The Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:18-29

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

There follows now, both for encouragement and for warning, a grand contrast between the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, founded on the phenomena that accompanied the giving of the Law. To Mount Sinai, with its repelling terrors, is opposed an ideal picture of Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem, expressive of the communion of saints in Christ.

And then at Hebrews 12:25 (as previously in Hebrews 10:1-39) the tone of encouragement changes again to one of warning, the very excess of privilege being made the measure of the guilt of slighting it.

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commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:1-29EXPOSITION The exhortation, begun at Hebrews 10:19, but interrupted at Hebrews 11:1-40. I by the chapter on faith, is now taken up again with increased force from the array of examples that have been adduced to support…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryMatthew Henry on Hebrews 12:18-29Mount Sinai, on which the Jewish church state was formed, was a mount such as might be touched, though forbidden to be so, a place that could be felt; so the Mosaic dispensation was much in outward and earthly things. T…Matthew Henry commentaryNature of the Christian Economy. (a. d. 62.)NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMY. (A. D. 62.) Here the apostle goes on to engage the professing Hebrews to perseverance in their Christian course and conflict, and not to relapse again into Judaism. This he does by showi…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:18-24Sinai and Zion. This grand passage, extending to the end of the chapter, forms a magnificent finale to the lengthened general exhortation to constancy, beginning at Hebrews 10:19, which occupies so important a place in…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:18-24The exalted privileges of sincere Christians. "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched," etc. This paragraph exhibits a striking contrast between Sinai and Zion—the Mosaic and the Christian dispensation…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:18-24Sinai and Zion. Esau bewailed his lost birthright, and yet to what did that birthright lead the posterity of him who gained it? See the posterity of Jacob gathered round the terrible mountain in the wilderness. The post…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:18For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned, with fire, and unto blackness and darkness and tempest. The allusion is to the Israelites approaching Mount Sinai when the Law was given (see Deut…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hebrews 12:19-21And the sound of a trumpet (Exodus 19:16), and the voice of words (Deuteronomy 4:12); which voice they that heard entreated that no word should be spoken to them more: for they could not endure that which was commanded…Joseph S. Exell and contributors