Hebrews 12:18-24: But Ye Are Come Unto Mount Sion
2024-01-20
The next verses in our Hebrews study compare the old covenant delivered at Mount Sinai and the new one at the heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Sion.
Hebrews 12:18-19
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (Hebrews 12:18-19)
Consider what this is talking about in Exodus 19:1-25. God had brought the Israelites safely from Egypt, having destroyed their enemies in the plagues and in the Red Sea. He brought them out on eagles’ wings; this was a miraculous work of salvation that only the LORD could do. There are two pieces here: Egypt’s destruction and Israel’s salvation. God did both.
Now that they were saved from Egypt, its plagues, and its servitude, obedience to a covenant was required. In the next chapter, the Ten Commandments were issued. Obedience was rewarded with them being God’s special people and they would be a kingdom of priests. Priests go to God on the people’s behalf. Their future home was at the crossroads of three continents. As people would travel through their land, they would see what God had done for the people of Israel. This was one way how they would be priests of God for the nations. They would be holy, special, set apart for the Lord’s purposes. He can do this because, as He said, “for all the earth is mine.”
The LORD would come in a dark cloud, and when the people would see His presence, they would know that Moses was the prophet of the Lord.
They were to prepare for three days. They would wash their clothes and stay away from their wives. Never skip over any phrase like the “third day” in the Bible. “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre” (Luke 23:54-56; 24:1-2). There was a preparation of the Passover, a preparation of spices and ointments for the body of Jesus, there were all manner of preparations for that third day when Jesus rose from the dead.
Back in Exodus, we see that the people could not ascend the mountain or touch it. Man and beast would be stoned or shot through. Only on the third day, when the trumpet would be sounded, would they come up. “And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” (Numbers 10:3). The congregation would assemble with the sound of the trumpet, just like here, and just like at the time of the rapture.
Hebrews 12:20-21
(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) (Hebrews 12:20-21)
The trumpet was loud that day, with thunder and lightning, and a cloud and much fire. After the commandments were given, we see the fear of all the people. Consider Exodus 20:18-21. They could not bear what they heard. On one hand, they were not to fear, but at the same time, they were to fear (Exodus 20:20). The proper fear of God elicits turning from sin. God punishes sin, and He is more than able to do it.
The first quotation is from Exodus 19:13, which we dealt with previously. “There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount” (Exodus 19:13). They were in such fear that they did not want to see and hear all that they saw upon the giving of the commandments.
Hebrews 12:21 quotes Deuteronomy 9:19: “For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.” Consider this in context in Deuteronomy 9:13-20. While it may seem that Hebrews 12:21 is referring to the initial contact at Sinai, this fear of Moses happened afterward on the mount. What was far scarier than the receiving of the Ten Commandments is that there was a corporate violation of the first two commandments. Moses was afraid of the wrath of God, yet he wanted to appease God’s wrath.
Mount Sinai and the entire first covenant it represents suggests fear and condemnation. Fearful sights, sounds, heat, and quaking. The presence of God made them recoil in fear. The covenant mediator himself was afraid for his own life when that covenant was broken. Mount Sinai represents both the covenant and the failure to keep it, and the subsequent horror that follows not keeping the commandment.
Hebrews 12:22
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, (Hebrews 12:22)
We as Christians have come to Mount Sion, or Zion. Consider the discussion here.
This Zion is the “city of the living God.” We saw previously how Abraham searched for a city and country not made by human hands. This Spiritual kingdom is the true city of God.
The adjective “living” suggests the obvious. The Creator God is alive, an eternal, personal Being that is rational, volitional, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Everything else that is called a god and is worshipped is either an idol or a devil.
For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. (1 Chronicles 16:26)
They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. (Deuteronomy 32:17).
Clearly, idols are just statutes. They cannot do anything. “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Psalm 115:4-8). Jehovah, on the other hand, can do and has done everything that is good.
While devils are alive in that they are living beings, they are not the same as God who imparts life. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). And finally, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Only God imparts life, and in the last example, we see that He imparts eternal life.
This Zion is also the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Consider the discussion here.
This city has “an innumerable company of angels.” Consider this discussion on what it means to be “innumerable” here.
Hebrews 12:23
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23)
We have come to “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Consider the discussion here.
We also have come to “God the Judge of all.” There are judges in this life, but the highest Judge of all is God. “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it” (Deuteronomy 1:17).
Only God is completely righteous and can be the true arbiter. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
God delegated His judgment to the Son to judge every man: “And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead” (Acts 10:42).
We have come before the Father, and we can stand before Him because perfect judgment against our sin was satisfied in the Son.
We have also come “to the spirits of just men made perfect.” This probably means that all that have gone before us who have died in Christ are there in heaven. This would be an argument against soul sleep; any believer that dies is immediately with the Lord. “And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:23-24). “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:22-23).
From these, clearly the Christian who dies goes to be with the Lord, while the unsaved die and go to hell. For those departed saints, we are all still a part of the same family of God. In other words, we will see them again someday.
Recall that He “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). Because we are in Christ, we are forevermore with Him and everyone else who is in Him, both alive and “asleep.” Spiritually, we are already there.
Hebrews 12:24
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)
We have also come to Jesus Christ, enthroned in heaven at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is the only mediator to this new covenant. To be a mediator, He must be both God and man: “Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one” (Galatians 3:20). He is the only mediator: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
The sprinkling of His blood was discussed previously a few times in Hebrews. However, it is by the blood of Christ we are saved and it is central to the new covenant. “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20). “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
This blood of Christ “speaketh better things than that of Abel.” What did the blood of Abel say? “And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” (Genesis 4:10-12). The voice of Abel’s blood condemned Cain to a life of wandering. He no longer could earn a living the way he had. It thrust him from the presence of the Lord.
What did the blood of Christ do? It did not destroy us and thrust us away, but rather brought us to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, New Jerusalem. It united us with Himself and all believers into the church of the firstborn. It satisfied the justice of God so we could stand in His presence. It took a dire situation and placed us into a right position before God. This blood cries out to God continually for our forgiveness. We no longer are condemned on Mount Sinai; we are accepted on the new Mount Zion.