Hebrews 12: But You Have Come

"For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  Hebrews 12.18-24

Reading through Hebrews, I struggled to understand this passage. The writer tells us that we have not come to 'what may be touched', and then lists a few examples: fire, darkness, gloom, a tempest, a trumpet blast, a voice. None of these seem tangible at all.

Then he goes on to describe their fruit: begging for silence, fear and trembling. Why? Because this holiness is wrapped in judgment. The mountain of God is so pure as to be un-touchable. It is tangible, but to touch it is death. The holiness of God is so great as to bar our approach- everything is condemned in the light of His holiness.

But the writer of Hebrews offers good news. He writes, "But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant..."

In both cases, God's people approach Him on a mountain- but there the likeness ends. The first is Mount Sinai, the place what Moses receives the law, where God is hidden in fire and smoke and thunderings. But the second is Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem, where God has made a home with His people. One is the harsh mountain which man must ascend to appease God, a mountain which condemns with every climbing step and which leaves the worshipper begging for the silence of God. But the other is the green mountain of Jerusalem on which God's presence rests in joy and celebration, the mountain of feasting to which God invites His people. Where we once came intending to prove ourselves, now we come 'made perfect'. The old covenant has passed away- the new has begun.

Yet even Mount Zion is but a shadow. All these things are dull images, hollow representations, empty symbols. This tangible mountain is but a sign unto the heavenly mountain of God. Jerusalem is a poor copy of the city of God in heaven. While Jerusalem will fall, the true Jerusalem never will. And this is the mountain to which we have come- not the mountain of proving ourselves by fulfilling the law, not even the mountain of God's mediated presence here. We have come to His true presence, to His Son Jesus, and this is a mountain, a city, that will never be changed.

In fact, the spiritual reality in which we now participate is more real than the physical reality we once participated in. The new covenant, the new promise of God is more wondrous, more amazing, more glorious than anything we have known before. This was all a representation, a shadow of the form that cast it. We have entered greater security, greater truth than the law. We have come to a greater mountain.