Hebrews 12:22, commentary and pictures

Believers have not come to a terrifying mountain of fire and darkness to be feared, but to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its countless angels. The countless company are vast multitudes of holy angels whose home is there, who surround God's throne to do His will and are sent to minister to, protect and guide those who will inherit salvation. By coming there believers on earth are already made one church with heaven, joined in worship with angels and unfallen beings so that earthly praise is taken up into the heavenly anthem. That city is also the future home and reward of the faithful, where Christ will welcome overcomers who keep God's commandments into prepared mansions and eternal life. Coming there lays weight on present conduct, requiring reverence and godly fear, overcoming of sin, true worship, and perfection of character because God is a consuming fire and the kingdom received cannot be moved.

Contrast With Sinai

Believers have not come to the mount that might be touched and burned with fire, with blackness and darkness and tempest and trumpet and fearful voice, but have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. Coming to Mount Zion is coming also to the general assembly and church of the firstborn written in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. That standing lays weight on the course of action, requiring grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, because God is a consuming fire and believers receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. It forbids moving heedlessly to start a train of uncontrollable evils, casting a grain of thought into humanity that Satan keeps alive, letting a root of bitterness meaning any kind of evil spring up to defile many, and mingling the common with the sacred by ministers and stewards of grace, with the resulting defilement charged to them. It warns not to refuse Him that speaks from heaven, since those who refused Him speaking on earth did not escape, and His voice will yet once more shake earth and heaven to remove shakable made things so that unshakable things remain.

The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, is a heavenly country and a house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens. This heavenly country is of more consequence than any other city or country on the globe, and therefore is not to be passed over in silence while other countries are talked of freely, but is to be thought of and talked of freely and earnestly and in a heavenly frame of mind. God's city is a heavenly community whose citizens belong throughout the regions of heaven. It is greater than Babylon, which falsely claims divine status, heavenly exaltation, immortal wisdom and freedom from error, while the Holy Spirit and not a human ruler builds the churches.

On Mount Zion stands a glorious temple in the heavenly world, reserved for the 144,000 alone to enter. The scene includes martyrs slain for Jesus and an innumerable company of little ones. Their names are engraved in gold on stone tables, and surrounding mountains with never-fading flowers add to its glory.

Angels and Their Ministry

The innumerable company are a vast, countless multitude of heavenly angels whose home is the heavenly Jerusalem. They have access to God's presence, serve before Him and attend His throne, carrying out His word, will and purposes. They are powerful, glorious messengers connected with His government and the work of redemption, beings who existed before humanity and are superior to humans.

Holy angels minister to His people in every age on missions of help, protection, deliverance, guidance and care. Their ministry reaches those who will inherit salvation and who faithfully share Christ's sufferings, while Christ dwells in His people and provides for them in loving care for His family on earth. They receive commissions to carry light and grace forward in God's work, praising God and sharing His love with people willing to learn and respond.

The Father does not dwell in His holy place in solitary grandeur but is surrounded by ten thousands of angels waiting to do His bidding. He bends from His throne toward earth to listen to the cries of His children, and sends divine help to every needy, praying, believing soul. Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, is where Christ and the angels who kept their integrity abide.

That heavenly city and its countless angels were reflected at Christ's ascension, when the heavenly escort and the gates of God's glory welcomed Him. Their splendor was hidden from the disciples' sight, veiled so they could continue their earthly work with Christ's life and character clearly before them.

One Church in Worship

Believers on earth have come to Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem and are one church with heaven, joined with the angels, the church above in the heavenly courts, and unfallen beings who never fell. Faithful souls in every age are brought into covenant relation with God that unites the church on earth with the church in heaven. The church is God's fortress and city of refuge in a revolted world, bought with the blood of His only begotten Son. God has His watchmen in every age, sustains His church through centuries of persecution, conflict and darkness, sends forth His angels to minister to it, and the gates of hell are not able to prevail against His people.

By joining the vast multitude of angels, believers are brought as co-laborers in order and harmony with the work going forward in heaven. Each from the loftiest angel to the lowliest soul has an appointed place and assigned work under heavenly supervision. Divested of selfishness, they no longer live to please, benefit or glorify themselves but live in self-sacrifice to add others as agents for Christ in devoted service. Angels will plan for human workers when they take hold of the work devotedly in love for souls as God's work, with self hid in Christ, with solemnity and fear and trembling at its sacredness and importance, and with seeking for deep spirituality and fervent piety, thus becoming lively stones in the spiritual building of God.

Heaven is near to earth, and heavenly intelligences are interested companions, witnesses, guards and ministers to earthly worshipers. Angels of light accompany and guard every living soul, sent forth as heavenly messengers to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, though earthborn children know it not. They never leave the tempted one a prey to the destroying enemy while hope remains, until the Holy Spirit is resisted to eternal ruin. Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of saints who meet to worship God in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness.

In the inner court of heaven angels listen to the testimonies of the witnesses for Christ in the outer court on earth, and in every assembly below they hear the thanksgiving, praise, supplication, testimonies, songs and prayers offered to God. The praise and thanksgiving from earth is taken up into the heavenly anthem, and earth's praising is supplemented by the choirs of the angelic host above. Praise and rejoicing sounds through the heavenly court because Christ has not died in vain for the fallen sons of Adam. While angels drink from the Fountainhead, saints on earth drink of the pure streams flowing from the throne of God that make glad the city of God.

The church below on earth is to be like a well-regulated family in perfect harmony, kept pure by faithful church discipline and the duty of every member. God's children below are being prepared for that reunion above in the church above in the heavenly courts, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will be a great reunion and endless life. Those who here live in union with Christ may look forward to endless life there. Earthly assemblies of the household of faith are God's appointed means to prepare for those promised heavenly assemblies in the right way and to receive the fulfillment of the pledges of inheritance.

By not neglecting to come together for prayer meetings, confession of sin, humiliation of soul, love-feasts with true love for brethren, study of His Word, and exhorting one another to be faithful to the end as the day of God approaches, those called with a holy calling to a holy, happy life on the narrow path of obedience are led into unity. In every such assembly believers meet with Christ, the Master of assemblies, and refresh their minds by communion with one another and with God, helping, strengthening, and encouraging one another in Christian love and fellowship to gain all possible help. They are to show personal interest in one another and know one another in Christ Jesus, considering one another in love, for considering one another is the keynote of the gospel while self is the keynote of the world.

Future Hope Fulfilled

The city of the living God is the destination tied to the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus ministers by the ark in the Most Holy Place after finishing His mediation in the Holy Place in 1844, and the opened door there marks the time when God's commandments shine out and His people are tested on the Sabbath. It is the place from which God will speak in a future event shaking both earth and heaven. That voice will come with His glory resting on His people and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit preparing the saints to stand before Jesus at His appearing. His voice will once more shake earth and heaven to remove shakable made things so that unshakable things remain, and therefore Him that speaks from heaven must not be refused.

At deliverance God gives His everlasting covenant to His people, and after Jesus comes and the saints are caught up He leads them into the City and welcomes them because they kept God's commandments. They will meet together on Mount Zion in sweet fellowship as the certain reward of determined overcoming. There the Prince of heaven will welcome the faithful who overcome through the blood of the Lamb and their testimony, and when His earthly work is finished the righteous will be received into prepared mansions and given the overcomer's crown. Coming to Mount Zion means eternal life and entrance through the gates into the city, with an immortal inheritance far greater than being a millionaire.

That entrance is gained through earnest united missionary work, breaking into new fields, building meetinghouse after meetinghouse and church after church as trustees of God's means, and all who help share the same riches. The city of God is the home believers are to reach where families will meet together and faithful believers who finished earthly troubles will meet again. Reaching it calls for keeping the eyes single to God's glory, making straight paths, walking in the light as Christ is in the light, following Jesus' footsteps, and letting light shine by word and work to revive others. It is the final home reached at last after the desert journey of earthly life, where bitter and sweet, Marah and Elim, are passed, a happy land beyond lonely hills, a holy Paradise where everlasting springs gush and wanderings end.

The heavenly Jerusalem is a better land soon to be home where Jesus is seen in glory. Dwelling on Christ and that world stimulates and supports the Lord's battles, takes power from pride and love of the world so earthly attractions seem of little worth beside Christ's loveliness, and offers peace, honor and companionship for the soul's higher interests, which to reject for sinful pleasure is to labor for what is not bread and sacrifice infinite gain. The city of God is the heavenly destination toward which pilgrims are guided by heaven's true light, while false lights claiming heavenly origin may deceive for a time but cannot give the holiness and brightness that guide there. God's people are now preparing to join the heavenly family in the city of God.

Preparation for Entrance

Entering God's holy city and climbing His mountain belong to those who seek to walk in paths of righteousness, and the climb calls for careful, faithful steps because Satan works to turn travelers from the right path while God's Word supplies the directions for the journey. Coming to Mount Zion requires overcoming sins now, and it is the certain reward of determined overcoming, with the sweet fellowship of commandment-keeping people now pointing forward to meeting together there in the future. Everyone is to guard zealously the way leading there by coming up to the feast of tabernacles and standing in the ranks to represent the cause instead of pleading excuses and treating God's work as indifferent, keeping the city of God in view as the destination.

Entering that city and looking upon Jesus in glory requires earnest effort now to obtain assurance of God's love and a change from minds long fixed only on what eye sees and ear hears, since earthly sights and sounds attract attention and absorb interest. To enter, people must become accustomed to beholding Christ with the eye of faith here, making His words and character often the subject of thought and conversation, and devoting time each day to prayerful meditation on these sacred themes. Dwelling on Christ and that better, heavenly world soon to be home gives powerful stimulus and support in fighting the Lord's battles, and contemplating its glories takes power from pride and love of the world so that beside Christ's loveliness all earthly attractions seem of little worth. The truth refines those who receive it and sanctifies taste and judgment, and when lived out it continually prepares them for the society of holy angels in God's pure, holy city, raising them rather than bringing them down to a lower level. Preparing for that association calls for a life shaped by Christ's self-denial and care for others.

Believers are called to join the worshipers in heaven, where all is pure and perfect and every being reveres God and His holiness, and to be prepared they must learn true worship and reverence on earth, for uncultivated ideas about sacred things leave them unable to appreciate heaven. Believers on earth have already come to the city of God and can join heaven in praise here, uniting with the songs of the heavenly angels, which supplies everything needed to be heavenly minded and lifted out of earthliness and sensuality. This requires putting away cheap and nonsensical talk, jesting and joking, false reporting, babbling and evil surmising that disgrace and enfeeble the church, and practicing holy conversation — as God is holy in His sphere so believers are to be holy in theirs — rejoicing in the precious Saviour who died to redeem them and reflecting glory back to God. The heavenly company of saints and angels is the fellowship believers are to be prepared to join, and education should help form characters fit for that fellowship and equip them to help others. Patient instruction in God's truth and laws and training to love justice and do what is right fit children for the society of angels and the Redeemer's presence, with right habits, thoughts, discipline, reverence and choice ideas cultivated from earliest years as everyday experience, and a home made spiritual by heavenly influences preparing its members for entrance into the school above and the gathering of heaven.

The instruction that leads to obedience to the requirements of God's Word is the true higher education that qualifies students to succeed in God's work and fits youth for entrance through the gates into eternal life by consecrated, humble, obedient lives revealing the sacred principles Christ laid down as the basis of Christian character. Parents help their children find the way to that reward of the overcomers by living godly, consistent lives that give a clear example of right-doing. Those who serve God are to seek perfection of character and a high spiritual standard in order to be fitted to enter the heavenly city as their destination. The city of God is to be looked to with the eye of faith when work in the church brings shame and sorrow through unchristlike quarreling, for coming to it means meeting the just made perfect, without fault before God's throne.

That high position lays weight on the course of action, requiring grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear because God is a consuming fire and believers receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. It forbids moving heedlessly and starting a train of uncontrollable evils, throwing a grain of thought into humanity that Satan keeps alive. It forbids letting a root of bitterness meaning any kind of evil spring up to defile many, and mingling the common with the sacred by ministers and stewards of God's grace, with the resulting defilement charged to them. It warns not to refuse Him that speaks from heaven, since those who refused Him speaking on earth did not escape, and His voice will yet once more shake earth and heaven to remove shakable made things so that unshakable things remain.