Hebrews 12:18–29

The Glorious Company

¹⁸For you have not come ⁷to ^zthe mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and ⁸darkness and tempest, ¹⁹and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it ^abegged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. ²⁰(For they could not endure what was commanded: ^b“And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned ⁹or shot with an arrow.” ²¹And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ^c“I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ²³to the ¹general assembly and church of ^dthe firstborn ^ewho are registered in heaven, to God ^fthe Judge of all, to the spirits of just men ^gmade perfect, ²⁴to Jesus ^hthe Mediator of the new covenant, and to ⁱthe blood of sprinkling that speaks better things ^jthan that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

²⁵See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For ^kif they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, ²⁶whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ^l“Yet once more I ²shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” ²⁷Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the ^mremoval of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we ³may ⁿserve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. ²⁹For ^oour God is a consuming fire.