See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven (Hebrews 12, 25).
At the close of the entire lesson the apostle adds a warning for the believers: “See that to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking”; that is, the Son of God. There is thus a refusal by those who have already received and accepted the invitation to the Kingdom of God which is so much the worse for them if they again give up the beginning of the new life and do not cling to it until the end.
The voice of the Lord speaking from heaven is much more powerful and penetrating than was His voice on earth on Sinai (Exodus 19, 20), where only the earth was moved and shaken-only the physical senses of people were roused to momentary terror which quickly disappeared without lasting effect. Forty days later they made the golden calf and were continually unbelieving and disobedient to the voice of the Lord. For though the law stirs men to a degree of repentance so that they make an attempt to better the “old man” through their natural strength, yet the law does not change the hearts of men.
But Christ’s voice from heaven through the Gospel brings everything into motion, heaven and earth, the good and the evil spirit worlds. All powers are shaken; the innermost recesses of men’s hearts are moved. All men take sides for or against; no one remains neutral or untouched. He who does not become converted becomes hardened; he who does not become a decisive follower of Christ becomes a persecutor and anti-Christ. “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence; and violent men take it by force” (Matthew 11, 12). The kingdom of heaven is, therefore, attacked by both sides. The one seeks to win it; the other seeks to destroy it.
But it is the Lord who shakes heaven and earth, and this shaking is a continual one as long as the Gospel is reached and the gracious “today” continues in God’s patience. In these storms the Kingdom of God which is within is established in the believers, and there the Kingdom must also prove itself as one that is firm, immovable; unchangeable, and unshakable and that bids defiance to all the temptations of Satan (Matthew 16, 18).
God has prepared His eternal kingdom for these overcomers, and there they shall be crowned. Then all that can be moved and which is moved will be altogether removed so that the Kingdom which cannot be moved shall remain. And as we have made this beginning and received this anointing through the grace of God, so must we also hold fast to this grace unto the end of the conflict, because the devil ever anew repeats his attacks and temptations so long as he has the opportunity.
S.H. Froehlich
août 09
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