When God spoke to Isaiah about the coming destruction upon
Babylon after they had brought to ruins and captivity, this is the
prophetic/apocalyptic language he used;
6 Wail, for the
day of the Lord is at hand!
It
will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every
man’s heart will melt,
8 And they will be afraid.
Pangs
and sorrows will take hold of them;
They
will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They
will be amazed at one another;
Their
faces will be like flames.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel,
with both wrath and fierce anger,
To
lay the land desolate;
And
He will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will
not give their light;
The
sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And
the moon will not cause its light to shine.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of
her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in the day of His fierce
anger. (Isaiah 13)
This is the same language employed by the
Apostles in the first century with regards to the prophecy of the destruction
of national Israel that stood as an enemy of God in the dawn of the new
covenant. Israel had become apostate again and this time just like their
fathers were killing the prophets and people sent to her. Jesus did quite a
statement on this in Matthew 23 of which he said in vs 29-36
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build
the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not
have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons
of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of
hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will
kill and crucify, andsome of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from
city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth,
from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah,
whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this
generation.
The writer of Hebrews states about the shaking of
the heavens and earth that was to happen in their time and generation. This is
not a literal shaking as being popularly propagated. One of the major reasons
why the predictions about the end of the world has failed and will keep
failing.
Rather the author is referring to the removal of
a world, kingdom and the end of an era. This time the end of the Jewish world founded
the law and the prophets and Mosaic age.
He tells them in chapter 12 not to be stubborn to
the voice that speaks from Zion and not Sinai. This is after his revelation of
the fact that they were no longer stationed at Sinai but now in Zion where God
and the angels had resettled. The interesting thing is that the voice that
speaks is the Blood of Jesus. This is why he says it speaks better things than
the blood of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if
they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has
promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake[h] not only the earth, but also
heaven.”[i] 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are
being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be
shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12)
The shaking of that former
heaven and earth will herald the establishment of God’s kingdom where grace
would be the life of worship and not the Mosaic law.
This is the same connection that
Peter draws to speak about the destruction of the heavens and earth in
alignment with the Hebrews writer.
10 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.[
12 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?13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look
for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:10,12-13)
He also confirms that removal of
that former heaven and earth will see the establishment of a world where righteousness
dwells. This is why the grace message is the voice of the kingdom. For it
declares that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel which is the
power of God.
It will be just a total
disrespect proper exegesis for us to declare that God intends to destroy the literal
heavens and earth in order to prove his judgment on all men. This is not the
grace message and certainly negates the impact of the finished works of Jesus
in spreading the glory of the kingdom all over the face of the earth. The old
world has been removed so that the one that cannot be shaken will remain
eternally. Halleluyah!
