The Certainty of God’s Promise (Part 2)

The Certainty of God’s Promise (Part 2)

Hebrews 6:16-20 “ Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute.  In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.  We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,  where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

I started talking about The Certainty of God’s Promise on Monday. Today I want to finish the section as I think it is important that we all know we can count on God and all of His promises. God can not lie. If He says something, it is true. Today’s verse starts out by talking about how humans swear by someone greater than themselves. I am sure you have done this before. You were telling someone something, and you really wanted them to believe you, so you probably said something like I swear on my life, I swear to you I am not lying, or something to that effect. This first sentence in the verse is saying that when an oath is given as confirmation, it puts an end to all disputes. This means the person no longer questions if you are telling the truth or not. 

The next line is pretty long and covers a lot, so let’s break it down. The first part says, “ In the same way when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose.” This tells us that God is unchanging. It is not as if he was one God in the Old Testament, One God in the New Testament, and then a different God now. God is the same yesterday, today, and always. God’s character does not change. It also says that God wants to show us even more clearly this unchangeable character of His purpose. Change is not possible with God. He does not develop or grow. He always remains the same. Since God is an absolute perfection, no change for the better is possible since you cannot improve on perfection. Consequently, there is no inconsistency in God. The Scripture makes it clear that God does not change in his character or purpose, his fairness towards humankind, or in his promises. 

Next, it says, “he guaranteed it by an oath so that through two unchangeable things.” When I read it, I was wondering, wait, what two unchangeable things? I am not sure if you had the same question. When I read through on my own, I tend to skip over things I don’t quite understand. However, since doing this podcast, every time I stop and look up the meaning of something, I am so glad I did. When I looked this up, the two unchangeable things were the promise and the oath. Here is what the website said: 

“When God made His promise to Abraham since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.” And so Abraham, after waiting patiently, obtained the promise. Then in the verse above it says, “Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument.” So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. The author of this response also wanted us to “note that the oath to confirm the promise has validity because God does not change and His purpose does not change. Thus, the promise is confirmed by the oath which cannot change because that which it is sworn by is God Himself.” When God swears by Himself, it signifies the absolute certainty and unchangeable nature of His promise. God, being perfect and unchanging, is the most reliable and trustworthy entity, and His promises are, therefore, infallible. 

That may have been a lot of words, but basically, it says that God is always the same and that He wanted to make doubly sure we would believe his promise, so He swore it in an oath as well. This goes to show how mistrusting we are as humans. You would think the Lord almighty promising us something would be enough for us to believe it, and yet He knew some wouldn’t, so He also gave us an oath. That is how much God cares about us.

Next, the verse above says, “In which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.” We covered the first part above. The second part says that we should be encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We can all seize the hope that comes with God’s promises because we know that God will keep his promises. He is not like us. We make promises all the time that we don’t keep. We make promises to ourselves, we make promises to others and yet we don’t always keep them. God is not like this. If He says He will do something, He will do it.

 The verse ends with, “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,  where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” This hope is a sure and steadfast anchor or the soul. One website I found said, “For the believer, it is possible to wander from faith, but the hope we have in Christ should be an anchor to our soul, keeping us from drifting from Him. An anchor is a weight; it keeps whatever object it’s attached to in place. An anchored ship cannot move. This hope, both sure and steadfast, keeps us firmly abiding in Christ in our daily walk.

It goes on to say, “A hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,  where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” This is in reference to the curtain/veil that separated us from the Holy of Holies. Only one priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies, and I think even he could only go once a year. This part of the verse tells us that our hope goes behind that curtain. When Jesus came, He removed that curtain. There is no longer anything separating us from God. We have full access to God. Each one of us can go directly to God. God is so good!!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, we love you, and we ask you to help us continue to hope in you. Help us to see that there is nothing keeping us from you. Jesus removed the veil separating us. Thank you for restoring that ability to have a close relationship with you. Lord, we ask that you heal our hearts and teach us to have hope in your promises. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in December 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Give me your hand this day. Give me your cares and all that bothers you, and you will be overwhelmed by the peace of the Lord who loves you. Loves you beyond your imagination. Come beloved, come and be close to me. Come and open more fully to me, to my love, to my hope, to my deep peace.”

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