Hebrews 12:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What then? Is one here and another there? How then does he say, "Whose voice then shook the earth"? The earth was shaken by the voice of Him who then gave the law. "And who now has given this promise: Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Thus everything will be changed and ordered from above for the better. This is expressed by the words cited here. Why then do you grieve, suffering in a temporary world and enduring distress in a swiftly passing world? If there were uncertainty in the future destiny of the world, then one awaiting the end would have reason to grieve.

"Whose voice then shook the earth."

Do you not see that the One who spoke then was the very same One who now prophesies to us from heaven? For His voice then, at the giving of the law, shook the earth.

"And now He has promised, saying: Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven."

We learn of two earthquakes from Scripture. The first was at the giving of the Law on Sinai, as David says: "The earth was afraid" (Ps 75:9).

The second was at Christ's appearing in the flesh. For it is said: "All Jerusalem was troubled" (Mt 2:3), and "the idols of Egypt will be shaken" (Is 19:1).

For they were shaken, that is, they were deprived of the condition by which they deceived those who fed them, and their power was overthrown.

Through the course of the ages there have been two celebrated transformations of human life, called the two covenants and, according to the well-known saying of Scripture, shakings of the earth (Hag 2:6-7).

One led from idols to the Law (cf. Ex 20:3-5), and the other from the Law to the Gospel (cf. Mt 27:51; Heb 9:3-15; Gal 2:14).

I also proclaim a third shaking, the passage from what is here to what is there, which is unshaken and immovable.

But the same thing happened with both covenants. What was it? They were not introduced suddenly, nor at the first undertaking of the matter.

Why? We needed to know that we are not compelled, but persuaded. For what is not voluntary is not lasting, just as a stream or a plant is held by force only for a short time.

What is voluntary is stronger and more secure. The first belongs to the one who uses force, but the latter is properly ours. The first belongs to coercive power, but the latter to God's justice.

His voice, he says, shook the earth then at Mount Sinai. But now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven" (cf. Hag 2:7). The same thing is expressed in the saying of our Lord, who says, "The powers of the heavens will be shaken" (Mt 24:29).

"Whose voice then shook the earth." For the mountain shook, making known God's presence. "But now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven." He, says the Apostle, shook the earth then; and He also foretold that He would shake heaven together with earth.

"Whose voice then shook the earth." This was plainly when He gave the law on Mount Sinai, for there had to be shaking then, to increase the people's fear. Or it was when the earth opened and swallowed Dathan and Abiram (Ps 105:17). "But now He has promised," plainly something more fearful, "saying: Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven" (Hag 2:7). He said through the prophet Haggai, "Yet once more I will shake heaven and earth." The Apostle speaks of the future shaking, of the change of all things for the better, and of the transformation of the corruptible into incorruption.

From this one must conclude that our Lord Jesus Christ, by His own commands and ordinances, then ordered through Moses, among other things, the so-called tabernacle of witness, that is, the temple of God.

It was movable and portable, according to the need of a wandering people. In relation to God's saving judgments for all mankind, it was filled with mystical foreshadowings of Christ and Christ's Church.

It also contained hidden beginnings of grace under the visible forms of the ceremonial law. From this it also follows that our Lord Jesus Christ gave this command as well:

"Let the sons of Israel encamp before the Lord. Around the tabernacle of witness let the sons of Israel encamp."

Having finally said that our Christian kingdom is an unshakable and eternal kingdom, the Apostle persuades his readers to preserve gratitude, χάριν, cf. Lk 17:9, by which we must serve God.

The meaning of verses 26 and 27 is this. The God whose voice already shook the earth Himself said through the prophet Haggai that He would once more shake not only the earth, but heaven itself.

Since this prophecy, according to the LXX translation, excludes every other similar shaking, it therefore points to the complete transformation of the whole world.

The world, as created and subject to change, must be replaced by something permanent, that is, the kingdom of Christ.