“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” (Heb 12:27, NKJV)
We started the previous group of teachings with 1 Cor. 15:53-54. In the light of the revelation about the fire in that teaching this verse now has a completely different meaning: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”.
There is a process by which mortal elements must be clothed with immortality, through which the visible and transient things must be fulfilled with that which is invisible and eternal. The part in Heb. 12:29 which reads “our God is a consuming fire”, is a culmination point of that which preceded it in Heb. 12:26-28 and explains to us how it will take place: “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.”
In the light of the previous teachings one could say that the unreality is removed so that a true Godly reality can be manifested. In Heb. 12:27 the author mentions that the things that can be shaken, the created, temporary elements which we know as the “world” in which we live, needs to change. The Greek word which is used here is metathesis, which occurs only three times in the New covenant, and the register of meaning of all three can point out to us exactly what the word means. The other two instances are also found in the book of Hebrews:
- “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” (Heb. 7:12, ASV); and
- “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God …” (Heb. 11:5, ASV).
We need to remember that the change of priesthood only typologically took place in the third dimension, in other words the dimension of the holy of holies where the Bride of Christ functions. It is then also of utmost importance to realise that Enoch is a typological example of someone who was changed and translated in his “most holy faith” (Jude 1:20). The change, or translation, means that we can move through the dividing veil (Jesus’ flesh, Heb. 10:20), and function in the third dimension. We have now reached “a new and living way which He consecrated for us”, and thus have access to the true reality.
This change or translation to the third dimension is mediated through fire.
- Selah: How do the two priesthoods differ from one another?
- Read: Ecc l 1-3
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Ecc 2:13 (Tip: The symbol of the letter Mem is “living
water”).
