<p>12:18 <em>For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest</em>- The new covenant means that we are not under the old covenant. We are not as Israel standing nervously before the mount Sinai as the covenant was given. The language of darkness, blackness and fire is all used elsewhere of condemnation at the last day. This was what the old covenant would lead to for sinful man. But the awesomeness of the scene there, however, looked forward to the even greater awesomeness of the things to which we stand related. The blood of Christ is as palpable as fire, and as real and actually demanding as words booming from Sinai. The mount &quot;might be touched&quot;- but on pain of death (Ex. 19:12), and :20 implies that some did touch it and die.</p>