Hebrews 12.24
November 30th 2014
Meat
Welcome
Prayer
Music
Silence
“Aight” – we talked last week about Hebrews 12:14-17 where the writer is warning the believers (at that time to cling to faith) and not fall back and become “as Esau,” who he uses as an example of someone who took His birthright lightly – only to ultimately lose it to his brother Jacob.
At this point the writer appeals or makes a comparison between the Law (and what it is all about) and the dispensation of grace.
Now what he says is a mouthful – especially in the King James. So let’s first read it and then we’ll try and break it down.
So the writer says:
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 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:
20 (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:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
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,
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,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Okay back to verse 18 where he says:
“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
Once again the writer compares elements of the Old Testament and life under the law with the New. His purpose to convince them to press on in faith and not go back to their former ways or life under the law.
So here (as he has done before) he shows that under the new dispensation of grace there was much more to bind them to God and faith – which would make apostasy a far more serious crime – than there was under the old.
It seems that by and through the comparison everything was sort of spectacular in it’s presentation.
“Awe inspiring” so to speak and it was presented as a means to restrain disobedience by the sheer force and power of the display.
But under the Christian dispensation while the displays were more shall we say “sublime,” they went further in their ability to keep people out of trouble.
everything was adapted to awe the mind, and to restrain by the exhibition of grandeur and of power; but that under the Christian dispensation, while there was as much that was sublime, there was much more that was adapted to win and hold the affections.
So here are the elements of the comparison. On the Law side the writer lists:
A “mount that might be touched,”
that “burned with fire,”
nor (in the New Coventant do they come ) “unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,”
(nor) “the sound of a trumpet,”
and “the voice of words;”(and it was a voice that when they heard it they requested that they not hear it “any more”:
And the writer adds:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded)
Then he reminds them that . . .
“if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart,”
(and that) “so terrible was the sight, (that Moses said,) “I exceedingly fear and quake”
So that is how the writer sort of summarized the Old Covenant for them.
Summarized – under the Old Covenant it was scary.
Look at some of the adjectives the writer appeals to in these verses to describe life under the Law:
“burned with fire,”
“blackness, darkness, tempest,”
“the sound of a trumpet,”
and “a voice of words” (so terrifying that the people begged for it to stop)”
a mountain so horrible that if an animal or a man touched it it was stoned or thrust through with a dart . . .
it was a sight to terrible, the writer says, that even Moses – who had spoken face to face with the Lord exceedingly feared and quaked.”
Simple put: Law = Frightening . . . “why the helicopter do you wanna go back to it,” the writer is asking them?
So let me sort of work through some of the things the writer uses here just so we have a historical perspective of what they mean.
When the writer mentions in verse 18 “The mount that might be touched,” I would believe he is speaking of Mount Sinai which to them and their forefathers was a tangible, material, physical thing that theoretically could be actually touched.
I would suggest that the meaning behind him calling it “the mount that could be touched,” was to compare Sinai (where the Law was delivered) to an intangible location of Mount Sinai for the Christian – which was heaven.
I say this because Sinai, in reference to all the writer speaks about “could not actually be touched because if it was “the toucher would die.”
That was part of the fear and scariness of the Law – to touch meant death in many ways.
We recall Uzzah touching the ark to steady it – zap – struck dead.
In the Law if a wife got in between her husband and another man who were fighting and accidently touched his man-parts it was a death sentence.
And here, when the Law was given on Sinai, the writer mentions that to have touched the mount would have meant death too.
In the church tangible locations are all moved into the spiritual realms, into heaven and this seems to be the comparative he is pointing out.
Again, Exodus 19:12 clearly states that whoever touched the mount would die – so from this I think we can see that there is another meaning here the writer in attempting to make.
And the sense here in his comparison was to show that under the law the physical ties equated to terror.
In other words everything accompanying the giving of the law, from the setting of bounds around the mountain which they could not pass, to the darkness and tempest on the mountain itself, was there to show the holiness of God and to overwhelm the soul.
Touch not taste not was nailed to the cross, thank goodness, and therefore the fear (and frankly the temptation and the sin the comes with it).
Imagine you are a child and you are taken into a beautiful room full of crystal figurines and candy shaped toys and you are told NOT to touch.
And if you did you would get spanked hard by a dark looming figure standing in the corner.
And then you watched some kid actually succumb to the temptation and get belted and then another accidentally bumped into a candy tree and gets a whalloping.
Suddenly the allurement of the beautiful crystal and candy room becomes a terrifying place to live, right?
The writer is trying to remind these converts that this was the case in the former world. Yes, there were benefits too. But all of the terror was now past.
And the Christian world – which we’ll get to – was composed of all together different elements.
Most of what the writer of Hebrews is describing can be taken from the contents of Exodus 19.
Let me read the highlights to you quickly:
Exodus 19:12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
13 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.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
It is easy to conceive what must have been the awe produced by the firey sights and sounds and voice mentioned there at Sinai.
In fact it was a voice uttered from the midst of the tempest that was so terrible that verse 20 of Hebrews mentions
(“they could not endure that which was commanded or said”) . . .
What was it about the sights and sounds that frightened them – that frightens us when we experience such things?
It was the sights and sounds of death, annihilation, destruction – utterly terrifying is what the writer is trying to remind his reader about, adding:
And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.
More pictures of death. The point is under the law death reigns.
In every way imaginable. Death to liberty, death to spirit, death to life, death to choice, death to mercy, death to patience, death to all things.
“Dark, smokey, firey, animals being slaughtered” death.
Romans 7:5 said it well:
“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”
The only way to remove the motions of sin in our flesh is to remove the element of Law written in stone – this occured at the cross.
Now the law is written on our hearts and minds and is guided by love – a very different type and kind of law that has a very different type and kind of effect on human life.
In chapter 8 of Romans Paul writes:
“For the law of the “Spirit of life” in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of “sin and death.”
Perhaps 1st Corinthians 15:56 says it best:
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
With the strength of sin being the law, the presence of the law and all that it represents is utterly terrifying.
It’s smoke and fire and loud trumpets and thundering voices from heaven booming into the darkest caverns of our make-up.
For the COI hearing the voice of God was too much for them – it shook them to the core and they assumed they would die if it kept up.
In fact we even read in Exodus 20:19 that the people said unto Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
The writer adds in verse 21
21 . . . “so terrible was “the sight,” that Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake.”
In my opinion the writer was trying to emphasize the fact that if Moses feared and quaked in such a situation it must have been frightful.
The interesting thing is this line is not recorded (or should I say it is not associated) with Moses and this event found in Exodus 19.
Now, in Deuteronomy 9:19, Moses does
say of himself, after he had come down from the mountain, and had broken the two tables of stone that were in his hand, that he was afraid of the anger of the Lord on account of the sin of the people.
It could be the writer took this fear Moses spoke about and assigned it to the situation of Moses going up to the mount to receive the Law in the first place.
But it is clear that those words were spoken at a very different place from the one which is being referred to here.
The whole context of the situation the writer could have pulled from was after the Law was given and when Moses had descended from the mount and found the COI had made an idol of a golden calf.
So we could respond in a couple ways to this:
We could say that because Moses did fear God’s reaction to the people making the Golden calf that the writer could tie such fear to what happened when He was given the Law.
It would not be the first time this happened in the construction of the New Testament. In fact a number of the Testament writers use Old Testament references to make points that are NOT the points being made in the context of the Old Testament setting.
I don’t find this upsetting but quite typical.
The other thing we could consider is there is information about what happened at Sinai that we just aren’t privy too in the biblical account which the writer of Hebrews was.
Maybe there were traditions passed down by the Jews that surrounded Sinai that are true but just not included in scripture.
I can accept this readily.
The point being – the writer says that Moses actually said, “I fear and quake,” and we don’t have any evidence of this quote.
I mean, the quote is reasonable – who wouldn’t exceedingly fear and quake amidst such a setting. But there is not a written support of this statement anywhere.
So now the writer addresses the believers of his audience who, having been Jews now converted.
So he’s reminded them of all their forefathers faced and experienced at Sinai but now gives them the situation of being recipients of the Gospel of Grace.
The comparison is astounding – especially when he details eleven benefits of being a participant in this dispensation of God’s grace.
Using the crystal candy room example, the children are now allowed to walk in freely, touch and taste as led, and to learn consideration of others who are with them . . . out of love.
The terrors of the law have been replaced by membership in a community and participation in a gathering of blessed circumstances.
SO where they, (under the Law) experienced terror (as He has detailed) He says at verse 22) . . .
22 But ye are (and he delivers 11 special promises) BUT YE ARE . . .
“come unto mount Sion,”
and unto “the city of the living God,”
ALSO known as “the heavenly Jerusalem,”
and to “an innumerable company of angels,”
“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,”
And “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,”
and “to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
Eleven amazing statements that the writer associates and reminds believers they are beneficiaries of as faithful believers in the King.
Let’s break them down.
“But YE are . . .”
Who are the “ye”?
Christians – all who are under the new dispensation – them, you and me.
YE.
Now I want to point something out here that is utterly vital to the whole point of the Bible, the Nation of Israel, the law written in stone, Israel itself, Jerusalem itself, Zion, etc. etc. etc.
Take it for what it’s worth and I say this because very few people I know who I share this with really grasp it or care to grasp it.
Instead they choose to believe that the Bible was somehow literally written to them and that what we read in it physically ought to apply to us today.
First of all I don’t know where this idea comes from or how it is justified in Churches today.
Certainly the Bible is applicable TO US, but it was NOT written to us nor does it speak to us in the details of physical Christian living.
In other words the Old Testament parameters (especially those found in Leviticus, etc) have no bearing physically on the New Testament church and neither do the physical approaches implemented in the early church have application to believers today.
I would strongly suggest that all the biblical events – everything contained in this book – was completed physically over the course of the history of this book, and are now thriving and present in individual and collected believers spiritually.
Now, I have long maintained this but when challenged with proof from the scripture that this is the case all I have been able to say is, “It’s there but its discovered as the grand panoply of scripture unfolds.”
Our text in Hebrews today, however, has given me some supportive proofs. It has also opened my mind up to seeing other supports that were not so obvious to me in the past.
We note that the writer has told them that everything of the Old Testament was touchable and discerned by the human senses –
The Mount, fire that burned, darkness, smoke, trumpet noise and the voice of God.
We’ve talked about how the physical elements of the law have been nailed to the cross – all the covenants, the rules written in stone, the dietary rules and the outward observances.
We’ve not noted what the New Covenant contains – eleven items. And what are they? The writer here says that by comparison believers now . . .
BUT YE ARE . . .
“come unto mount Sion,” (which is not a physical approach)
and unto “the city of the living God,” (again, which is not physical but spiritual)
ALSO known as “the heavenly Jerusalem,” (as opposed to the physical Jerusalem located in Israel and continues to get physical attention to this very day)
and to “an innumerable company of angels,” (which, again are not physical)
“To the general assembly” (this relates to the angels and not he next line)
and “church of the firstborn,” (spiritual and spiritually known)
which are “written in heaven,” (not on earth and on genealogical roles)
and “to God the Judge of all,” (who is in heaven and abides with us spiritually)
and “to the spirits of just men made perfect,” (the spirits of Just men – not to the company of their flesh)
And “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,” (who has ascended into heaven and oversees His spiritual kingdom from there)
and “to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” (which I will explain later).
In other words EVERYTHING that was part of the Old Covenant and was fulfilled or met in the New is now lived out in an expectation of the SPIRITUAL in believers lives.
The greatest proof of this lies in the physical arrival and person of the Man Jesus Christ.
The Nation of Israel, abiding under a physical law was promised a real physical Messiah.
He came. Born of a woman, ate and drank. Suffered. Died. Resurrected. Ascended. Returned –and upon His return He wrapped the whole of the physical content and application of this book up.
All of the physical relevance is complete by the physical messiah responding to the physical economy of the Old and New Testament.
But note. What did the Messiah come to do according to John the Baptist. Baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Both exist and come from the heavenlies and operate therefrom.
In this very fact we have the Physical Messiah sending His successor into the World – the Holy Spirit, who has been working (and will continue to work) on bringing souls to Him in and through His power and persuasion.
Appeals to God through physical applications, or physical empires, or physical rites, rituals, or conformities is laughable.
He is known, He is worshipped, He leads and guides and operates in things that ARE NOT of this world – all justifications aside.
The only physical reason I can justify for believers to gather is to fellowship (but that can happen anywhere anytime and without any leadership but the Holy Spirit) and to hear the word taught.
Even missionary work need not be corporately directed or dictated – it’s a work of the Holy Spirit. It needs no organization from Man – God is organizing it.
Literally, it seems that all of our denominational and non-denominational efforts to “do the work of God” have gone contrary to what the writer of Hebrews says believers become apart of when they abandon “Mountains that can be touched and fires that can burn.”
If organized physical churches over the course of the centuries have done anything beneficial it has been that they have reached out to share the Gospel, have helped the poor, and have taught (to some extent) the word of God.
But compared to what could have been? Compared to what they have added to their focus? Compared to the physical institutions that they have allowed themselves to be, I can’t help but think God has had to do more clearing away and cleaning up after human efforts than anything else.
So what does this mean? What am I saying?
I am saying that in the face of the fact that in the New Covenant God writes His laws on the minds and hearts of believers, and that the physical church was erased since Pentecost until today, that we have an opportunity to shift away from what church has been and meant – institutional orders of physical mandate like
Mormonism
Catholicism
Lutheranism
Prebyterianism
Methodism
Etc., etc-ISM
Unnecessary – we are a spiritual body. We are approaching a city in heaven. We are informed and taught of God by His Spirit not by Man and His letters.
Let encourage individuals to truly live and thrive and walk by this spirit in a completely subjective relationship with Christ the King instead of through failing man-bundles called church or religion.
(Long beat)
Back to Hebrews, and to context, the writer here was warning the believers (then) that being the beneficiaries of the blessed new covenant came with a stark realization.
He makes the realization plain in the verse after detailing all the benefits of being Christian by saying something really interesting in verse 25 and which takes us back to our teaching last week.
After expressing all the benefits of being a Christian as compared to being under the Law the writer says:
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh (meaning from heaven). For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth (meaning Moses), much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven (meaning Christ):”
Of course the writer of Hebrews was speaking to physical believers in the early church who were hanging on for dear life to His eminent return.
How would these instructions apply to us today spiritually?
I don’t know. But I’m certain there is application. His blood is just as precious and powerful to believers today as it was in 70 AD and if people could walk from faith then (and experience punishment – which included death in the fires at Jerusalem) they can surely walk from faith today and experience what seems like would be the second death (located in the Lake of Fire).
So let me wrap this comparison up before we adjourn.
To the people under the Old Covenant the writer says that they went to “Mount Sinai” but to the Christians he says “we (or they) come to Mount Zion.”
Mount Zion is literally on a southern hill in Jerusalem, on which a part of the city was built.
David made it his residence and soon Mount Zion be came to be associated with the whole vicinity.
I believe the writer speaks of spiritual Zion believers come to and not Mount Zion where David built His home.
Of course Jerusalem was the center of religion in the land – the place where the temple stood and where the worship of God was celebrated.
Of course it too was physically destroyed but the writer, in anticipation of that physical destruction says that we come to
“the City of the Living God, the “Heavenly Jerusalem.”
Heaven, where God and His angels dwell is not infrequently represented as a magnificent city and is the final destination of all who believe.
The New Jerusalem is part and parcel of this imagery and it is always spiritually based with scripture repeatedly reminding us that this Jerusalem is on high.
Again, I can’t reiterate enough the end of the physical economy.
The writer adds that believers join or are added to “An innumerable company of angels.” In the Greek “to myriads [or ten thousands] of angels in an assembly or joyful convocation.”
Then the writer adds
(Verse 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,
The word rendered “general assembly,” — panhguriv—is only found here and almost every scholar agrees (due to the Greek construction) that it refers to the angels mentioned in verse 22 and NOT to the “church of the firstborn” mentioned in verse 23.
As to the title Church of the firstborn we will pick up here next week.
