Heavenly Mindedness (41)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“The inspired writer tells us that the two most momentous events in sacred history, the giving of the law on Sinai and the end of the world, signify the removal of things that are shaken, in order that such things as are not shakable may remain. And the second shaking is so radical and comprehensive that it involves not only the earth but likewise the heavens: it will sweep the transitory out of the life of the people of God even in the higher regions, and will leave them, when the smoke and dust of the upheaval are blown away, in a clear atmosphere of eternal life.

 

“But in this sense also faith is not purely prospective: it enables to anticipate; it draws down the imperishable substance of eternity into its vessel of time and feeds on it. The believer knows that even now there is in him that which has been freed from the law of change, a treasure that moth and rust cannot corrupt, true riches enshrined in his heart as in a treasury of God.”   G. Vos.

 

Vos directs our attention to Hebrews 12:25 – 28. (Note that earlier in this message he linked Hebrews Chapter 11 with Hebrews 12:18 – 24; having us consider that we “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.”)

 

In Hebrews 12:25 – 28 we see two shakings, each with accompanying accountability; first at Mount Sinai and then at the end of the world. We see the two accountabilities, the two judgments, in 12:25, “For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.” Those who did not heed Moses were judged, those who do not heed Jesus Christ will be judged. The second shaking is in 12:26, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”

 

(I should note that Vos slips a bit when he terms Sinai and the end of the world as “the two most momentous events in sacred history,” for surely the one event which is the nexus of all events is the Incarnation in all of its scope. As far as I can ascertain, we all have our slips from time to time.)

 

The purpose of the second shaking, which Vos terms “radical and comprehensive,” is “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (12:27). When I have read this passage from Hebrews in the past, I have associated it with images such as Daniel Chapter 2 and 2 Peter 3:10ff; with the temporal elements of the seen and unseen realms passing away, particularly those in opposition to the Messiah (Psalm 2). It has therefore, been ironic to me that so many professing Christians are intent on preserving those very things which are passing away – it is as if we are actively opposed to the Kingdom of God as expressed in Daniel 2 and elsewhere. Why in America we even argue that our nation is the equivalent of the Kingdom of God. But let me move on from this to something that Vos introduces that I had not associated with this passage.

 

Vos tells us that this second shaking “will sweep the transitory out of the life of the people of God even in the higher regions, and will leave them, when the smoke and dust of the upheaval are blown away, in a clear atmosphere of eternal life.”

 

What might Vos mean in speaking of “the transitory…even in the higher regions”?  Note that Vos is referring to “the life of the people of God.” Vos is not talking about evil, he is not talking about heresy, but he is talking about things that are transitory. Here I think we go back to his reference to “transitory purpose” in the previous section we considered. This is especially difficult for me to write about because we tend to be rooted in the transitory, not in the contemporary transitory (though that is true also), but in the historical transitory which we have carved in stone and made our benchmark. We assume extra-Biblical historical identities and give them pride of place in our thinking, teaching, and practice. It is as if we are saying, “Let us make three tabernacles, one for Jesus and two for our doctrinal distinctives; or two for our main historical characters” (Matthew 17:4).

 

These may be in the “higher regions,” but they are nevertheless transitory, and they are “smoke and dust,” as much as we would like to think otherwise. I had never thought of this in the context of Hebrews 12:25 – 29, but now that Vos has introduced it to me I can see his point.

 

And if this is true, and if our Father and Lord Jesus have a trajectory for the People of God, the Church, the Bride; then just as it is necessary for the image of Daniel 2 to pass away, so it is necessary for the various “tabernacles” we have erected to compete with one another, and to compete with Jesus Christ, to pass away – in order that the prayer of Jesus in John 17 be fulfilled and the image of the Body in Ephesians 4 come into manifestation. This is a hard thing to ponder because we have so much invested in our religious and theological product brands, and also because we are not sufficient for these things, we don’t have the wisdom to undo what we’ve done.

 

It would seem that only a great shaking will deliver us from ourselves.