Hebrews 12:27
The words "Once more" signify the removal of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that the unshakable may remain.
The words, 'Once more,'
This phrase refers back to the prophecy in Haggai 2:6, where God promises to shake the heavens and the earth once more. The Greek term "ἔτι ἅπαξ" (eti hapax) implies a finality and completeness. It suggests a decisive act of God that will bring about a transformation. Historically, this reflects God's sovereign power to intervene in human history, emphasizing His control over creation and His ultimate plan for redemption.

signify the removal
The Greek word for "removal" is "μετάθεσις" (metathesis), which means a change or transfer. This indicates a divine action where God will remove or transform the current order. In a spiritual sense, it speaks to the purging of sin and the establishment of a new, holy order. Archaeologically, this reflects the transient nature of earthly kingdoms and structures, which have risen and fallen throughout history.

of what can be shaken
The phrase "what can be shaken" refers to things that are temporary and unstable. The Greek word "σαλευόμενα" (saleuomena) means to be moved or agitated. This encompasses all created things that are subject to decay and change. Scripturally, it contrasts the temporal nature of the physical world with the eternal nature of God's kingdom.

that is, created things
This clarifies that the things subject to removal are those that are part of the created order. The Greek "τὰ πεποιημένα" (ta pepoimena) refers to things made or created. This distinction highlights the difference between the Creator and the creation, reminding believers of the impermanence of the material world and the permanence of the spiritual.

so that the unshakable
The term "unshakable" comes from the Greek "ἀσάλευτα" (asaleuta), meaning immovable or steadfast. This refers to the eternal kingdom of God, which cannot be shaken or destroyed. Historically, this has been a source of hope for Christians facing persecution, as it assures them of the enduring nature of God's promises.

may remain
The Greek word "μένῃ" (menei) means to abide or continue. This emphasizes the permanence and stability of God's kingdom. In a broader theological context, it assures believers that their faith and hope are anchored in something eternal and unchanging. This promise of permanence is a call to focus on spiritual realities rather than temporal concerns, encouraging a life of faith and perseverance.

Persons / Places / Events
1. God
The ultimate authority who speaks and whose voice shakes the earth and heavens.

2. Mount Sinai
The place where God first shook the earth when He gave the Law to Moses.

3. Heavenly Jerusalem
The unshakable kingdom that believers are receiving, contrasting with the shakable earthly things.

4. Moses
The mediator of the Old Covenant, which was given at Mount Sinai.

5. Believers
The recipients of the unshakable kingdom, called to live in reverence and awe.
Teaching Points
Understanding the Temporary vs. Eternal
Recognize that the physical world and its systems are temporary and will be removed, while God's kingdom is eternal.

Living with an Eternal Perspective
Focus on investing in what is eternal—faith, hope, love, and the kingdom of God—rather than temporary, material things.

Reverence and Awe
Approach God with reverence, understanding the gravity of His power and the privilege of receiving an unshakable kingdom.

Endurance in Faith
Be encouraged to endure trials and challenges, knowing that they are part of the process of shaking away the temporary to reveal the eternal.

Gratitude for the Kingdom
Cultivate a heart of gratitude for being part of God's unshakable kingdom, which should influence our daily lives and decisions.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding the temporary nature of the world influence your daily priorities and decisions?

2. In what ways can you invest more in the unshakable kingdom of God in your personal life?

3. How does the concept of God shaking the heavens and the earth challenge or comfort you in your current circumstances?

4. What are some practical ways to live with reverence and awe before God in your daily routine?

5. How can the assurance of receiving an unshakable kingdom encourage you to endure through trials and challenges?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Haggai 2:6-7
This Old Testament prophecy speaks of God shaking the heavens and the earth, which is echoed in Hebrews 12:27, emphasizing the removal of temporary things to reveal the eternal.

Psalm 102:25-27
Highlights the contrast between the perishable creation and the eternal nature of God, similar to the theme of what is shakable versus unshakable.

Matthew 24:35
Jesus speaks of heaven and earth passing away, but His words remaining forever, aligning with the idea of the unshakable remaining.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15
Discusses the testing of works by fire, which parallels the removal of what can be shaken to reveal what is eternal.

Revelation 21:1
Describes the new heaven and new earth, the ultimate unshakable reality for believers.
The Purpose of the ShakingsD. Young Hebrews 12:27
A Lesson from the Great PanicC. H. Spurgeon.Hebrews 12:25-29
Acceptable ServiceC. H. Spurgeon.Hebrews 12:25-29
Acceptable ServiceL. D. Bevan, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
Fear Due to AuthorityJ. F. B. Tinling, B. A.Hebrews 12:25-29
Godly FearJ. Clifford, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
Hear! HearC. H. Spurgeon.Hebrews 12:25-29
Our Need of Divine GraceW. D. Horwood.Hebrews 12:25-29
Refusing GodJ. Cumming, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
Refusing God's VoiceA. Maclaren, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
ReverenceHebrews 12:25-29
Service in the Kingdom of GodG. Lawson.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Doctrine of Christ not to be RefusedG. Lawson.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Gospel as a PowerHomilistHebrews 12:25-29
The Immovable KingdomG. L. Taylor, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Immovable KingdomJohn Hartley.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Immovable KingdomL. D. Bevan, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Immovableness of the Gospel DispensationH. Melvill, B. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Kingdom that Cannot be MovedW. Baxendale.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Plea of the GospelL. D. Bevan, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Shaking and the KingdomH. Bonar.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Shaking of Sinai and CalvaryL. D. Bevan, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Shakings of JehovahF. B. Meyer, B. A.Hebrews 12:25-29
The True Spirit of ServiceHebrews 12:25-29
The Voice of God in the Vicissitudes of HumanityCaleb Morris.Hebrews 12:25-29
The Word has not Done with UsJudge Hale.Hebrews 12:25-29
Things Passing and Things PermanentJ. Ker, D. D.Hebrews 12:25-29
Unheeded WarningsA. S. Froude.Hebrews 12:25-29
Where are His EarsHebrews 12:25-29
Yet Once MoreDealt Vaughan.Hebrews 12:25-29
People
Abel, Esau, Hebrews
Places
Jerusalem, Mount Zion
Topics
Clear, Created, Denote, Denotes, Evident, Expression, Indicates, Order, Phrase, Possible, Removal, Removing, Shaken, Shaking, Signifies, Signifieth, Taking, Yet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hebrews 12:18-29

     4269   Sinai, Mount

Hebrews 12:22-27

     1444   revelation, NT

Hebrews 12:26-27

     4028   world, redeemed

Hebrews 12:26-28

     5467   promises, divine

Library
Shaking of Heaven and Earth. December 22.
"Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven" (Hebrews xii. 26- 29). This is one of the royal texts of Scripture. It declares one of those great laws of the kingdom of God which may fulfil itself once and again at many eras and by many methods; which fulfilled itself most gloriously in the first century after Christ; again in the fifth century; again at the time of the Crusades; and again at the great Reformation in the sixteenth century,--and is fulfilling itself again at this very day.
Charles Kingsley—Daily Thoughts,

March 3. "Now no Chastening for the Present Seemeth to be Joyous but Grievous; Nevertheless Afterward" (Heb. xii. 11).
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; nevertheless afterward" (Heb. xii. 11). God seems to love to work by paradoxes and contraries. In the transformations of grace, the bitter is the base of the sweet, night is the mother of day, and death is the gate of life. Many people are wanting power. Now, how is power produced? The other day we passed the great works where the trolley engines are supplied with electricity. We heard the hum and roar of countless wheels, and
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

December 2. "Looking Diligently Lest any Man Fail" (Heb. xii. 15).
"Looking diligently lest any man fail" (Heb. xii. 15). It is not losing all, but coming short we are to fear. We may not lose our souls, but we may lose something more precious than life--His full approval, His highest choice, and our incorruptible and star-gemmed crown. It is the one degree more that counts, and makes all the difference between hot water--powerless in the boiler--and steam--all alive with power, and bearing its precious freight across the continent. I want, in this short life of
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

March 26. "Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Our Faith" (Heb. xii. 2).
"Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. xii. 2). Add to your faith--do not add to yourself. This is where we make the mistake. We must not only enter by faith, but we must advance by faith each step of the way. At every new stage we shall find ourselves as incompetent and unequal for the pressure as before, and we must take the grace and the victory simply by faith. Is it courage? We shall find ourselves lacking in the needed courage; we must claim it by faith. Is it love? Our own love
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

June 4. "Looking unto Jesus" (Heb. xii. 2).
"Looking unto Jesus" (Heb. xii. 2). There must be a constant looking unto Jesus, or, as the German Bible gives it, an off-looking upon Jesus; that is, looking off from the evil, refusing to see it, not letting the mind dwell upon it for a second. We should have mental eyelashes as well as physical ones, which can be used like shields, and let no evil thing in; or, like a stockade camp in the woods, which repels the first assault of the enemy. This is the use of the fringes to our eyes, and so it
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Note F. Note from Bengel on Rom. I. 4.
According to the Spirit of Holiness. The word hagios, holy, when God is spoken of, not only denotes the blameless rectitude in action, but the very Godhead, or to speak more properly, the divinity, or excellence of the Divine nature. Hence hagiosune (the word here used) has a kind of middle sense between hagiotes, holiness, and hagiasmos, sanctification. Comp. Heb. xii. 10 (hagiotes or holiness), v. 14 (hagiasmos or sanctification). So that there are, as it were, three degrees: sanctification,
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Twenty-Ninth Day. Holiness and Chastisement.
He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Follow after sanctification, without which no man shall see the Lord.'--Heb. xii. 10, 14. There is perhaps no part of God's word which sheds such Divine light upon suffering as the Epistle to the Hebrews. It does this because it teaches us what suffering was to the Son of God. It perfected His humanity. It so fitted Him for His work as the Compassionate High Priest. It proved that He, who had fulfilled God's will in
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Thanksgiving after Chastisement.
(Preached on the Cessation of Cholera, Feb. 1832). TEXT: HEB. xii. 11, 12. MY devout friends, the terrific form of the devastating -L-l- disease which has so long been raging in this great city has now left us, though we cannot feel entire confidence that it will not return; for it would not be the first instance if it appeared a second time, in a place so densely populated, to repeat its devastations. But are we right in availing ourselves of the apparent cessation which has been granted to us through
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

Chastisement
Peradventure this morning I may have some within these walls who are passing under the chastising hand of God. It is to them that I shall have to speak. You are not all of you in trial, I know no father chastises his whole family at once. It is so seldom that God afflicts people, after all, compared with their faults, that we must not expect to find in this congregation, perhaps, one-half of the children of God passing under the rod of the covenant; but if you are not under it now, you will have
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

The Blood of Sprinkling
Our apostle next tells us what we are come to. I suppose he speaks of all the saints after the death and resurrection of our Lord and the descent of the Holy Ghost. He refers to the whole church, in the midst of which the Holy Spirit now dwells. We are come to a more joyous sight than Sinai, and the mountain burning with fire. The Hebrew worshipper, apart from his sacrifices, lived continually beneath the shadow of the darkness of a broken law; he was startled often by the tremendous note of the
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886

The Blood of Sprinkling (Second Sermon. )
The doctrinal portion of our meditation was greatly blest to our hearts, for God the Holy Ghost refreshed us thereby: may he now fulfill his sacred office with equal power, by revealing the things of Christ to us in a way which shall cause self-examination, and arouse us to give more earnest heed than ever to the voice of him that speaketh from heaven. No theme can excel in value and excellence that of the precious blood of Jesus. Unless the Holy Spirit shall prepare our hearts, even with such a
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886

The Voice of the Blood of Christ
Now, we have in our text "blood" mentioned--two-fold blood. We have the blood of murdered Abel, and the blood of murdered Jesus. We have also two things in the text:--a comparison between the blood of sprinkling, and the blood of Abel; and then a certain condition mentioned. Rather, if we read the whole verse in order to get its meaning, we find that the righteous are spoken of as coming to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel; so that the condition which will
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

The Shameful Sufferer
"O love, thou fathomless abyss!" for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless. None of us can attain unto it. In speaking thereof we feel our own weakness, we cast ourselves upon the strength of the Spirit, but, even then, we feel that we can never attain unto the majesty of this subject. Before we can ever get a right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. Now, who can
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Holiness Demanded
"Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."--Hebrews 12:14. ONE feels most happy when blowing the trumpet of jubilee, proclaiming peace to broken hearts, freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. But God's watchman has another trumpet, which he must sometimes blow; for thus saith the Lord unto him, "Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain." Times there are when we must ring the tocsin; men must be startled from their sleep, they
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 50: 1904

God's Word not to be Refused
"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven."--Hebrews 12:25. WE ARE NOT a cowering multitude gathered in trembling fear around the smoking mount of Horeb; we have come where the great central figure is the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We have gathered virtually in the outer circle of which the saints above and holy angels make the inner ring. And now tonight
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

Fourteenth Day. Endurance in Contradiction.
"Who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself."-- Heb. xii. 3. What endurance was this! Perfect truth in the midst of error; perfect love in the midst of ingratitude and coldness; perfect rectitude in the midst of perjury, violence, fraud; perfect constancy in the midst of contumely and desertion; perfect innocence, confronting every debased form of depravity and guilt; perfect patience, encountering every species of gross provocation--"oppressed and afflicted, He opened not His mouth!"
John R. Macduff—The Mind of Jesus

"But it is Good for Me to Draw Near to God: I have Put My Trust in the Lord God, that I May Declare all Thy
Psal. lxxiii. 28.--"But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works." After man's first transgression, he was shut out from the tree of life, and cast out of the garden, by which was signified his seclusion and sequestration from the presence of God, and communion with him: and this was in a manner the extermination of all mankind in one, when Adam was driven out of paradise. Now, this had been an eternal separation for any thing that
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Consuming Fire.
Our God is a consuming fire.--HEBREWS xii. 29 Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy. For if at the voice of entreaty love conquers displeasure, it is love asserting itself, not love yielding its claims. It is not love that grants a boon unwillingly; still less is it love that answers a prayer to the wrong and hurt of him who prays. Love is one, and love is changeless. For love loves unto purity.
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Of Bearing Injuries, and who Shall be Approved as Truly Patient
"What sayest thou, My Son? Cease to complain; consider My suffering and that of My saints. Thou hast not yet resisted unto blood.(1) It is little which thou sufferest in comparison with those who have suffered so many things, have been so strongly tempted, so grievously troubled, so manywise proved and tried. Thou oughtest therefore to call to mind the more grievous sufferings of others that thou mightest bear thy lesser ones more easily, and if they seem not to thee little, see that it is not
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Meditations on the Hindrances which Keep Back a Sinner from the Practice of Piety.
Those hindrances are chiefly seven:-- I. An ignorant mistaking of the true meaning of certain places of the holy Scriptures, and some other chief grounds of Christian religion. The Scriptures mistaken are these: 1. Ezek. xxxiii. 14, 16, "At what time soever a sinner repenteth him of his sin, I will blot out all," &c. Hence the carnal Christian gathers, that he may repent when he will. It is true, whensoever a sinner does repent, God will forgive; but the text saith not, that a sinner may repent whensoever
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Pietist and the Perfectionist.
"He chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness."--Heb. xii. 10. Sanctification is a gracious work of God, whereby in a supernatural way He gradually divests from sin the inclinations and dispositions of the regenerate and clothes them with holiness. Here we meet a serious objection which deserves our careful attention. To the superficial observer, the spiritual experience of God's children seems diametrically opposed to this professed gift of sanctification. One says:
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Christ the Mediator of the Covenant
'Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant,' &c. Heb 12:24. Jesus Christ is the sum and quintessence of the gospel; the wonder of angels; the joy and triumph of saints. The name of Christ is sweet, it is as music in the ear, honey in the mouth, and a cordial at the heart. I shall waive the context, and only speak of that which concerns our present purpose. Having discoursed of the covenant of grace, I shall speak now of the Mediator of the covenant, and the restorer of lapsed sinners, Jesus the Mediator
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Arrived
"Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."--Heb. xii. 22. T. S. M. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 We are come unto Mount Zion, On Thy holy hill we stand, The crusaders whose march is ended, The risen and the ascended, All hail! Immanuel's land! We are come unto the City, Where our living God art Thou; Thou Who barest our sin and sorrow, Who comest in joy to-morrow, Thou communest with us now-- To Jerusalem the golden, To the Gates of Praise we come,
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

Esau Gen 25:34; Heb 12:16
ESAU Gen 25:34; Heb 12:16 Poor Esau repented too late That once he his birth-right despised; And sold, for a morsel of meat, What could not too highly be prized: How great was his anguish when told, The blessing he sought to obtain, Was gone with the birth-right he sold, And none could recall it again! He stands as a warning to all, Wherever the gospel shall come; O Hasten and yield to the call, While yet for repentance there's room! Your season will quickly be past, Then hear and obey it today;
John Newton—Olney Hymns

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