Promise of God

Hebrews 6:13-20 – Promise of God

God made many promises to mankind, but the promise of God is not like man promises. When God makes a promise you can guarantee that His promise will be fulfilled and it will come to pass.

In these scriptures I am looking at today, we see that not only is there this guarantee that the promise of God will be fulfilled, He has gone to great pains to ensure the certainty of His promises. He has made it abundantly clear to man that His promise will be carried out as He states it.

The reason God has done this is so that we can take comfort knowing that what He promises will occur. We can know without a shadow of a doubt that His promises will be done.

Today’s Scripture

The basis of this scripture is to show the power of the promise of God. It explains why we can trust God will carry out His promises to us. This is what the verse says.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16 Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchiz’edek. (Hebrews 6:13-20)

Let us look at what these words are saying.

Oaths, Vows, and Pledges

First, we see that when God made a promise to Abraham, He wanted to ensure Abraham could and would believe His words. One of the most powerful tools for ensuring the truth of the matter was to swear by something or someone greater and make an oath.

Under the laws of Moses an oath was taken with great seriousness. It was a sin to break an oath. This is what the law stated.

Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, “This is what the Lord has commanded. 2 When a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. (Numbers 30:1-2)

The promise of God to Abraham was sealed with an oath. The purpose of God’s oath was to show Abraham that He would surely do as He had promised.

Making oaths, vows, and pledges was the mechanism by which people sealed agreements and promises. Whether it is a handshake deal, a verbal agreement, or a complex contract written out in great detail, the deal is not made without an oath. Marriages are ratified with vows of fidelity and support, stating what the parties in the marriage agree to. A contract is a pledge of business and contracts in business are sealed with signatures that are the oaths by which the parties agree to carry out business together.

In fact oaths, pledges, and vows are so common we rarely think about them. And these pledges and oaths are typically made by incurring some greater power as witness to the oath, vow, or pledge.

But there is no-one greater than God. There is no power or authority greater than God. So, if He were to make an oath, by whom or what would He swear it?

The Oath in the Promise of God

God wanted to show Abraham that He would do as he promised.

Abraham would have fully understood the binding nature of an oath or a vow as these have been common since the earliest of times. It was the mechanism by which men dealt with one another, especially men of power such as kings. They would make promises and treaties and bind those agreements with an oath to show their commitment.

Often in the scriptures we would see that people would go to the gates of the cities to make an oath, so that their oaths were witnessed by the elders and people of the town or city. This was a common practice when a man and a woman became betrothed and were married. We also see this process in the story of Ruth and Boaz. After Boaz had gone to the gate and taken aside ten of the elders of the town, we see the matter of his concern resolved with an oath before the witnesses. The following are the opening and closing verses describing how the oath was taken.

1. And Bo?az went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, the next of kin, of whom Bo?az had spoken, came by. So Bo?az said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here”; and he turned aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here”; so they sat down.
…
11. Then all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Eph?rathah and be renowned in Bethlehem (Ruth 4:1-2, 11)

So, we see that taking oaths was a serious matter. An oath confirmed in front of witnesses what was agreed. And God used this same process to prove His truthfulness and guarantee His words in the promise of God.

What is greater than the promise of God

The challenge God faced is that there was no-one and nothing greater than Himself. He could not incur a greater God or a greater purpose to bind the promise of God. He is the creator of everything and the creator is always greater than the creation.

So, to ratify the promise of God to Abraham, God swore an oath by Himself. The scripture talks then about two unchangeable things that could not be broken. These two things were the guarantee that the promise of God would be fulfilled.

The two things were firstly, the word of God, which cannot be broken. The word of God is never a lie but says what He will do and then does it. It is unchangeable and His character is unchangeable. God is God and there is no variation to Him. There is no falseness, deceit, lies, error, or anything else. He is the truth and does not ever lie.

And the second unchangeable thing was the oath He made to seal the promise of God. We have seen from the details above that an oath or a vow is taken very seriously. God as the one who initiated all things, including the laws of binding oaths, as mentioned in the scripture in Numbers 30 above, will never back down or go against an oath He makes. In fact the last few words of Numbers 30 state, “These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses.”

So, when God made an oath to seal the promise of God, swearing by Himself, it would never be changed. The promise of God would occur as He spoke it. Abraham was aware of this and He believed God and he was reckoned righteous by God through his faith.

Hope in the Promise of God

These words still ring true today. In the promise of God, we too have received many blessings and opportunities. It is by the promise of God that He sent Jesus, who died for our sins and salvation. The promise of God gives us the opportunity to accept God’s grace and by faith be saved.

In the promise of God then we have hope. The world has no hope and will continue to worsen, but in Christ we have a hope for life. The things of this age are meaningless. This world will deteriorate and eventually God will destroy this world and create a new heavens and new earth. There He will establish a kingdom under His rule, which will not be corrupt and evil as is often the case in the world today.

The hope we have is guaranteed by the promise of God and is unchangeable. What He said would take place is happening now, and it cannot be halted. What we must do is to ensure we are on the side of God as these things unfold.

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