NOTES for Heb 12:18-29
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, |
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: |
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: |
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) |
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, |
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, |
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. |
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: |
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. |
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. |
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: |
29 For our God is a consuming fire. |
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Speaking about the history of the covenant, the author of the letter uses the traditional Jewish correlation of the revelation received at Sinai, where the first covenant with God in the history of the Jewish people was concluded, with the messianic revelation traditionally connected with Zion and with the promises given to David (vv. 18-24). At the same time, not surprisingly, he speaks of the promises given by God as promises already fulfilled, having in view above all the heavenly Jerusalem mentioned in the book of Isaiah (vv. 22-24; cf. Isa. 60). In this way the author of the letter brings new shades of meaning into the traditional idea: for him the comparison of Sinai with Zion becomes a comparison of the old, Sinaitic covenant with the new, messianic covenant. And for him the messianic covenant is obviously inseparable from the Kingdom, whose triumph he already sees not in the future but in the present (vv. 25-29).
Apparently, for many of his contemporaries and fellow believers, the catastrophe of A.D. 70 became a sign that the triumph of the Kingdom was being postponed, and postponed for a long time, that some failure had occurred in the fulfillment of God's plans, so that now, for a time, the Kingdom and all the plans, hopes, and works connected with it could, if not be forgotten, then at least be postponed indefinitely. But the author of the letter, remaining a faithful disciple of the apostle Paul, emphasizes that God's plan is being carried out in its own course, that the catastrophe of A.D. 70 does not mean God has abandoned all His designs, and that the Kingdom is still just as near as in the days of the Savior's earthly ministry, when He Himself bore witness to its nearness.
At first glance all this seems self-evident, at least self-evident for a Christian, but after the shock experienced in A.D. 70 by both the Synagogue and the Church, even the most obvious things ceased for a time to seem obvious. And the author of the letter never tires of reminding his readers of the main thing that forms the foundation of Christian life: the Kingdom, whose history continues despite any disasters, even the most terrible, that happen in our world, a world being transfigured but not yet transfigured, and therefore not free from evil.
Readings for 18 October 2025
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