Hebrews 12:26

26 whose voice the earth shook then, and now hath he promised, saying, `Yet once -- I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven;'

Hebrews 12:26 Meaning and Commentary

Hebrews 12:26

Whose voice then shook the earth
That is, at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai: Christ was then present; his voice was then heard; which was either the voice of thunder, or the voice of the trumpet, or rather the voice of words: this shook the earth, Sinai, and the land about it, and the people on it; which made them quake and tremble, even Moses himself; see ( Exodus 19:18 ) ( Psalms 68:8 )

but now he hath promised, saying
in ( Haggai 2:6 )

yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven;
not only the land of Judea, and particularly Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it, who were all shaken, and moved, and troubled at the news of the birth of the Messiah, the desire of all nations, the prophet Haggai speaks of, ( Matthew 2:2 Matthew 2:3 ) but the heaven also; by prodigies in it, as the appearance of a wonderful star, which guided the wise men from the east; and by the motions of the heavenly inhabitants, the angels, who descended in great numbers, and made the heavens resound with their songs of praise, on account of Christ's incarnation, ( Matthew 2:2 ) ( Luke 2:10 Luke 2:13 Luke 2:14 ) . How the apostle explains and applies this, may be seen in the next verse.

Hebrews 12:26 In-Context

24 and to a mediator of a new covenant -- Jesus, and to blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than that of Abel!

25 See, may ye not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who upon earth was divinely speaking -- much less we who do turn away from him who [speaketh] from heaven,

26 whose voice the earth shook then, and now hath he promised, saying, `Yet once -- I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven;'

27 and this -- `Yet once' -- doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain;

28 wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear;