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American preacher and author, A.W. Tozer once said: “What I believe about God is the most important thing about me.” In some tribal cultures, people believe God exists only to be feared –like a burning mountain spewing lava that no one dares approach. For other cultures, God is a legalistic deity that demands tedious legalistic devotion – or face death.

In the first two-thirds of Hebrews 12, the epistle writer encourages the Jewish converts not to think of God as in the past and relapse into their old ways of Judaism – but to observe Jesus only in their race. The writer also exhorts the believers not to faint in trials, reminding them that God stretches them as an earthly father would his offspring. In the last third of the chapter (Heb. 12:18-29), believers are reminded that God is not just the fire-and-brimstone and legalistic deity that even Moses, a revered figure in Judaism, shivered to approach although God spoke with him “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11).

That Old Testament God worshipped from a distance is now their accessible heavenly Father by the blood of Jesus, His Son. The last sacrifice is better than the first: The blood of Jesus is superior to the blood of an animal in Abel’s offering. The future place of the church’s worship (Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem) is glorious where Israel’s old place of worship (Mount Sinai) was a place of terror. But the biggest difference is this: the God of the Old Covenant spoke to their consciousness whereas the God of the New Covenant speaks to their conscience – their hearts.

Still, God is consuming fire and not to be refused. Those outside the saving sphere of the Lord Jesus Christ’s salvation – refuse his voice – will not escape when the heavens melt at His future judgment. As for believers, Jesus’ questions to his disciples apply: “Who do people say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:16). The tribal peoples in Old Testament days had such awe of their distant and dreadful God, they were on their toes so as not to tick him off. The Lord Jesus is not just our Redeeming Friend. He is the Captain of our Soul, and we must obey Him in all things so that he keeps our spiritual clock ticking until we go home to Him in eternity.