“’Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” [Heb 12:26-29]
The writer of Hebrews quotes two Old Testament verses. “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” is found in Haggai 2:6, and “God is a consuming fire” comes from Deuteronomy 4:24. The writer of Hebrews employs these two verses in a prophetic reminder that God, at the end time, will shake the earth and the heavens. When the shaking is done, only His kingdom will be left standing.
While that is a promise for the future, it comes with a command for the present. And that command has a warning. The command is that God’s people are to be thankful, and they are to worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
The worship in today’s church doesn’t always reflect reverence or awe. We have become comfortable with the image of God we have painted. It’s an image that is no threat to us, it’s tame, docile, always bowing to our requests. But that’s not who our God is in truth; and Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4 that those God seeks to worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.
In truth, our God is holy, wild, unpredictable and uncomfortable. He may comfort us, but He is in no way comfortable. He cannot be tamed, nor contained. And therein is the warning, our “God is a consuming fire.”
Let us always worship the true God, the Holy God, acceptably with reverence and awe, in the awareness of His Almighty Power.
