For our God is a consuming fire [Hebrews 12:29]
This past year has been anything but constant. Everything I assumed would never change has, surprisingly, changed. I never thought worship services would be cancelled, that I'd miss weddings and graduations due to limitations, that people would get sick and I couldn't visit them, that earthquakes, wildfires, and tornadoes would change the physicality of places that had looked the same for decades, and that even friends who said we'd "grow old together" would lose their lives.
The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and strength of the children of Israel. [Joel 3:16]
'Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord; 'and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,' says the Lord, 'and work; for I am with you,' says the Lord of Hosts. 'According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!' For thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the Lord of hosts. [Haggai 2:4-7]
These two passages prophecy of the start of Christ's kingdom. When the church began, Peter spoke these words:
"But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath:
blood and fire and vapor of spoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. [Acts 2:17-20]
The beginning of the church started with everything constant being shaken. A blood-red moon, darkness in daytime, smoke and people speaking languages they had never studied. Everything these people in Jerusalem knew to be ever-constant and stable was no longer consistent. I can only imagine how they felt when everything constant came crashing down. The only thing that stayed constant was the word of God, His prophecies coming true. Again in Acts 4:31, when the entirety of the church came to fruition and the Gentiles were preached to about salvation, the earth shook.
Everything physical, the earth and everything in it, is corruptible, moveable, changing, shaken. It's unreliable. This last year alone has shown me even a glimpse of the severity and sadness, the despondency, that comes from reliance on the earth and all physical things.
One thing that causes this quivering and instability is the presence of the power of God. The physical world can't stand when juxtaposed to His Almighty power.
The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence,
yes, the world and all who dwell in it. [Nahum 1:5]
The church is here. God's power is all around us, and we see Him through His creation and His people. Us, now, being in the presence of the power of God, seeing it contrary to the earth constantly changing, what is our response?
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, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." 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.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. [Hebrews 12:25-29]
The kingdom, His church, is our hope. Our constant. It can't be shaken.
It transcends physical, because the physical things are what shake. The church is eternal, and therefore unshakeable. God is a consuming fire because He can consume/destroy all that is physical, just like fire destroys physical things. This verse, God is a consuming fire, used to be kind of scary, because I assumed it was talking about His wrath and hell. It may be true He will consume all that are carnally minded and all physical things of this earth; but, this verse gives hope and joy to all Christians, because it tells us that God is greater than any challenge that comes at us on this earth. The reason we can know that is true is because I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord [Romans 8:38-39]. God is a fire consuming even the biggest, scariest physical changes that come at those who love and obey Him. Those challenges, those physical temptations and trials, they will be shaken and consumed by God.
Those who do not know God turn to very unstable physical things to attempt to hide from God, when they should be turning to God to escape from the feigning stability of the things of this earth.
The constancy in this world will never be of this world.
It comes from God's incorruptible, unshakeable word and His eternal church. When we see something shake in our lives, let it remind us of our God and His spiritual nature. And when things appear constant, let us not be deceived in thinking it will stay that way. Rely on the all-consuming fire, and we will have a hope and faith that cannot be shaken.
All Your works shall praise you, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. [Psalm 145:10-13]