Hebrews 12:21-24
The Message
An Unshakable Kingdom
18-21 Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop. When they heard the words—“If an animal touches the Mountain, it’s as good as dead”—they were afraid to move. Even Moses was terrified.
22-24 No, that’s not your experience at all. You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.
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Hebrews 12:21-23
New International Version
21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”[a](A)
22 But you have come to Mount Zion,(B) to the city(C) of the living God,(D) the heavenly Jerusalem.(E) You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn,(F) whose names are written in heaven.(G) You have come to God, the Judge of all,(H) to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,(I)
Footnotes
- Hebrews 12:21 See Deut. 9:19.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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