Heb. 12:18-29, From Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion

This passage concludes several strands that we have seen in Hebrews. The letter began with God speaking in His Son (1:1-3).  In today’s passage we are admonished not to “refuse Him who speaks,” given that the blood of Christ “speaks better things than that of Abel.”  God also speaks words of warning.  In Haggai 2:6, after the return from Babylon, God had vowed to shake the earth again.  He was about to do that in the destruction of Jerusalem, an event that would have consequences until the return of Christ.  The Hebrews needed to remember that we have grace from God, grace by which we serve Him.  But they also needed to remember that God is still the “consuming fire” who had spoken out of the cloud at Mt. Sinai (cf. Ex. 24:17).

A second strand in Hebrews was the encouragement of their fellowship.  They were to “exhort one another daily” (3:13), “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (10:25).  In addition, they were reminded of the great kinship they had with the saints of old, the great “cloud of witnesses” (12:1).  In today’s passage they are reminded of what they have come to: Mount Zion, “the city of the living God” (that the patriarchs longed for, 11:10,16), “the heavenly Jerusalem” wherein are myriads of angels, the joyful gathering of the “church of the firstborn” (believers on this side of the cross who had already died), and “to the spirits of just men made perfect” (those OT saints who “should not be made perfect apart from us” (11:40).  Above all, they had come to Jesus the Mediator!  How different the reality of believers in Christ, compared to the fear-based worship at Mt. Sinai.  Again, why would they want to go back?

The contrast between Mt. Sinai, the Old Covenant, and Mt. Zion, the New Covenant, is remarkable.  This also has been noted throughout Hebrews.  Here is just one reminder.  We are encouraged, even commanded by God, to come with total freedom into His presence (Heb. 4:14-16).  This was never encouraged in the OT.  At Mt. Sinai God commanded that a fence be put up around the mountain, just so people would not get too close.  Even Moses feared God’s anger (cf. Deut. 9:19).  There was a fence around the tabernacle courtyard, and a thick veil separating even the priests and Levites from the Holy of Holies, God’s resting place.  The whole point was “keep your distance.”  Our God is still a consuming fire.  Yet, He bids us to come to His eternal dwelling place.  David longed for this (Psalm 27:4):

One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek;

That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.

He longed for this, but could not have it in full until his greatest Son shed His blood and then sprinkled it in the temple in the heavens.  Jesus the Christ has done this.  May we not think little of this marvelous blessing.