Not the stormy and terrifying hill

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,

Hebrews 12:18

The use of the perfect tense for come, touch, and burning emphasizes the acts and the facts of this hill. Its place as a (1) destination is completely negated by “have not come”. Its (2):experience of fire and its condition as burnt-out thing is without contradiction. A hill that men (3) touch and permanently affect is contrary to God’s design.

With what ease we climb

A greedy disposition is dangerous on every field. Many of us read the Bible and as soon as the faintest glimmer of what the words mean appears we tend to say “Oh yeah. I know”. Sayings about loving God, sayings against injustice, and sayings about the (coming) change all get (and used to get) the “Got it!” without a look at text or context. The talk we generate this way is of no heavenly benefit. The result is that we get to the top of the hill we invent – often on the mound hills of our ancestral traditions – only to discover that the coolade is laced with venom.

Mountain aside – really

The narrative about our response to the gospel is devised to find its connection in a hill, a high place. If neither of the significant hills in the Palestinian context are functional in the Messianic mission what chance is there that a Gentile hill should even be considered? Nil.

Neither Samaritan nor Jewish

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

John 4:21