◄ What Does Hebrews 12:27 Mean? ►

When God speaks, His children should listen, and when God repeats Himself, His children should pay extra special attention to the Word of the Lord.

It was the prophet Haggai that first announced to Israel that God was going to shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land. Haggai challenged God's people to re-examine their priorities and practice, and to re-establish God back into the centre of their lives and to trust Him to faithfully to keep His promises.

To a certain degree, Haggai's prophecy was partially fulfilled at Christ's first coming, at that pivotal point in earth's history when the Son of God gained the victory over sin, Satan, death, and hell.

The sun was darkened, the earth quaked, and a silent heaven looked on in wonder as man's Kinsman-Redeemer offered His sinless life in full payment for the sin of the whole world. The earth did indeed quake as the wrath of God was poured out in full measure on the sinless Son of God.

But the writer to the Hebrews expands this earlier prophetic pronouncement into the distant future with the warning: "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven" He goes on to explain that this expression: "Yet once more," denotes the removing of anything which can be shaken, including everything that has been created. Only the eternal, heavenly, spiritual things which cannot be shaken will remain.

Mount Sinai was shaken, and the people trembled at the giving of the first covenant which God made with His people, Israel. Mount Calvary shook violently, and the sun was darkened at the giving of the New Covenant in His blood, implemented at the Cross. And the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, as the earth quaked and the rocks were split in two.

Although there will be an earthquake such as the world has never before seen at the return of the Lord, when He comes in power and great glory at the end of the 7-year Tribulation period, the ultimate shaking of the earth below, the heavens above, and everything that has been created, both visible and invisible, will take place at the end of Christ's millennial rule on earth. This is that point at which heaven and earth will pass away with a roar and the elements of God's creation will be destroyed with intense heat. The earth and its works will be burned up, and God will make a new heaven and a new earth. Old things will pass away and all things will become new.

But God's promise of restoration and renewal stands as fast today as it did when Haggai prophesied of a great shaking, and the writer to the Hebrews warns us that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, such that only the things of God will remain unshaken and unshakable.

How important therefore that we reexamine our own Christian priorities and spiritual walk. How necessary to make sure that the Lord Jesus is given His rightful position in our lives, no matter what opposition we face or whatever things may be shaken in our lives. How vital to abide in Christ and He is us so that we may walk in newness of life and be enabled to stand fast in the evil day, knowing that greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world.

Heavenly Father, help me to examine my priorities in life and keep my eyes fixed on Jesus so that I do not become discouraged by the circumstances I may face when familiar things become shaken and when life seems to be falling apart. Help me to trust You in all things and remain securely anchored to Jesus, the Rock of my salvation. Thank You that in Him alone is my unshakable security and eternal rest. In His name I pray, AMEN.