Mt Sinai verses Mt. Zion
As Israel walked away from the Red Sea into the wilderness, the Israelites did not know exactly what to expect. The first few months of their journey were filled with turmoil. The Israelites complained about lacking food and water. Then, when God miraculously provided fresh water and rained bread (manna) from heaven, they complained about the variety of their diet. At one point they were so dissident that they wanted Moses dead. But everything changed—at least for a time—when they approached Mount Sinai.
At long last, the people of Israel arrived at the very spot where God appeared to Moses in a burning bush a year or so before. When Israel arrived at the base of Mount Sinai, they discovered that God had chosen this place to reveal Himself to His people and enter into a covenant with them. Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, and God immediately explained His intentions for Israel.
The LORD called to him Moses out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus. 19:3–6)
Here God defined Israel. First of all, they were the people whom God had miraculously rescued from slavery. It would be impossible for the people to define themselves without making reference to God’s act of redemption in their exodus. But this was not all. God had “brought them to Himself.” They were now God’s “treasured possession.” God was using this moment at Mount Sinai to identify Himself to Israel and to tell them about their new identity. God was doing something unique here.
The people who had been graciously redeemed out of bondage in Egypt, based on God’s covenant faithfulness to Abraham (see Ex. 2:24; 3:6; 6:5) were entering, formally, into a national, covenantal relationship with the "God Almighty" El Shaddai “All-powerful One” At Sinai.
They could now rest in the security of being treasured and protected by God! It was also here that God would set the terms for how their relationship would work. Before they could begin this process, however, the people of Israel had to prepare themselves to meet their holy God. (Exodus 19:10-11) Bathing and cleaning their clothes symbolized making a new beginning with the Lord. The picture here is that sin is defilement (Psalm 51:2, 7), and they have to be cleansed before they can truly follow God
The LORD, then says to Moses, You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.” (Exodus. 19:12-13) So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and told them what God said, they must washed their clothes to be ready for the third day.
On the third day, while Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, the mountain was surrounded by smoke, lightning, and thunder and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. The blast of the trumpet sounded long, and became louder and louder, as Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (Exodus 19:16-20)
The Lord tells Moses a second time, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish. The people were not even allowed to touch the base of the mountain lest they be killed. (Exodus 19:22-23)
God’s coming down to Mt. Sinai was accompanied by physical phenomena that demonstrated God’s holiness and power. God appeared to Israel, that day, as the supreme “Holy God.” His presence was marked by darkness and fire and lightning and thunder and an earthquake and the sound of a trumpet and a whirlwind, so that the people became very afraid. (Exodus 20:18-19) They could tolerate the fire, smoke and thunder, but not God's voice. They liked things the way they were before, when Moses brought God's word to them and took their response back to God. This seemed much safer.
So they said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die" Moses explained that God was simply testing them and would not kill them, but they still would not come near. No! They drew back! Perhaps this is one of the saddest times in the Bible. "The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was." (Exodus 20:21)
At this point God's relationship to the people and their relationship to Him were strictly conducted through Moses. Moses took God's word to the people and reported the words of the people back to God. However, smoothly this may have worked, this kind of secondhand relationship fell far short of God's ultimate intention for His people. He desires that his people hear him personally.
Because of his face-to-face relationship Moses had with God, he possessed an uncommon knowledge of the ways of God. The Psalmist wrote, He made known His ways, to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. (Psalm 103:7 NKJV)
So, Mt. Sinai and the covenant of the law emphasized this distance between Israel and God. (Exodus 19:12-13) Paul describes the experience of Moses and the Israelites in the desert at Mt. Sinai when they received the Ten Commandments from God. The apostle Paul reminds his fellow sojourner’s extensively about the superiority of the new covenant and God’s relationship with his people. In Christ they have come to Mount Zion.
Hebrews 12:18-23 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
The people of Israel at Sinai begged not to hear the word! (Exodus 20:19; Hebrews12:19) Yet in that same chapter the apostle Paul extols the church NOT to refuse Him who speaks! Hebrews.12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven.
The people of Israel were to be ready till the third day (Exodus19:11) The church could not be made ready until Jesus was raised on the third day. (Matthew12:40) Israel in the wilderness had to wash their clothes in preparation to meet with God and their receiving of the word in the ten commandments. (Exodus.19:10) May we suggest this is a spiritual reference to the washing and clothing of the church as they were baptized into Christ, and receiving the inspired word of the New testament bread of life? (Matthew 7:24; John 5:24)
To the people at Mt. Sinai, the presence of God was foreboding and terrifying. However in contrast, spiritual Israel needed not be afraid of God because their sins have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ.
To illustrate this, Paul continues the contrast in verse 22: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22–24) They have come to the mountain that can be approached.
The “firstborn” is Jesus Christ (see Revelation 1:5). Therefore, the “church of the firstborn” consists of faithful members of the Christian church. Now to the phrase “the spirits of just men made perfect.” We must recognize that the apostle Peter also used the term “spirits” to refer to people living in the past who were deceased when he wrote his book. (See 1 Peter 3:18–20) “Didn’t Jesus preach to the spirits in prison?” This, combined with the abundance of biblical evidence regarding the spirits/souls in (Sheol) in the Old Testament allows us to draw a conclusion that this text and Hebrews supports the spirits of men. It is the spirit of man that is made perfect in Christ, not our flesh.
Mount Zion is a place of joy and not fear, where angels rejoice. There was a reward for the saved, those who are the firstborn children of God, who have been welcomed by the Judge of the universe. They were not perfect, but they have been made perfect by the blood of Christ. They were not born of blood nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of men, but of the only begotten of the father! (Jn.1:13 & 18) They were to come into a new and everlasting covenant of grace.
Jn. 1:17 (NKJV)“For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Author and evangelist David Green speaks of the New covenant in this regard: “Even in 1 Corinthians 15, where the different-ness of the two bodies is emphasized, "continuity of kind" is implied:
"IT" is sown. "IT" dies. "IT" is raised and changed. That which died and was changed was the same "it." Historic Israel was not replaced with the church. The universal (Jew-gentile) church is Israel transformed. It is the living, spiritual "body" of Israel's Messiah --the full-fillment of all the promises given to the fathers”.
This transformation we would add, is the resurrection of the body of Christ being made perfect in the unity of the faith at the A.D. 70 parousia event! We should at this time point out that in Romans 8:3-9 the term to define the old covenant law is “flesh”, and the term for the new covenant is “Spirit”. When the apostle Paul wrote that those in the flesh could not be pleasing to God, (Rom.8:8) he was certainly not speaking of the physical make up or physical bodily existence of the people in the church in Rome. He actually said the opposite, in that in our physical bodies we can actually be fully pleasing to God which is are reasonable service to God!
Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, (The Greek actualy being:ἁγίαν εὐάρεστον τῷ θεῷ lit. “holy well-pleasing to God” With the Greek word εὐάρεστον being used in both verse one and two!) which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable (εὐάρεστον) and perfect will of God.”
He never intended for his readers to think of the term “flesh” to be a reference to their bodies of clay, but rather to their covenantal existence before God. Paul, as we have taught, preached the glorious light of this ministry of righteousness we call the new covenant. (2 Cor. 4:1). Yes he did of course speak of a ministry in terms of a “body of death” from which he sought deliverance. (Rom. 7:24) Although the apostle Paul calls the law holy, just & good (Rom.7:12) notice that he also calls it a Ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation (2 Cor3:7 &9) This body of death was in fact the body of Moses, whereas eternal life is the body of Christ. Paul went on to say that the condemnation from the body of death found its end in the new law – “the law of the Spirit of life.” (Rom. 8:2) Notice that the whole context is a comparison between the old covenant law in contrast to the new covenant.
Now here is the beauty of the new covenant, Jesus is the new covenant! See Isa.42:6 & 49:8 these scriptures state that God will give Jesus as a covenant to all! So now you're not called just to enter into a new covenant like those of the first century. Your called into Jesus himself. Disbelief or failure to enter into the covenant (Jesus) is death! To put on Christ (Gal.3:27) is synonymous with entering into and putting on, or entering into that covenant and body of Christ!
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (NKJV) 12 “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:27 (NKJV) 27 “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
This reward or resurrection for the church, is the promised rest we have looked at in past studies. Paul certainly as we have studied, no doubt likens it to the Exodus journey of Israel out of Egypt. In Heb.3:6- 4:1. as we have noted in the past, that just as Jesus experienced His exodus and resurrection, the church was likewise to participate in the same fulfilling the unity of the faith of the church realized at the Parousia! The church, the body of Christ, would follow their High Priest into the true spiritual Promised Land – the true rest for the people of God. These are the true Israel of God! (Gal.6:16) This all equated to coming to Mount Zion as opposed to Mount Sinai! They were coming to the Lamb that stood on Mount Zion! (Rev.14:1) It is the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem. (Heb.12:21-24) It’s the New Jerusalem (Rev.21:22-27) It was foretold in Isaiah where the gates of the city would be open to believers forever!
Isa. 60:11 καὶ ἀνοιχθήσονται αἱ πύλαι σου διὰ παντός ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς
LXX And shall be open the gates of you through all day and night
οὐ κλεισθήσονται …
not be locked …
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