Mount Sinai vs. Mount Zion

We are approaching the end of the reading of the epistle to the Hebrews. The author is painting us a vision of heaven. Just as the meeting tent and the Temple are copies of the true sanctuary in heaven, Mount Sinai is only a copy of the holy mountain of God --- Mount Zion.
When Moses brought the Israelites to Mount Sinai to establish the Old Covenant, the people and even Moses himself trembled with fear. Blazing fire, darkness, tempest, the sound of trumpet and the thundering voice of God made them tremble. Yet, it was only a copy, not yet the true abode of God.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,
and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them.
For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."
Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." (Hebrews 12:18-21)
Ruth, my former student in Shung Tak, is right.
"If they don't perceive the punishment involves love, then love doesn't exist, at least in their eyes, and this will be called child abuse."
The God in the Old Testament was harsh to the Israelites whom He loved. Yet, throughout the Old Testament, very few Israelites were able to perceive His love. Again, Ruth is right to the point.
"Confronting the tough with toughness will only result in destruction on both sides."
It takes a crucified Jesus in the New Testament to convince some of them that God is love.
Let's turn a moment to the heaven painted by the author.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24).
It reads like John's Revelation. The heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable angels, the assembly of martyrs whose robes have been washed white with the Lamb's blood, God the presiding judge and Jesus our Mediator. It cannot be scientifically verified nor measured. It is a hope sustained by faith. But this faith will undergo repeated testing to prove its worth. Once more, God will shake the heavens and the earth with His voice until the unshaken remains.
His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven."
This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:26-27).

Dear Jesus, our gracious Mediator, I long for this holy city of our living and loving God. I wish to be counted among the assembly. Strengthen my feeble knees and my faith in my students. Let me stand unshaken until the end. Amen.

Appendix:
Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.ἔτι ἅπαξ ἐγὼ σείσω οὐ μόνον τὴν γῆν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν οὐρανόν. (Hebrews 12:26)
διότι τάδε λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ Ἔτι ἅπαξ ἐγὼ σείσω τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ τὴν ξηράν, (Haggai 2:6)