For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6: 13-18, NKJV).
Dear Lord, it was so important to You, that we believed in Your intentions to save us, that You took an oath! Now we pray that through your Holy Spirit, You might teach us to keep on trusting You to save us. In Jesus’ name we pray; Amen.
This passage of Scripture is among my favorites! When I think of the great God of the universe making a promise to me and then, as if His word was not enough, He turns around and takes an oath, in order to convince me that He would do everything in His power to save me; it utterly blows me away! What a God! For the next few moments let us look at these two actions that God performed.
God promised us that He would save us. In some cultures a man’s promise, or word, is as good as his character. Men would go to any lengths to keep their promise, because their character was at stake! Apply this to the almighty God, who is “not a man that He should lie” (Numbers 23: 19). Therefore, God’s promises are infallible! When He says He will save us, it is because He has every intention in the world to save us; and has made every provision to do so. The key text for our website was chosen precisely because of the emphasis it places on the certainty of God fulfilling His promises, ” ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses’ ” (1 Kings 8: 56, NKJV).
God swore that He would save us. In spite of the fact that He is God, and therefore, cannot lie, it is against His nature; in spite of the fact, that “not one word,” of all that He has promised has failed; Even though His word cannot return to Him empty, without fulfilling what He sent it forth to accomplish” (Isaiah 55: 11); God went a step further. God took an oath! “For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.” Even for fallible human beings, whose words can, and have been broken; just an oath in the name of the one who is the greater of the two; is accepted as a guarantee of fulfillment. After the oath is taken, there is nothing more to say. That is the end of the discussion.
That was not enough for God. Because there is no one greater than He, He swears by Himself; along with His promise that cannot fail; so that by these two actions, our hope in the salvation that He has promised, might be strengthened! Wonderful, faithful, loving Savior!
May we learn to take Him at His Word, that cannot, and will not fail!