Before and After
Hebrews 12:18-24
I remember as a college student trying to understand the problem of human motivation. What was it that motivated people to do any sort of action? I was especially interested in why reasonable people would argue or fight, when an "objective" observer might see that peaceful means were a far better end to the goal that each individual might want. I remember shaking my head and wondering "why can't people just choose to do the right thing?"
Well, it's been a few years since then, and I've had a lot more life experience, and understand something more about human nature, about sin, and especially about desire. One work that helped me put it together was Jonathan Edwards Treatise on Religious Affections, in which, far in anticipation of any modern psychology, he discusses how it is what we truly love that motivates how we act. These loves are hardly ever rational, but are usually acquired at what we would call the subconscious level, and our rational minds usually busy themselves with making up rationalizations to defend these loves. They indeed control our actions, and especially our "gut" reactions.
The Biblical writers understood this intuitively without the need for any psychobabble to talk about it. In Proverbs, it tells us [4:23] "Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life." In biblical language the heart is the seat of affection, emotion, and motivation.
Now, part of being a Christian is seeing our affections, emotions and motivations completely turned around. What is it that makes Christians different from the multitudes of non-Christians around them? The fact that they have been given a new heart, that we have the mind of Christ, that the imperishable seed of the word of God has been implanted in us.
Do we want to live like Christians? Do we want to make a difference in the world? Do we desire to see our church having a real impact on the society around us?
It's all about motivation. It's all about seeing ourselves as we really are in Christ, and living consistently with that vision.
Today's passage goes a long way toward showing us who we really are, giving us the absolute foundation which we need for true motivation, that we may be the individuals God calls to be, that we may be the church God designs us to be. This is a before and after picture. It is designed to show us how tremendously superior is our relationship to Christ, how far beyond anything else is our standing in the body of Christ, and how excellent is the church of which we are members, despite what may be outward appearances.
This entire passage depends on a contrast, the contrast between the experience of the church of the OT at Mt. Sinai, and the experience of the church in the NT in relationship to our covenant mediator, Christ himself.
There seems to be a rather common idea that if we could see some of the same events that the saints of old experienced, that if we could experience that which they experienced, that our faith would be immeasurably strengthened. However, when we read of the actual spiritual effects of these experiences on the ancients, of their responses and reactions, we perhaps should call that idea into question.
Mt. Sinai, while not actually named in this passage, is quite obviously in view in the first three verses. In many ways, this could be considered one of the high points in the spiritual experience of the OT church. Here, in a way in which no one could argue, God reveals himself visibly and speaks his word audibly. The reaction of the people? One of abject fear. Not simply awe or profound respect, but terror. They don't want to have anything to do with this God. This is often the case in many people's experience. God is fine as long as he is distant, as long as he is not actually involved in real life. A god who is abstract, a god who is a theological concept, is a very nice possession, enabling a person to believe in God in some sense, but not to have to change to any great degree. But when one has a real encounter with God, that is an altogether different story! Change and disorder (from our perspective) come on a larger than life scale. Here, even Moses is quoted as saying "I am afraid and trembling." If Moses, who already had spoken with God, who had seen the burning bush, who had faced the angel of the Lord attempting to slay him for failure of his covenant duty, was so afraid that he was "quaking in his sandals," then how much more for the Israelites, to whom God was distant indeed? And so they begged Moses to be their intermediary.
Indeed, the very phenomena accompanying the Lord's presence at Sinai seems designed to strengthen these ideas of terror, and the distance between God and man. What we see described here are phenomena that often accompany the Lord as he manifests himself. Theologians call these manifestations theophanies, and actually divide them up into categories. When accompanied primarily by natural phenomena they are called "nature" theophonies. When God appears in angelic or human form, these are called "humaniform" theophanies. At Sinai, God did not appear in any kind of human form, but there was plenty of natural phenomena to herald his presence.
The mountain is described as burning with fire. Have you ever seen all or part of a mountain consumed with fire? We did, on one of our trips through Montana, a trip slowed as we attempted to dodge the various wildlife fleeing the flames. There is power in that kind of fire, and we see this power demonstrated when we watch how the firefighters, despite all their 21st century technology, have to fight so hard even to slow such a blaze down. One does not get close to such an inferno, but runs the other way! So fire is a fitting symbol for God in his holiness and power. In Scripture, fire represents both the judgment of God and the cleansing power of the Spirit (which is itself a an application of judgment on sin). The Israelites faced the mountain ablaze with the glory of God, and wanted nothing to do with such dangerous power.
Sinai was further encircled with "blackness and darkness," which emphasizes the mystery and incomprehensibility of God. Again, nobody really likes to drive into the darkness. We like to be able to see where we are going, but here, the imagery seems to be that of a particularly powerful storm (the word for "tempest" or "hurricane" is associated with the darkness). If you have ever been on a plane flying into a thunderhead, I think you'll get an idea of the picture here. As the plane approaches, all one can see is a large, black cloud, with streaks of lightning running through it. In the cloud there is no visibility, and powerful drafts pull at the plane and attempt to send it spiraling groundward, not to mention the crackle of electricity and the driving rain or even hail. So again the people realized that on their own they could never approach Yahweh. He was a dangerous, mysterious God to them. They did not, and as far as they knew, really could not know him, and so they feared the awesome power and holiness that they saw displayed.
They further heard the sound of a trumpet and a voice of words. I am not sure what these sounded like, but if they are comparable to the other phenomena, then they certainly were just as fearsome. The trumpet was certainly no "Trumpet Voluntaire" consisting of some nice melody, but rather was analogous to the trumpets which would have been used to announce the coming of a great king. In those days, when a king or royal person approached, the commoner felt fear. In some cultures, it was the death penalty to look upon such a person. So the trumpets are essentially saying, "protect yourself, the king is coming."
Indeed, the voice of the Lord was too much for them. They faced an awesome, incomprehensible God who spoke in their hearing (and I have a feeling that no one had any problem whatsoever hearing what the voice said). They no longer want to hear it, if ever they did; instead they simply want Moses to listen and tell them what was said.
In the Exodus account itself, the clear impression is given that despite all this fear inducing phenomena, some of the people at least might have been tempted to sally forth and see God for themselves. I am reminded of people who try to get two feet away from dangerous animals to take a picture, or who want to peer over the edge of a volcano to get a really good view. God warns Moses strictly to forbid the people to do this. If anybody comes uninvited into his presence, he will "break out against them." The background of that phrase is apparently that of a plague, and clearly teaches that God will judge and destroy them for doing so.
And so in Exodus 19 the people are given three distinct pictures to remind them of the holiness of God, and, by implication, their own unworthiness to approach him. They are instructed to wash themselves (to symbolize ritual purity). They are instructed to avoid sexual relationship with their wives (such relationship was itself considered holy, and, being a lesser holiness, would encroach on the absolute holiness of meeting with God so directly). Lastly, they are told not to touch the mountain, or they will be stoned or shot with arrows. Even one of their animals would be liable to that penalty. Why? Because so holy is the mountain due to God's presence, that it separates anyone touching it from their impurity, making them the sole possession of God, and the only way to apply that separation is through death itself.
Such was the spiritual experience of the children of Israel. Now, one of the major themes of the book of Hebrews, actually the major theme, is that the New Covenant era in which we live is vastly superior to the Old Covenant era of the Israelites. The Israelites, of course, had great spiritual advantage, but that advantage, compared to the fullness that we find in Christ, seems to be disadvantage by comparison.
What do I mean? Well, the writer to the Hebrews starts vs. 22 with the word a)lla/, "but." Now, there are several words in Greek which may be so translated (they are called "adversatives" grammatically because they set up a contrast). This is one of the strongest ways to set up such a contrast. By using this single word, the author is saying "This is simply not the case with regard to you." Things are radically different for the NT believer, who has privileges and benefits in his relationship with Christ that were almost unimaginable to the OT saint. But let's look at the writer's actually imagery here—he says it far better than any summary of mine.
You see, we have not come to Sinai but we have come to Zion, even the city of the living God, Jerusalem. In the later OT, Zion, originally the hill on which sat the Jebusite city captured by David, became the entire area on which Jerusalem was built. It became symbolic of God's favor on his people. In Jerusalem was found the temple, where God had specifically designated that he was to be worshiped. The presence of God, the blessing of God, if one wished to find it, one went to Zion. Even in OT times, Zion meant that God had made himself accessible to the people through various intermediaries. In the prophets, Zion becomes a symbol of the even greater work that God will do when Messiah comes.
And the NT believer is in that city now! He is not in the physical city (obviously)—that's just a symbol, but the spiritual reality that Zion symbolized, which was the blessing of God's presence. Unashamed and unbowed, the NT believer may come into God's holy city, and fear no judgment.
Furthermore, we have company in this city! There are fellow citizens. The angels are there, an innumerable number. In Scripture, have you ever noticed that when people see an angel, they fall down in fear? Angels in the Bible are not renaissance cherubs with chubby red cheeks, but beings of awesome power who reflect the glory and holiness of God. And yet, the NT saint gets to walk among them as though he actually belongs in their company (which, in fact, he does).
He also finds himself with the "general assembly and church of the firstborn" and "the spirits of just men made perfect." Now, some of the commentaries go to great length to make distinctions here, trying to figure out just who these terms refer to, and some make better, some worse, suggestions. But as Phillip E. Hughes pointed out in his commentary, if you add them all up, they refer to all who have been found worthy by the grace of God to enter into the heavenly rest, both OT believers who were looking forward to Christ's coming and NT believers who have fallen asleep in the Lord. We may not yet literally be able to see them, but we are nonetheless fellow-citizens and heirs with them in the Kingdom of God.
In short, we are true citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, and we belong there as assuredly as do the angels and saints of all time. Although the writer to the Hebrews does not directly make the connection here, Paul, in several passages, reveals that there is a sense in which we ourselves, the church, are the heavenly Jerusalem, Zion, the temple of God, for God's presence is in and with us through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Paul tends to reverse the imagery; we are in heaven now because heaven is present in us through the work of the Spirit.
But even more importantly, we come into the presence of God himself. If at Sinai the Israelite would break into the mountain, then God himself would break out against him, and stones and arrows would find him. He would face not the mercy seat, but the judgment bench of the terrible and awesome God whom he was being taught to fear. Therefore he was forbidden to approach God. Not so the NT believer! We come directly into God's presence, God who is judge of all, and we do not in any way fear his judgment, but we come boldly into his presence (although the context here and other Scriptures remind us that boldness does not equal casualness or lack of awe and respect).
You see, we fear God as well, but that fear is steeped with love because of the provision God has made on our behalf. We get the mercy seat, the throne of grace, not the judgment bench. The people of Israel clamored for Moses as their mediator, and they got him, but Moses' mediation could only temporarily stay the hand of God. We get as our mediator, the mediator of a new and better covenant, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is our ram caught in the thicket, Jesus is our Passover lamb, enabling us to celebrate the feast, Jesus is the one who took the stones and arrows on our behalf so that Mt. Sinai becomes for us Mt. Zion. The blood of Abel spoke only as a witness to the violence of murder, to the death to which even a righteous man is subject, but the blood of Christ cleanses all whom it touches and brings them new life indeed.
We have it so much better than the OT saint that it is actually quite hard to believe it. In fact, I think in practice many modern Christians do not believe it, or at least we act like we don't believe it, which is practically the same thing as not believing it altogether. The tremendous spiritual advantage that we own (or rather, by which we are owned) doesn't seem to do us any good, for it seems to make no impact on our lives.
The writer to the Hebrews seems to think that it should make a tremendous impact on our lives, that these truths of who we are should enable us to make the difference in our personal lives and in the life of the church in the world.
Notice that our text starts with the word "for." This means he is giving the reason or ground for a claim that he is making prior to our passage. What is that claim? Well, it's a lifestyle claim rooted in our community life in the church. Beginning in verse 12 of this chapter, we are to strengthen the weak among us, make straight paths for our feet, to pursue peace and holiness, and to keep any root of bitterness from springing up. Why are we to have this lifestyle? Simply because we have it so good in Christ. The foundation for our proper relationships in the body of Christ is our right relationship with the head of that body, Christ, so beautifully expressed in the passage we have just examined.
The author does not leave it there, either. He goes on, in 12:25 through 13:17, to make specific application to his readers. Now, reading through this portion and discussing it would be another sermon or even a series of sermons, but what strikes me is the very mundane nature of some of these instructions. These heavenly realities are to have very real-world, today sorts of applications. What we need to realize is that we can't have those applications apart from the truths expressed in 12:18-24. That is one thing that bugs me about Public Television, and especially their children's programming. This programming tries to produce morally good, ethically (and politically) correct little members of society, but they don't realize that the task is impossible without Christ. One cannot have Christian ethics unless one first has Christ!
Let's just briefly, in closing, consider some of these applications. What kind of difference do these truths make?
- We listen to God. In vss. 25-29, the author reminds us that even in the context of grace and freedom to approach God, that this is no excuse to treat God lightly, but motivation to obey him even more sincerely. He is still a consuming fire, and if we spurn his grace, how much greater will our judgment be?
- Let brotherly love continue.
- Treat strangers and prisoners kindly.
- Be pure in marriage.
- Don't get greedy.
- Respect authority, particularly in the church.
- Praise God and give him thanks.
Very simple exhortations, yet they are so simple that they are impossible unless we are true citizens of Zion. Even now, brothers and sisters, at this very moment, we worship together with in the presence of God and Christ, together with the general assembly of the firstborn and the spirits of just men made perfect. Our feet right now are on the streets paved with gold, and we look toward the center of the city wherein shines not our star the sun, but the Son of God himself. Let us not turn our eyes away or walk outside those walls, but let us dwell there as God has called us to do.
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