Hebrews 12:26,27 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Whose voice Namely, Christ's, who appeared to Moses at the bush, gave the law, and conducted Israel through the wilderness; see on Exodus 3:2; Isaiah 63:9; 1 Corinthians 10:9; then shook the earth When, at the giving of the law, he spoke from Sinai, and the whole mount quaked greatly, Exodus 19:18; but now In the gospel times; he hath promised Or declared, saying, (Haggai 2:6,) Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven Meaning, probably, the abolition of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the Jews, with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, Matthew 24:29; John 4:21; John 4:23; and even the overthrow of the heathen idolatry, John 16:11, and the propagation of the gospel throughout the world: changes which, in the nature of things, could not take place without great commotions, and the shaking of governments and nations. Dreadful commotions and wars preceded the coming of Christ in the flesh, of which see on Haggai 2:6: but the shakings here intended must be those consequent on his so coming, and productive of the events now referred to. They may, however, look forward even to Christ's second coming, and the final consummation of all things. For this word, Yet once more Or once for all, not only signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken The total subversion of the Jewish commonwealth and church, with the ordinances of Moses; as of things that are made Namely, by human hands; or constituted or appointed only for a time; (the verb ποιειν, here used, frequently meaning to constitute or appoint, as chap. Hebrews 3:2; Mark 3:14, in both which passages it is translated to appoint, as it is also in many other places;) that those things which cannot be shaken A dispensation to be changed no more; may remain Fixed on a perpetual basis; even that eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace which God hath established by his Son Jesus Christ. This inference the apostle rightly draws from the expression, yet once more. For, as it implies that God would make but one alteration more in the religious worship of the world, it certainly follows that the form to be substituted in the room of the things to be shaken or removed, shall be permanent. The gospel, therefore, will remain to the end of the world, as the only form of religion acceptable to God. And then, as the words also imply, the heaven and the earth shall themselves be removed, as things made and intended only to endure for a time; and those things which cannot be shaken, the new heaven and the new earth, shall remain, to be the inheritance of God's people for ever, Revelation 21:1, &c.