The Bible is full of contrasts – the broad road and the narrow road, the first Adam and the second Adam, eternal death and eternal life, goats and sheep, old and new, to name just a few. In the Wednesday homegroup we began this week to study the contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion in Hebrews 12.
In the children’s talk last Sunday the awesome nature of the Israelites’ experience at Mount Sinai was explained. This was the occasion when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law, and the whole scene was terrifying. Very clear limits were placed around the base of the mountain which everyone approached – but daren’t go any further – when the trumpet blasted. Only Moses was invited to go up the mountain to meet God.
Turning to the ‘mountain’ to which we are now invited, Mount Zion, the writer of Hebrews starts to compare this with Mount Sinai with that wonderful Biblical word “But” (12v22)! The contrasts are indeed glorious – we are able not only to “come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” but to God Himself and “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant” (12v22-24). The picture is of joyful access and welcome, rather than fearful exclusion and terror.
It’s not that the old covenant and Mount Sinai were ‘bad’ but that they pointed forward to something – indeed Someone – “better for us” (11v40). “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (4v16).
Peace and Grace