Assembly of the Firstborn

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”  Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” Hebrews 12:18-21

“For”- because, since we are looking unto Jesus rather than men as our example, and because our position is now and forever IN CHRIST, we are not to govern ourselves by the old covenant of legalistic rules and rituals.

Verses 18-21 describe the circumstances of Israel in Exodus 19. Israel had just been miraculously freed from slavery in Egypt and were led by the Lord into the wilderness of Sinai, to meet with Him there. He gave detailed instructions to Moses for the format of this meeting. These were a people who, though they belonged to God, had no real understanding of His power and majesty. This they had to learn through the demonstration of fire on the mountain. It was a terrifying experience for them. They were so frightened by that first show of might that they begged Moses to prevent God from speaking with them again.

Our first need when entering into eternal life is to learn Who and What our God is. We in the Church age don’t have to meet His fiery majesty with fear and trembling, but we do need to be educated, in the infancy of our faith, about His divine essence. Essence: (noun) the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features. Essence is a singular word which indicates the plural characteristics of our almighty creator and savior. We picture God’s essence as a box or being which contains various constant traits describing Him. It helps to memorize the ten characteristics in a particular order. God is: 1- Sovereignty (supreme ruler of the universe) 2-Absolute Righteousness (+R, total goodness, no shades of gray) 3-Absolute Justice (always totally fair. Cannot be unfair. His decisions are always the right ones for any given person or situation) 4-Love (agape. Pure, perfect, unconditional love from the source of His being. Because of Who He is, not because of who we are. God is not In Love with us, He just IS Love and that is His expression toward us) 5-Eternal Life (never had a beginning. Will never have an end) 6-Omniscient (all knowing. Knows the end from the beginning. There is nothing that God does not know) 7-Omnipotent (all power. The power source of all existence) 8-Omnipresent (in all places at all times. There is nowhere to be that He is not) 9-Veracity (perfect truth. God’s word is always absolutely true. God cannot lie) 10-Immutable (unchanging. God is the same now as He has been forever and will always be. I like to place this characteristic last, because to me it sums up the essence list of God’s characteristics that will never, ever change). God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are three personalities of God, all with the same essence (God is One). These are things we need to file in our souls and never lose sight of in life. This is the basis of our security in Christ.

God’s absolute power and sovereignty had to be demonstrated to the baby believers who had just come out of slavery. This was efficiently done by the fiery presence of God on Mt. Sinai. It made quite an impression.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24

Mount Zion represents the new covenant of grace. Eternal life IN CHRIST. We receive this life by believing in His perfect work of atonement for us on the cross. Zion is the highest peak in Jerusalem, and symbolizes our eternal position as members of the Body of Christ (the firstborn). All that He is (His essence), we become IN HIM, because of what He accomplished for us on that cross. He is the mediator of the new covenant. His blood, shed for us is Better Than the blood of the animal sacrifices, which foreshadowed Jesus’ supreme sacrifice. This sacrifice applies once, for all time, for all who will believe and receive it. That is cause for great human and angelic celebration.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,  for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:25-29

We, in our age of grace, do not have to assemble, trembling in fear, before the burning mountain to receive God’s instruction. Praise God, we have His instruction in writing for all time! There is no greater Word than what God has recorded in His Holy Bible for us to learn and keep and teach. It is the Mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16). God the Son, Himself, in His confrontation with Satan in the desert, repeatedly used the WRITTEN Word to counter the temptations of the evil one. Jesus made an issue of it. That is our example. Not emotional “feelings” or historical orators or positive thinking. Not clever debate. IT IS WRITTEN! Learn God’s Word and use it! God’s Word is our defense and our offense in all circumstances of life.

We are warned not to ignore this perfect Word of Truth. It is the voice of God, just as the trumpetings and thunderings on the mountain were His voice. This present voice doesn’t appear briefly and then go away. This voice-The Bible-is with us in writing and in our souls as we absorb its truths. We must honor this voice with our whole being, as the beacon of our daily lives. This Word in our souls cannot be removed. Our position IN CHRIST cannot be eliminated. We will see that proven when God again demonstrates His Sovereignty, Justice and Omnipotence by the annihilation of all material existence.

Because of His Righteousness, Love, Eternal Life, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Veracity and Immutability, what we have IN HIM cannot be shaken or destroyed, though all else will be.....

By the consuming fire Who is our God.