Font Size
Hebrews 12:16-18
New Catholic Bible
Hebrews 12:16-18
New Catholic Bible
16 Do not be like Esau, an immoral and worldly-minded person who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he sought to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought it with tears, he found no possibility for repentance.
18 Listen to the One Who Is Speaking.[a] You have not come to something that can be touched: a blazing fire, or complete darkness, or gloom, or a storm,
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Hebrews 12:18 The author alludes to the Covenant of Sinai, which was a fascinating and terrifying spectacle in the history of Israel (see Ex 19–20; Deut 4:11; 9:19). The New Covenant is a celebration of peace and festivity. Israel’s way of life was only a figure for the conduct of the Church. Once people are gripped by the Covenant of grace, they cannot turn back toward an insufficient religion of yesteryear—that would be to show disdain for God. The Lord is “a consuming fire”: the image evokes all at once his holiness, his demands, his judgment to the very depths of a being, and his hold that burns one’s existence.
