Coming Home

The words from the flight attendant always filled me with joy and happiness: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Memphis International Airport.” My job required me to  travel out of town a few times each year. While I was away, I experienced the words first penned in Francis Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody in 1602: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

My heart longed for the familiar and most important things in my life. These included my wife, Betty, and our children. It also included our church, Grace Chapel, which was within walking distance of our house. I enjoyed the frequent times of spiritual fellowship there.

After a week away from all this, the words coming over the intercom cheered me for one reason—I was home.

On another plane (pun intended), my homecoming can illustrate Paul’s words in Heb. 12:18–29. The Hebrews had arrived at a place God had prepared for them. Their long journey was over. They were home.

Paul mentions several characteristics of the Hebrews’ new home. This post will examine the first three. Lord willing, we will look at the others in our next post.

Mount Sion

As he describes the place to which the Hebrews had come, Paul contrasts two mountains—Mount Sinai and Mount Sion. To understand his meaning, we need to consider Israel’s history.

For centuries, the Hebrews had lived in the original place God provided. God had commissioned Moses to rescue Israel from Egyptian bondage and lead them to their place of residence. After leaving Egypt, their first stop was Mount Sinai. This was the frightening “mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire” Paul mentions in Heb. 12:20.

Here, God organized the Hebrews into a theocratic nation. He gave them the law through the ministry of angels (Acts 7:53). Moses received the law and delivered it to the people (John 1:17). The Aaronic (or Levitical) priests began their ministry in the shadows of Mount Sinai (Heb. 7:11).

The twelve tribes of Israel had come to Mount Sinai as a somewhat disorganized group of Abraham’s descendants. They departed as an organized assembly under God’s rule. They had a leadership structure, a judicial system, a civil law code, and a liturgy for worship. God had shaped them into the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38; cp. Exod. 12:6), a holy nation devoted to his glory (Exod. 19:6). That was about fifteen centuries before Paul wrote his letter to the Hebrews.

The Apostle contrasts Mount Sion¹ to which the Hebrews had come through Christ to Mount Sinai. We can appeal to our previous post on typology and say Sinai was the type and Sion the antitype.

The general tenor of the New Testament typology suggests we should think of Mount Sion in more than physical terms. This physical place produced a spiritual reality that corresponds to the physical result of Mount Sinai. Let us support this statement with two examples.

Consider circumcision. Under Moses, this rite was a physical sign of membership in the  covenant community. In Christ, the antitype is a spiritual circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:28; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11). The spiritual operation has replaced the physical.

The same is true regarding birth into God’s family. In the Mosaic Age the birth that mattered regarding covenant membership was physical. One must be able to trace his genealogy to one of the twelve patriarchs. Physical birth is no longer a consideration in the Messianic Age. The only birth that matters in the kingdom of God is the spiritual birth from above (John 3:1f). The spiritual antitype has replaced the physical type.

Based on this pattern, we believe Mount Sion is the place where God constituted his spiritual New Covenant “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). One authority describes the physical location of Mount Sion:

The . . . hill between the Tyropoeon and Kidron valleys is squeezed to a narrow land bridge at its center. The steeply sloping area south of this was called originally Mount Zion or the Ophel hill; the flatter area to its north, where the Dome of the Rock is now located, Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount. ‘Zion’ eventually was used to refer to both areas as well as the city as a whole. A still higher section lies north of the Temple Mount, known as Beth-zatha in the first century and now as the Moslem Quarter. The hill formed between the Hinnom and Tyropoeon valleys is divided by two east-west depressions. The southern one runs along the line of the present Old City wall forming an area to its south now wrongly called Mount Zion.²

Jerusalem was the place God performed the antitypical acts that answer to those of the Exodus under Moses. During the last days of the Mosaic Age (Heb. 1:2), Christ our Passover gave himself as a sacrifice there (1 Cor. 5:7). He freed us from spiritual bondage to sin (Heb. 2:15) like Moses redeemed Israel from physical bondage. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost served as the (inverted) antitype of the giving of the law.³

All these events occurred in or near the physical Mount Sion, but, as we saw above, this term often signifies the entire city of Jerusalem. Isaiah confirms this observation: “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:3). The parallelism of this verse equates the mountain of the Lord, the house of God, Zion and Jerusalem. Each of these terms is sufficient to describe where God performed his saving actions through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The importance of these events lies not in their physical location but in the things they accomplished. The people of God came into the last days of the Mosaic Age in bondage to the law (Gal. 4:1–31). They exited this period a free people in Christ (Gal. 5:1).

At Mount Sion (in Jerusalem), God set his people free from law-bondage. He reorganized the theocracy: Christ replaced both Moses and Aaron. The spiritual church in heavenly places (Eph. 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10) replaced the physical “church in the wilderness.”

God revamped his people’s leadership structures (Phil. 1:1),⁴ judicial system (1 Cor. 5:12; 6:12), civil regulations (Matt. 5–7), and religious life (Acts 20:7).

Mount Sinai was the physical place where God organized Israel after the flesh (1 Cor. 10:18) into “the church in the wilderness.” Mount Sion is the place God established Israel after the Spirit—the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16)—into “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23).

The things God did at Mount Sion (in Jerusalem) to establish his new-covenant assembly fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. He established Christ as king (Psa. 2:6; cp. 1 Tim. 1:17); brought salvation (Psa. 14:7; cp. Luke 2:30); and showed mercy (Psa. 102:13; cp. Matt. 9:13). The law of Christ went forth (Isa. 2:3; cp. Acts 8:4, 12 and Rom. 8:2). God laid the long-promised foundation stone for the new house (Isa. 28:16; cp. Eph. 2:20).

To summarize, Mount Sion is the place God commissioned the Israel of God. This is in stark contrast to Mount Sinai where he had organized Israel after the flesh into the Old Testament church. “At Mount Sinai all was terrible and awful; at Mount Sion all was inviting and attractive.”⁵

Paul wanted the Hebrews to recognize they had come to this better place (Heb. 12:22), a place that produced a better home in which they would dwell.

A City

As suggested by the term “Mount Sion,” this better place includes a better city. The Hebrews had come “unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

God organized Israel after the flesh into a church (or assembly) in the wilderness, then led them into their promised land. He gave them the physical city of Jerusalem and placed his name there (Deut. 12:11; 1 Kings 8:29).

Jerusalem served as the hub of Israel’s life. “The general assembly and church” God established at Mount Sinai gathered to worship God in Jerusalem three times each year (Deut. 16:16). We might say they were now “the general assembly and church” in earthly Jerusalem.

The physical-to-spiritual transition under Christ holds true here, too. The heavenly Jerusalem has replaced the physical Jerusalem. Paul made a direct comparison between earthly Jerusalem (the type) and the heavenly Jerusalem (the antitype) in his letter to the Galatians:

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Gal. 4:21–31; emphasis added)

Earthly Jerusalem was still intact when Paul wrote his letters to the Galatians and Hebrews, but God was about to destroy her. Jesus had said this would happen in his generation (Matt. 24:1–3, 34). The new heavenly Jerusalem would remain as the hub of spiritual Israel’s life.

Angels

The Hebrews had come “to an innumerable company of angels.” They admired the angels because of how they helped establish Israel after the flesh (Acts 7: 53). Paul wanted them to recognize angels in the Messianic Age as well (Heb. 12:22).

The New Testament writings describe many angelic activities.  An angel directed Joseph to take Mary as his wife (Matt. 1:20); instructed him to flee to Egypt to protect the Christ-child’s life (Matt. 2:13), and told him when to return to Israel (Matt. 2:19). The gospels contain many instances of angelic activity during the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus said the angels would attend the Son of Man’s return in his kingdom during the lifetime of those then living (Matt. 16:27–28). Angels had ministered all along the journey as God led the Hebrews from their Mosaic-Age home to their new Messianic Age home.

Angels helped establish the new age and they also take part in the reformed worship (Heb. 9:10). John’s Revelation gave the Hebrews a glimpse into heaven.⁶ It describes how angels join the saints in worshipping Christ:

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. (Rev 5:9–12; emphasis added)

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 7:9–12; emphasis added)

Paul mentions angels in the worship services of the Corinthian church. He says the Christian woman “ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels” (1 Cor. 11:10).

An appreciation for angelic ministry should have made the Hebrews desire the heavenly Jerusalem. The heavenly reality (antitype) had arrived, complete with a glorious angelic ministry. Why should they cling to the earthly symbol (type)?

Conclusion

God had brought the Hebrews to their new home. They had come to Mount Sion where God transformed them into a “holy nation” in Christ (1 Pet. 2:9). As such, they were the antitype of the “holy nation” God created at Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:6). Mount Sion was the new Mount Sinai.

As we have seen, the physical “Mount Sion” often represented the entire city of earthly Jerusalem. Paul wanted the Hebrews to know that, in the Messianic Age, the Jerusalem above would replace the earthly city as the center of their lives.

Angels helped establish the Mosaic Age, but they were also active in the transition to the Messianic Age. The Hebrews should realize their new home was with “an innumerable company of angels” who worshipped Christ with them.

The Hebrews would not have to wait until the eternal state to inherit the home God had prepared for them. They had already heard the announcement, “Welcome home.”

1. Most modern translations have “Mount Zion.” This form makes the New Testament and Old Testament spelling uniform.
2. Paul J. Achtemeier, Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper’s Bible Dictionary (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 463. Emphasis added.
3. For support of these statements, please see our blog post on typology.
4. The references in this sentence are representative, not exhaustive.
5. J. Stuart Russell, The Parousia: The New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord’s Second Coming, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999), 286.
6. There are reasons to believe Revelation was written before Hebrews. See, for example, Russell, The Parousia, 286–87.