Hebrews 12:18
“For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,”
What does Hebrews 12:18 mean?
The writer of Hebrews is contrasting two different ways people encounter God. The first image, a mountain burning with fire and surrounded by darkness and storm, refers to Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses. That was a terrifying, untouchable experience where God's holiness felt distant and overwhelming, and people were afraid to even approach the mountain. The point here is that if you're a follower of Jesus, you haven't been left in that place of fear and separation. You're being invited into something different, something less distant. This verse is meant to offer comfort to people who might feel like God is unreachable or that following him means living in constant dread. The writer is saying there's good news coming in the next verses about what you *have* come to instead.