Hebrews 6:13–20

Original Meaning

The Example of Abraham (6:13–15)

FOR THOSE ORIENTED to the Jewish Scriptures the author could have chosen no greater example of faithful perseverance than father Abraham. Especially apropos, the moment at which Abraham offered his cherished son, Isaac, at Moriah (Gen. 22:1–18) forms the backdrop of the discussion at Hebrews 6:13–15. Abraham, caught in a crisis charged with yearnings for his son and even greater yearnings to obey God, believed that the promises of God would not fail (11:17–19). Consequently, he stayed the course of sacrifice through intense, prolonged testing and became a paradigmatic receptor of God’s covenant promise. Our preacher to the Hebrews uses the heroic figure of Abraham, therefore, as an especially apt illustration to encourage a community struggling with perseverance under trial.

In the Old Testament narrative (Gen. 22:15–18) God’s response to the faithfulness of Abraham goes as follows:

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

This passage has two components on which the author concentrates. (1) The Lord’s declaration “I swear by myself” constitutes the main concern in the immediate passage and leads nicely back to a discussion of Psalm 110:4 in chapter 7, that psalm also speaking of God’s oath. (2) God’s pledge to bless Abraham and give him numerous descendants forms the heart of the covenant promises and corresponds directly to Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the progenitor of that guaranteed host. That Abraham, “after waiting patiently … received what was promised” made him a fitting model for sluggish Christ-followers in need of refocusing attention on the promised rewards attending perseverance (Heb. 6:12).

Bridging Contexts

A PRIMARY POINT, two implications, and three assumptions. By its nature Hebrews 6:13–20 makes a smooth transition between the exhortation of 5:11–6:12 and the material of chapter 7. In doing so, the author focuses especially on one primary point: that God’s oath-making provides believers with a superior basis for stability in life. Notice the prevalence of the concepts “oath,” “promise,” “swear,” and “heir” in the present section. These concepts revolve around the affirmation of God’s faithfulness to fulfill what he has pledged.

The passage’s transitional purpose works as follows. The exhortation of 5:11–6:12 places the spotlight on human actions and responsibility. In 5:11–6:3 the writer points to the readers’ lack of growth and need to move on in the faith. In 6:4–8 the apostates’ rejection of Christ and consequent peril serves as a harsh example, the author emphasizing their lack of fruitfulness. In 6:9–12 the encouragement found in the listeners’ own past fruitfulness plays a nice counterpoint to the warning of 6:4–8, yet keeps primary focus on human response to God. To be sure, the action of God underlies the whole of 5:11–6:12, but the author places the emphasis on human responsibility in responding to the works of God.

All of this may lead to our feeling somewhat insecure. The reader of this commentary may have ended our treatment of 6:4–12 asking, “Then is it all up to me? Where is the provision of God in all of this?” The author of Hebrews, while wishing to emphasize the seriousness of our responsibility in responding properly to the gospel, does not intend to leave us feeling insecure.

Beginning with 6:13 the discussion turns back with full force toward God’s provision of a superior basis for Christian perseverance. This general theme serves as the author’s guiding principle through 10:18, in his focus on Christ’s appointment as an eternal high priest in 7:1–28 and on his superior, heavenly sacrifice for sin in 8:3–10:18. In the first of these main sections the argument rests on God’s oath in Psalm 110:4: “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.’” Hebrews 6:13–20 moves the sermon quickly from an emphasis on human responsibility (5:11–6:12) to a consideration of God’s promises (i.e., “oath”) and two implications of those promises for believers. (1) One implication is that promises by their nature demand patience (6:14–15), since the fulfillment of a promise seldom follows on the heels of the promise itself. (2) Also, promises provide us with a superior basis for hope (6:18–19) because we can rest in God’s assurance of a better tomorrow.

Beneath the surface of the author’s treatment of God’s oaths lie three assumptions. The first two are as follows: (1) God is eternal, being ever present to fulfill what has been promised; and (2) God is omnipotent, having the ability to fulfill what has been promised. The Christian finds hope in the Lord’s promises because, while all of life shifts beneath our feet, God remains the one true source of lasting stability. Thus we reject the assertion of Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, who said, “Change alone is unchanging.” We know better; for we know the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (13:8). No power exists that can shake the fulfillment of God’s oaths concerning his children (Rom. 8:35–39).

(3) The final assumption has to do with the integrity of God. Because of his integrity, when God makes an oath he can be trusted to fulfill what he has promised. Not only is he powerful and eternal, but he is also of unquestionable character. As Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” The implied answer to each of these rhetorical questions is a resounding “no!”

Two problems. The author’s treatment of God’s oath-making in 6:13–20, however, raises what may be perceived as two problems. (1) In verse 16 the writer uses human testimony in a court of law as an illustration of oath-giving. By following with God’s use of oath in verse 17 he almost seems to present God as following the pattern of a human, legal system—a system that we know to be less than fail-proof because of human nature. Yet, we must begin with where the author does in verse 13 regarding a primary difference between God’s oath and the act of swearing in a human court. Whereas “men swear by someone greater than themselves” (v. 16), God has no one greater by whom he can swear (v. 13).

The argument at this point is one “from lesser to greater,”12 although this preacher begins here with the greater assumption, moves to the lesser assumption, and then back to the greater. His reasoning is as follows. (1) When God made his promise to Abraham, he swore by himself. (2) Humans participate in a legal system in which assurances are made and truth is verified. (3) Much more assurance may be had with reference to oaths made by God since he is so great (i.e., trustworthy) that no one greater could be found by whom he would swear. The passage, thus, presents us with the absolute trustworthiness of God’s promises. Thus the author, rather than presenting God as imitating a human system of oath-making, uses that human system as a basis of comparison.

(2) This, however, raises a second issue: Why would God resort to oath-giving at all,13 especially in light of Jesus’ words concerning oaths in Matthew 5:34–37:

But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

It should be remembered, first of all, that Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount are oriented to the frailty of the human condition. The swearing of oaths was a prevalent practice in the first century, and Jesus addresses the use of oaths as a means of compensating for one’s lack of integrity. Disciples of the kingdom should be such persons of integrity that their words alone, unadorned with exclamatory oaths, should suffice as reflections of the truth.14 In Hebrews, however, the orientation is different. The focus here is on the purposes and character of God as he meets the needs of people. Rather than needing oaths to shore up the veracity of his words, God employs oaths to provide assurance and encouragement to his people (Heb. 6:18). In other words, the reason for God’s oaths is found in our need, not his.

Two pitfalls. We must also reflect on two possible pitfalls situated along the path toward application of this passage. (1) God’s promises must not be employed in an attempt to coerce him. In “health-and-wealth” preaching the reasoning too often goes as follows. “Does not God’s Word say that he will give you whatever you ask in Jesus’ name?” The congregation answers, “Yes!” The preacher then asks, “Is God true to his Word?!” Again the congregation shouts, “Yes!” Then the speaker concludes with an inference: “If God doesn’t fulfill this promise to you (e.g., give you a house, a car, healing, etc.), then God is a liar, and we know that God is not a liar!” So if God said it and you step out in faith on what God said, then God must come through.

This line of reasoning, which attempts to back God in a corner by using his Word, runs dangerously close to Satan’s temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:5–7. Pointing to Psalm 91:11–12, the tempter reasoned with Jesus, “Here is a passage of Scripture that promises God will not let you get hurt [an interesting thought in light of the cross awaiting at the end of Jesus’ ministry!]. Jesus, why don’t you step out on God’s truthfulness by throwing yourself off the pinnacle of the temple? God will have to come through based on his Word.” Jesus responded that testing God is inappropriate. Our part is to submit to his will, not to attempt to dictate our will to him using his promises for support.

(2) We must not confuse true Christian hope with what the world often calls “hope.” In a letter to Thomas More, English poet Lord Byron wrote, “But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.”15 This speaks to hope as a form of wishful thinking. In the words of playwright Jean Kerr, “Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn’t permanent.”16 This insipid, earth-bound emotion falls far short of Christian hope, which is grounded in revelation, encouraged by the Spirit’s work in us, and cognizant of future realities. True hope, moreover, produces purity (1 John 3:3), patience (Rom. 8:25), fulfillment (5:4–5), joy (12:12), and stability (Col. 1:23). When compared to God’s work through the old covenant, the new covenant hope is “better” (Heb. 7:19), providing for the Christ-follower something worthy of public confession (3:6; 10:23).

Contemporary Significance

OUR NEED FOR hope. We live in a world that is a place of great despair for many. Like the widow of Zarephath, to whom God sent the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:8–16), people find their resources—their “bread and oil,” the basic elements of life—almost spent, and they are prepared to give up altogether. These resources may be economic, emotional, relational, or spiritual, but the lack thereof brings on a hopelessness leading to despair.

Dr. Armand Nicholi Jr., a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and editor of The Harvard Guide to Psychiatry, notes the rampant increase in depression in contemporary American society, some eleven million patients currently needing treatment and over 250,000 attempting to take their own lives each year. Dr. Nicholi suggests that relational dynamics, both on a personal and international level, which make up the basic nature of life, have remained constant over time. “How then,” the professor asks, “do we explain the explosive increase in depression and hopelessness within our society as we enter the twenty-first century A.D.?” Pointing to the undercutting of spiritual resources in the past few decades, Dr. Nicholi states:

Historians and social scientists tell us that we have fewer spiritual resources to draw from than at any time in Western cultural history. Some say that our culture has forsaken its spiritual roots, that we live in an overtly secular society without even the pretense of spiritual values. Many young people today feel that their cultures fail to provide answers to questions of purpose and meaning and destiny. We fail, they feel, to provide some reason for hope. The consequence is that we are now in a cultural crisis and living in what is being called “The Age of Despair.” We hear of our “spiritual vacuum” and our “crisis of meaning.”17

If the naturalists are correct that the sum of life is found in the “nasty here and now” and the phrase “dust to dust” sums up our origins and our destinies, then life seems both meaningless and hopeless. Yet, to this age of despair the book of Hebrews brings another perspective. God says that life is more than what can be seen immediately, and he offers us a wealth of spiritual resources to be found in relation to Jesus Christ. Those spiritual resources are accessed as we trust God’s Word and build our lives on it. His “oaths” help us to see beyond our limitations to his limitless power and provisions. Encouragement comes from knowing we play a part in a life both full of meaning and lasting. Thus our current circumstances can never adequately define who we are or what we are about. This quality of hope breeds hope. As Paul states, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). This Age of Angst asks, “Is there more?” The Christian conviction rings out: “Yes, and so we dare to hope.”

Longing for security. Much of modern Western life revolves around building some semblance of security into our lives. A home that provides shelter and protection from destructive elements in both nature and society. Insurance that safeguards against unforeseen tragedies. Bank accounts that assure the resources of tomorrow will prove sufficient for our needs. Relationships that give us comfort. Yet, in the back of our minds we realize that all of these could be gone in a moment. An illness. A business failure. A car wreck. Life is fragile, and we long and reach for a security that stretches beyond the dark possibilities crouched just around life’s next corner. We are like the arachnid of Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider.”

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,

seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Whitman’s poignant reminder shows our souls are ever attempting to anchor our lives, to catch hold of something outside ourselves that will transform our detached existence to a state of stability.

Yet in flinging our threads, our aim too often is off, hitting water droplets and dust balls on the surface of reality, elements that themselves will soon evaporate or be swept away. Money, homes, positions, and even people are transitory. Such can provide no lasting stability in life. Thus Hebrews invites us to a security anchored in eternal realities found in the “inner sanctuary behind the curtain” (6:19), where a truth-telling God encourages us by giving oaths. His promises offer the only true surety for the future. All other sources of stability give but promissory notes that may or may not be fulfilled, depending on the character, resources, or future of the issuer. Our God, however, is a God of integrity, of endless resources, and of a never-ending future and, as such, offers us a superior basis for stability in life. An old hymn says it well.

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

What more can he say than to you he has said,

To you who for refuge to Jesus has fled.

God’s waiting room. Patience is one of the most difficult Christian virtues to grasp in our hurry-up, Type A, charge-ahead culture. Yet, “after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” After waiting patiently!

We live in an instant credit, get-everything-now economy. We eat add-water-and-mix foods or drive by fast-food outlets which poke our palates with immediate delicacies ranging from burgers and burritos to fried chicken and fish ’n’ chips. All of this trains us to want what we want now on the basis of something that requires little or nothing of us. We don’t grow trees in our yards, we buy them potted and several years advanced in their growth—or move to another house where they’re already grown. Waiting is not in style, and patience has never been a forte of the flesh.…

If God weren’t growing sons and daughters, things would not take nearly as long. But since He is more interested in our growth than He is in our getting, waiting becomes a very essential and useful means toward that end. He doesn’t traffic in add-water-and-mix saints.…18

God has a purpose for putting us in his waiting room. Abraham had to wait two and a half decades to see the birth of his promised son. You and I often must wait for God’s help in matters related to family, finances, health, or direction for the future. A seemingly protracted pause in God’s manifest activity on our behalf must especially be difficult for those undergoing persecution for the faith. Yet God is at work. He works character in you and me even when—sometimes, especially when—we cannot see him at work in our circumstances. If no word of help and hope existed, we might give way to despair. Yet, the promises of God help us to see future realities and draw encouragement from them.

We only experience such encouragement, we only grow in this dimension of Christian faith, as we sit in the waiting room. It can be a habitation of tension, frustration, and anxiety; but it also can be a place of unique peace and a work in which the spirit is deepened. Our posture toward God during times of waiting can make all the difference in the effect of such an experience on us. C. H. Spurgeon once wrote:

[Waiting] is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid.… But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in the full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower.”19

Spurgeon’s words reflect the spirit of Psalm 33:20–22, which reads:

We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

Original Meaning

The Finality of Oaths (6:16–18)

THE DISCUSSION CONTINUES in verse 16 with a truism peppered with legal terminology of the ancient Mediterranean world.3 Oaths given and received in human courts have two characteristics. (1) They require an appeal to one higher in status than the oath-giver. This action lends the witness a credibility grounded in the worth or integrity of another. (2) Witnesses swear an oath given in court in order to bring about a “confirmation” (bebaiosis) or to provide a legal guarantee of a testimony’s truthfulness,4 thus strengthening the case being presented. Once a witness swears in this manner, such an affidavit leaves no room for further legal disputation since an oath may be taken as establishing the truthfulness of a given position.

If truthfulness can be confirmed in such a manner in human courts of law, it is even more assured when God himself swears an oath. The NIV translation of verse 17 begins with “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised.…” This translation could be understood as suggesting that God takes his cue from a human system of oath giving—which is not the case. Rather, the author merely draws an analogy. In both cases, human and divine, oaths point to a confirmation of truth.

God’s reason in giving the oath is twofold. (1) It shows the “unchanging nature of his purpose” in granting to the heirs their promised inheritance (v. 17). Again the author utilizes legal terminology to drive home his point. The word epideiknymi, translated by the NIV as “make clear,” normally conveys the sense of “show.” Used in a legal context as here, however, the word carries the special nuance “to give proof.”5 In other words, God gives proof by his sworn affidavit that his will is immutable or “unchanging” (ametatheton), a word appearing in wills and contracts of the ancient world to speak of terms or conditions that could not be annulled.6 So the heirs need not worry that the terms of God’s promised inheritance are going to change.

(2) God intends that his heirs, “who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us,” might find strong (ischyran), or powerful, encouragement from his oath-making (v. 18). That we have “fled to take hold of [grasp] the hope” means that we have turned from our former lives of sin and despair and to Christ for salvation, stability, and security.7 The foundation for our encouragement, moreover, rests in the character of God, who cannot lie.

What, then, are we to make of the “two unchangeable things” of which 6:18 speaks? Remember that in 5:1–10 the author launches his section on Christ’s appointment as high priest with a quote of Psalm 110:4. I believe this verse is on the author’s mind at 6:18 as he moves back to his discussion of Melchizedek (7:1–10) and Jesus’ Melchizedekan high priesthood (7:11–28) in the next chapter. Notice the two components in God’s oath given in this Christological psalm, which forms the basis for 7:11–28:

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind:

“You are a priest forever,

in the order of Melchizedek.”

The first component, “You are a priest forever,” composes the author’s argument in 7:15–28 on the eternality of Christ’s priesthood. The second component garners his attention in 7:11–14, where the Levitical decree that priests come from Aaron’s tribe is shown to be set aside in the case of Christ. Rather, God’s Son, who was from the tribe of Judah, comes to office by way of another order—the order of Melchizedek. These, then, are the “two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie” (6:18)—that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek and that he has been declared by God as an eternal high priest. These truths offer powerful encouragement to the heirs of God’s promise because they are grounded in the person and work of the eternal Christ.