Daily Thought

This exhortation comes at the end of a passage which one might call ‘The Tale of Two Mountains’. One is Mt. Sinai, which represents the law, and the passage looks back to its being given, Exod. 19. 16ff. There are seven things said of it. It was a mount that was death to touch, Heb. 12. 20. It burned with fire, Deut. 4. 11; 5. 4, 5. There was blackness and darkness and tempest. There was the trumpet of awful warning and alarm. There was that which was most human, the articulate voice, which filled the hearers with overwhelming dread. The mountain is lost in fire and smoke. It becomes a manifestation of terrible divine majesty. The effect upon Israel was terror, the awestruck fear which is afraid to look, and even to listen. The fear was felt by Moses himself, v. 21. What is represented here is the majesty of God above us as creatures, and the wrath of God against us as sinners. It expresses the state of darkness, of distance, of alienation from God and His inapproachability.

Then there is in contrast Mt. Zion. Seven things are said of it also. It is the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. God is its maker and builder and light. There are myriads of angels, cp. 1. 14, all God’s hosts that excel in strength and do His commandments and extol the worth of His Son, Rev. 5. 11, 12. There is the general assembly and church of the firstborn ones, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, children and heirs of God, the church of God, firstborn by divine grace, among whom Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. There is God, the Judge of all, to whom we come unafraid, because Another has borne our judgement. There are the spirits of just men made perfect, Old Testament saints, as yet disembodied and awaiting the resurrection, God’s purposes being otherwise complete for them. There is Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, cp. Luke 22. 19, 20; Heb. 8. 6ff.; 10. 16, 17. Finally, there is the blood of sprinkling, Jesus’ blood, speaking of pardon, not vengeance as did Abel’s. ‘The heaven-descended God gave the law on Sinai. The heaven-ascended Son declares glad tidings from His throne of glory. Jesus speaking from heaven is God’s most perfect and loving, as well as His ultimate message’ ADOLPH SAPHIR.