusalem” [6] you have not come to the literal Mount Zion, or Jerusalem you have come to the heavenly city of God, and the reader is thus warned that, given the contrast between the harshness of the old covenant and the grace and mercy of the new covenant; this underlines the warning of drifting back to Judaism. You have come to “the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” [7] – the worldwide gathering of believers that comprise the church; these cannot be angels, since angels have been mentioned previously. “Firstborn” as used here cannot refer to Christ, even though He is called “firstborn” . Their names are recorded in heaven speaks of all believers in Christ. [8] You have come to “God, the judge of all men”. [9] You have come to “the spirits of righteous men made perfect” – This is a reference to the Old Testament saints who died before Christ’s atonement who have been justified by faith and stand in spotless purity before God, because Christ’s atonement has been accredited to their account, they too, with all the New Testament saints await the redemption of our bodies and to receive our glorified bodies. [10] You have come to “Jesus the mediator of a new covenant”. Moses, as mediator of the old covenant, served by receiving the Law from God and delivering it to the people – he was God’s representative. Christ, as mediator of the new covenant, first had to die for sin. He sealed the covenant with His own blood giving His life a ransom for many , and having secured the blessings of the new covenant by His death, He insures these blessings for us by His endless life, and having done all this for His people, He now sits at the right hand of His Father in the Heavenly Tabernacle. [11] And you have come to “the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word” than that of Abel; Abel’s blood cried out for justice and retribution while the blood of Christ speaks of forgiveness and reconciliation. [12]
Therefore, “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.”. [13] Those under the old covenant that refused to hear God’s commands were severely punished to the full extent of the law and since we have a greater revelation in the mediator of the new covenant, we have a greater responsibility to hear God’s words; therefore, we are in greater danger. Since they did not escape God’s punishment for their disobedience, how much more will we if we fail to heed His warning. “At that time his voice shook the earth” [14] “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” The writer adding “once more” indicates the removing of what can be shaken – created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain “worldly things” including Judaism can be shaken; he indicates that the unshakable thing is God’s kingdom and true believers in Christ will dwell in that kingdom that cannot be shaken. The desire of all nations will come and establish the unshakable kingdom.
“Therefore….let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe”. [15] Consequently all this should cause us to fervently worship and adore our blessed Saviour, we should unceasingly praise Him for all that He has done for us, respect and recognize how great are His holiness and righteousness, and this should produce in us profound homage and respect for our great God.
Scripture References: [1] Heb.12:14; Rom.14:9; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; 1 Jn. 3:2-3; [2] Eph. 4:22-25; Col.3:5-10; Matt. 5:8; Rom.6:22; Lev. 11:44-45; [3] Heb. 12:15; Gal. 5:4; 2 Pet. 3:17-18; [4] Heb.12:16-17; Phil.3:18-19; Gen. 27:38-41; 2 Cor.7:10; [5] Heb. 12:18-21; Ex. 19:10-25; Deut. 4:11-12; 5:22-26; [6] Heb. 12: 22-24; 11: 10-16; 13:14; Phil. 3:20; [7] Rev.5:11-12; [8] Lk. 10:20; [9] Heb.4:13; Rom. 14:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11-15; [10] Heb. 11:40; Rom. 3:24-26; 4: 23-25; [11] He. 8:1-3; 10: 12-13; 8:13; 9:15; 1 Tim. 2:5; [12] Gen. 4:10; Heb. 9:12; 10:19; Col. 1:20-22; 1 Jn. 1:7; [13] Heb. 12:25-27; 1:1-2; 2:1-4; [14] Ex. 19:18; Jud. 5:5; Psa. 68:7-8; Hag. 2:6-7; [15] Heb. 12:28-29; Ex. 24:17; Deut. 9:3.