The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 376

Its ritual was sensuous. Its precopts were Rustained by earthly sanctioM. 2. Obar,nre. When God came down upon Sinai, he maclo "blackneRs and darkness" his pavilion; ho revealed himself in flame and storm. This is an emblem of the clourlecl cbamcter of the Old Testament revelation. Under it the plan of redemption still remained veiled in mystery. "The wo.y into the holy place was not yet made manifest" (eh. ix. 8). 'l'he Jews, in their ignorance and weakness, could only bear a shaded, shadowy, por- tentous manifestation of truth. 3. Exclusive. God spoke at Horeb only to one small nation, gathored before him there on the plain, and separated by the rocb and passes of the desert from the great peoples of tho world. 'l'be Jews were a little flodc, and the Shepherd of Israel shut them into a little fold by themselves. 4. Remote. Tbe Hebrews dared not approach the God who revealed himself to them. The mountain was fenced round, and the stern penalty of death was threatened upon the trespasser (ver. 20). Similarly, while the Mosaic economy granted a certain access to God, and Israel was "a people near unto him," this access was yet not the most real. For Jehovah, to the mind of the Jew, was clothed with thunder ; legal barriers stood between him and sinful men ; and the Levitical system was saturated with ceremonial restric- tions. Moses could not be an adequate mediator for Israel, to bring them to God; at the giving of the Law he was himself smitten with fear and trembling (ver. 21). 5. Terrible. This is the most prominent feature of the whole picture. At Sinai the light- nings flashed and the thunder rolled; the trump of God sent forth its wild weird blasts, and the awful voice of the Eternal spoke the ten "words" (ver. l!)). But the people could not endure the·revelation. They crouched and cowered in terror. u When God of old came down from heaven, In power o.nd wrath he came ; Defore his feet the clouds were riven, Half darkness o.nd half flame. u Around the trembling mountain's bue The prostrate people Io.y; A do.y of wrath, and not of grace; A dim e.nd dreadful day." (Keble.) Now, this awful scene symbolized the spirit and genins of the old dispensation. The Law inspired terror. It was" the ministration of death" and of "condemnation." It " bore children unto bondage." The ceremonial system became an unbearable yoke, by reason of its burdensome constraints; while the moral law pronounced its pitiless curses upon the disobedient. 6. Temporary. Sinai rears its shaggy cliffs of granite in the naked wilderness, and Israel made only a year's encampment there. The tented plain of the llesert was not their home. And so the dispensation set up at Mount Sinai was provisional and preparatory. It was only to stand until, under the Divine leading, the Church should be brought to the spiritual Mount Zion, and to the heavenly Jerusalem as its "city of habitation." II. A CONTRASTED PICTURE OF THE NEW REVELATION AT ZION. (Vers. 22-24.) Although we did not attempt to trace the various points of comparison in detail, we should yet be impressed with the contrast as seen in the large outlines of the two pictures, and in their general tone and colour. The new economy, as represented by Mount Zion, is: 1. Spiritual. The Church of Jesus Christ is the ideal Zion. It is also" the heavenly Jerusalem," the metropolis of the mediatorial kingdom. The New Testament system of religion is inward, supersensible, experimental. T~e ty_pes and ceremonies of Sinai have passed away. The matter of the new revelation 1s more spiritual. Christianity speaks of righteousness, not of ritual. 'fhe gospel laws are written upon the heart. 2. Clear. No night, or cloud, or storm gathers around Mount Zion; its very name means "sunny." 'l'he Sun of righteousness shines upo1;1, its towers and palaces gildin"' them with brightness and beauty. The new covenant- 1s "clear as the sun" i; its tea~hin"'S, It has given the world the roost advanced truth; and it presents that truth in "the simplest and the most explicit form .. 3. _.Llll-embraciny._ Mount Sinai stands in the lonely and silent desert; but Mouut Zion 1s the centre ot a populous city, whose teeming inhabitants are cosmopolitans. The Jewij1 Church HEBREWS, ~ ll  370 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE HEBREWS. [en. xu. 1-29.