Hear the Call of Zion
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Introduction: Now after giving the contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, the writer says, “You must not ignore Him who is speaking.”
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
If men were accountable for obeying God when he commanded them on Sinai, how much more will they be held accountable now that he instructs from Mount Zion.
The unbelieving Israelites who ignored God at Sinai did not enter into the promised land, and unbelievers today who ignore God when He speaks through His Son from Zion will not enter into the heavenly promised land. When man chooses to ignore God there is then no escape for Him.
It is true that the blessings received in the New Covenant are much greater than the blessings received in the Old Covenant, but the consequences for refusing the New Covenant is also much greater.
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
At Sinai, God shook the earth. From Zion He is also going to shake the heavens. If unbelievers did not escape when the earth was shaken, how much less will they be able to escape when both the heaven and earth are shaken?
This is exactly what the prophets predicted predicted will happen.
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Commenting on the quotation from Haggai, the writer explains that in the end everything physical (those things which can be shaken) will be destroyed and only the eternal things will remain.
Peter tell us this:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
In the end, this fallen world will be totally destroyed by the wrath of God.
However, some things are unshakable and it is those things that will remain.
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This is the kingdom of God that we are invited to receive and it is a kingdom which cannot be shaken. We are invited to become citizens of that kingdom through Christ, and that kingdom will never be taken from us and we will never be taken from it. It is eternal, unchanging, and immovable.
For this incredible blessing in Christ, we should have grace (gratitude), by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. The right response to Christ is worship and service to our Savior who is worthy of it, for He is better than anything and anyone.
As the main body of Hebrews then comes to a close, the writer issues one of the severest warnings in the book of Hebrews: for our God is a consuming fire. The writer is saying one last time, “Some of you have come to the edge of full acceptance of Christ. Don’t turn your back on Christ now! Away from Christ there is only judgment.”
Conclusion: Even today, the choice is the same. Whether Jew or Gentile, those who try to approach God through their own works find that their works only fall short and cannot save. All must trust in the atoning work of Christ and come to Zion where our heavenly priest will mediate for us and bring us into the very presence of God.
