Bible Diary - Hebrews 6:13-20
July 20, 2008
Oaths and promises. What am I to make of this? The promise in view here, of course, was to bless Abraham greatly and to multiply his descendants abundantly. I think Abraham’s best guess about his future probably did not include becoming a great nation, but he was called to believe God’s promise to him on faith alone. This meant for him to ignore his doubts and act as if he knew where he was going.
6:13 Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 6:14 saying, “Surely I will bless you greatly and multiply your descendants abundantly.” 6:15 And so by persevering, Abraham inherited the promise. 6:16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. 6:17 In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath, 6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain, 6:20 where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
As for the oath, this may have been God’s way of making sure that Abraham knew that it was God speaking to him and making a promise that would be kept. Today, this would not be necessary, since God has sent His Son to be our guarantor, and if I can’t accept that, well, bad on me. I know that I have just the high priest I need to buffer me from the holy God. Jesus is running interference for me. I can’t face a holy God directly, but I can face Jesus, the perfecter of my faith.
It seems evident to me that God’s promises, then and now, are accompanied with the gift of faith. I really have no excuse for not acting in faith.
Dave, still looking for excuses.
-sdg-
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