Heb 6:13-20 Sure and Steadfast Anchor
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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 waited, obtained the promise.
16 For people swear by something 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 guaranteed it with an oath,
18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to 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 place behind the curtain,
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
One of our kids had some serious separation issues. Considering the background the separation issue was nothing considering what other issues we might have to deal with, but by God’s grace, we only had to deal with this separation issue, where he would almost get into a panic attack if we would live him with someone else.
It seemed like there was nothing we could do or tell him that would help, he couldn’t listen because he was overcome by fear due to his earlier experiences and traumas. However, by God’s grace, we found a way to help him to deal with his anxiety. Leanna would make him look at her eyes and make him focus on her, then ask him “did I ever leave you and not come back to you?” and tell him again “you will have fun today and I’ll come back to get you”, do you know Mommy loves you and I’ll never leave you, you can be sure of this I will come back to get you.”
What he needed was to be told again and again that we would never leave him, nor forsake him, just like God tells us that He will never leave us or forsake us. In the same manner, after God gives us a strong warning He holds our faces and asks us to look at Him, to focus on Him and God tells us I’ll never leave you nor forsake you, do not fear”
God’s desire for us is to have the full assurance of hope until the end, v17-18 clearly states God desires to show the unchangeable character of His purpose so that we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Since we are covering several verses let’s look at the overall theme of these passages. V13-16 describes God giving an oath to Abraham, then v17-18 describes why God gives the oath so that we could be double assured of our hope in Christ. This hope is described as a steadfast anchor of the soul in v 19-20. Now, let’s start with v13-14.
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.”
Previously the author of Hebrews told us already that he desires each of us to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end and that we may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. What we see God doing in this whole section is telling us again and again that His desire for us is to have full assurance and imitate those that have gone before us.
Now here in v 13-14, we see the author of Hebrews reminding us of the example of Abraham, later on in chapter 11 the author will give us a long list of examples for us to follow, but now the attention is turned to Abraham. Someone who was considered by Jews as the greatest man of faith. Remember the readers of this letter were likely former Jews who were tempted to view the revelation of God in the Old Testament as more important than Christ. So to them, Abraham was viewed with great respect and honor and he was a good person of faith to imitate, and the Jews were descendants of Abraham, so they would call Abraham their father, to whom they pay attention to.
Therefore, the readers of this letter knew pretty well the account of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Furthermore, they would know that this reference to God swearing to Abraham was a reference to Gen 22 when Abraham offered his son Isaac and God provided a ram and God swore to Abraham saying:
“By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” (Gen 22:16-17)
However, this was not the first time God had sworn to Abraham. God made promises to Abraham at least 6 other times that are found in Gen 12, 13, 15,17,18, and 21.
"But our author does not refer to any of these passages; rather, he quotes from the “the offering of Isaac” in Genesis 22, where God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was the supreme test of Abraham’s faith since the fulfillment of God’s covenant depended upon Isaac’s offspring. Genesis 22:1 indicates that this incident was a “test” for Abraham, but Abraham did not know it was a test. So confident was Abraham in God’s faithfulness that the author of Hebrews said in 11:19 that Abraham reckoned God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill his promise. At the last moment, God intervened and stopped Abraham from killing his son. After Abraham sacrificed the ram that was caught in the thicket nearby, the Lord not only reiterated his promises to Abraham, but swore an oath” (Allen, David L. Hebrews. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2010. Print. The New American Commentary.)
We also need to consider the weight of God swearing or making an oath. When God makes a promise He doesn’t have to swear, as it is stated by v 18 it is impossible for God to lie, so when God says it is as certain as if it had already happened. It is secure, guaranteed, it is more sure, and more stable than the biggest mountain you can think of. He spoke a word and all creation came into existence. What God says is more sure than all creation together, no wonder Jesus said in Matt 24:35 “35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Therefore, God making an oath is not necessary. So why then does God make an oath? It is for our sake. God is God and there is none like Him, we are His servants, but He treats us with so much kindness, compassion, and love. It would have been enough for God to only say a word to us, and when we doubt His word we put ourselves in a place of judgment because we are doubting His power, authority, and sovereignty. Instead of giving us what we deserve, God bends His knee and for our sake, He makes an oath so that we would have double confidence in Him and His promises.
However, when God makes a promise it also means it is not going to happen right away. It means we will have to wait, just like Abraham had to wait.
15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
However, we might say this seems to contradict Heb 11:13 “13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
But now here in chapter 6, it says that Abraham obtained the promise. These two texts don’t contradict each other. In chapter 11 the author is talking about the full realization of the promise of many descendants and the land, while here in 6:15 is talking about Abraham receiving Isaac, in a sense Abraham received Isaac back from the dead because God stopped Abraham and provided the ram instead.
V15 also says that Abraham patiently waited. Here the author is telling us to imitate Abraham to look at God’s promises and His oath and patiently wait for the fulfillment of the promises. “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” (2 Peter 3:9-10)
Therefore, we should patiently wait. We cannot despair or be overcome by the fear of what is happening in the world. But, we should grow in our confidence that everything that God said is going to be fulfilled, heavens and earth may pass away but the word of God will not pass away they will be completely fulfilled. We can be assured because God said and because He swore by himself saying “Surely I will bless you”
However, what does it mean to wait? When we think of waiting we might think of passive waiting, like when we are in the doctor's office or the dentist, or waiting for an airplane and there is nothing to do just sit there and patiently wait. Is this how Abraham waited and how we should wait for God? I don’t think so, I think waiting in God is an active waiting, it is waiting in hope.
Tripp said “Waiting on God is internal rest that results in courageous action. We don’t just wait—we wait in hope. What does hope in God look like? It is a confident expectation of a guaranteed result. We wait believing that what God has begun he will complete, so we live with confidence and courage. We get up every morning and act upon what is to come, and because what is to come is sure, we know that our labor in God’s name is never in vain. So we wait and act. We wait and work. We wait and fight. We wait and conquer. We wait and proclaim. We wait and run. We wait and sacrifice. We wait and give. We wait and worship. Waiting on God is an action based on confident assurance of grace to come.”
(Tripp, Paul David. New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014. Print.)
After the author of Hebrews talks about Abraham waiting he gets back to the theme of swearing.
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
Swearing is not part of our daily lives, however, before the New Testament taking an oath was more common practice. We see an example of that when Jacob flees from his father-in-law Laban, then they make a covenant and call upon God to be a witness and a judge if one tries to harm the other, and each of them made an oath that they would follow what they promised. Therefore, their dispute ended as they made oaths to each other.
Thus, oaths ended disputes, and it was the final word of affirmation to assure others that what was said would be followed through. When people swear and want to stress the validity of the promise they will select something of great value, some might put their hands over the Bible, or they will swear by their mother’s grave.
“Why do you swear on something great and valuable? Because what you are saying in an oath is this: If I prove false—if I am lying—then let my dead mother be a liar. Or: Let God be false. Or: Let the Bible be condemned. So the degree that you value and esteem the basis of your oath, to that degree your word can be trusted.” (Piper)
However, God did not swear by something or someone else, because there is no one greater by whom He could swear, He swore by Himself. That means God is saying on the account of the greatest value in the whole universe, that is God Himself, on the account of His name, His glory, God made a promise to us.
Why would God go to the extreme of making such an oath? He didn’t have to make an oath at all, and He did. Furthermore, He didn’t have to make a promise at the cost that He did. He made the oath at the cost of Himself, His name, and His glory. The question we should be asking is why? Why is God going to such extremes? The answer is found in v17-18
17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,
18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Why did God go to such extremes? Because it is His desire for us to have strong encouragement and confidence. It is God’s desire for us to have full assurance of hope until the end. If this is the case we might ask, why then does God give such a strong warning in v4-8?
Chapter 6 v4-8 gives us one of the strongest warnings in all of the New Testament. The purpose of the warning is to shake us and cause us to drop any confidence we might have in ourselves, our works, or anything within us. It should cause every true believer to recognize that our only hope is Christ alone and nothing else.
If Christ is your only hope in this life and the life to come we can have GREAT confidence that He will hold us. Look at the extent to which God is giving us confidence in these verses, from v 9 -20. God is speaking to us and giving oaths to us.
One might say these promises and oaths were to Abraham. However, notice here in v17 says “to the heirs of the promise” and in v18 “we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement”. The author of Hebrews here is pointing very clearly that these words from God and His oath were to us, those who fled to Him for refuge.
The previous serious warning is similar to the warning to those during Noah’s time, while outside the ark the result is death and the only confidence is that of eternal punishment in hell. But for those inside the ark, those that are in Christ, there is great confidence in salvation. If you are holding to Christ alone, not anything we have done, but truly you believe Him, you love and obey Him, and willingly are submitting to Jesus' lordship, we can rest assured trusting God with double confidence that He will keep us safe.
All these words from God would have been more than enough for the most discouraged person to be confident. However, God gives us even more confidence in the last two verses.
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
The main point here is that God is giving us an image of what kind of confidence we can have. It is like a steadfast anchor of the soul. No one needs to be a boat expert to know what an anchor is. It is this massive metal object that is firmly secured to a chain and the boat, when the anchor goes down it finds a solid ground to rest and hold the boat no matter how strong the waves are.
If our confidence, our anchor rest on this world, even though it seems solid and stable we can see in the current events in Turkey and Syria that even the earth may give way and everything around us will collapse and fall apart. However, God tells us here that this anchor rests not on solid ground, but it rests in heaven in the inner place behind the curtain, in the holies of holies in the very presence of God.
There is nothing more secure and stable that God could have told us. God swore by Himself, on the account of Himself, at the cost of His only Son that He will save us, those who have fled to Him for refuge. Jesus is our confidence.
Then it says that Jesus has gone to the inner place behind the curtain, as a forerunner on our behalf. Our confidence is in Jesus, who is sitting at the right hand of God. Jesus is our eternal high priest who has taken his precious blood for our sins to enter the holies of holies on our behalf.
Therefore, we can have great confidence because our sure and steadfast anchor is Christ Himself. God said it and He swore it. What we need to do is to look at Jesus, and pay attention as God holds our faces and asks us to look at Him and trust in Him. He will never leave us nor forsake us. If we are his sheep we will hear His voice.
John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Notice how good and gracious our God is to us. He is so patient with us and goes to such an extent in order for us to have confidence in Him. There is no God like our God. In the end, it is all about Him, His glory, and His name. Isn’t it amazing that before we come to salvation, Jesus is the only answer, now as we patiently wait to obtain the promise Jesus is everything to us? Then one day when faith shall be sight it is going to be all about Jesus, our high priest, our Lord, our King, the Alpha and Omega, Immanuel, King of Kings, Prince of Peace, wonderful counselor, the lamb of God, Lord of Glory, and our good and gracious King.