“You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered back under God’s command: ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.’ Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, ‘I am terrified and trembling.’
“No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.”
I had to read this passage several times to make sense of it, as I found it very confusing. What is the point of the author talking about a physical mountain and then Mount Zion? What is all that? The first thing I remembered was the way in which the author of Hebrews has been using the well-known history of Israel to explain Jesus as the Messiah. There is a compare/contrast process between what God has done and what he is going to do.
In that light, I thought of Revelation 21, where the apostle John shares a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. That book was written right around the same time as Hebrews, and since we don’t the author or authors of Hebrews we can’t say whether they had any knowledge of that vision. It’s possible God revealed a similar vision to each of these authors to paint a picture of how access to God in the new heaven (Mount Zion) will be very different than Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai.
God has had a long history with his chosen people. It’s written in the Old Testament and it’s been explored here in Hebrews. The Jewish people have heard countless stories of God’s fierce power that at times was scary. Moses was an imperfect mediator between God and the people. Jesus is the perfect mediator of this new covenant. Because of Jesus, God isn’t scary at all. He seeks peace with you, he wants to forgive you. He’s prepared a new Promised Land for all who come to him.