Click here for the Hebrews 6:13-15 PODCAST
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. ~ Hebrews 6:13-15
For some time now, we have been studying the book of Hebrews, wherein, the writer of Hebrews has been urging his young Jewish audience to abandon religion and pursue a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And, in order to help them with this process, he directs their attention to Abraham, the greatest Jewish patriarch.
Now, especially to the Jew, Abraham is the ultimate illustration of trusting God. But, before Abraham came into a personal relationship with the Lord God, he, like you and me, was a pagan. He lived in a city known as Ur, with his father Terah who was a descendant of Shem, one of the sons of Noah. And Abraham’s father was a pagan who worshipped false gods. He lived in a place called Ur, which is between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in the area called Mesopotamia.
According to Genesis 12, God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave his hometown in southern Iraq and go to the land He would show him. When he got to the next place, he received another promise from God with directions. God reiterated this promise to Abraham several times in Genesis 12,13,15,17,18, and 22. Over and over God promised, and, over and over, Abraham believed. And, as long as Abraham believed, he was blessed and was made a great nation. In addition, the promise of God to Abraham ultimately produced the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abraham trusted God against all odds, and, God was true to His promises. Abraham waited twenty-five years to realize his promised son, Isaac. But, that was only the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise. Isaac was a partial fulfillment. God tested Abraham’s faith on Mount Moriah by telling him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. How could God bless Abraham with descendants too numerous to count if the promised son were to die? Even in that context, Abraham considered that God would raise Isaac from the dead. And, it was from that possibility that Abraham received Isaac back as a type of the Messiah.
In v.13-14 of today's passage we read, "13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, 'I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.'"
The Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional covenant. There were no conditions that Abraham had to meet for it to be fulfilled. God designed and promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation through whom He would bless the whole world with the Messiah. And, God promised by Himself because there is nothing greater in the universe than God, so, when He made this promise to Abraham, He made it on the basis of Himself. It was the God of the Bible who invented truth. Whatever He says is truth as such. So, by the very nature of His person, God promised to Abraham and all who would believe in His Son that we would be saved. In the same way Abraham trusted God, we can trust God because He will never fail to fulfill this promise to them who believe.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised."
Abraham believed the promise of God, not because he immediately saw it fulfilled. In fact, there was one occasion when he began to waver in his faith and he thought he had to help God out. His wife, Sarah, came up with a seemingly ingenious scheme to fulfill the promise of God, and the result was the birth of Ishmael who became a thorn in the side of Israel from that day onward.
In Romans 4:19-21 we read, "19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."
All biblical faith rests on the character of God, including Abraham's faith. It is always in the veracity of God that our faith must rest. Without seeing any results for twenty-five years, Abraham hung on to the truthfulness of God. And, even though he struggled, Abraham, in the end, believed in the God of the Bible. Abraham understood the nature of faith is believing without necessarily seeing tangible results. The man who sees with his eyes, no longer needs to believe. The man who is struggling to see with his eyes has yet to be trained to look for God with his heart. Faith is not sight, nor sight faith.
Einstein did not come to the knowledge of relativity by performing a series of experiments which ultimately convinced him that relativity was true. He gradually saw the concept of relativity, and, convinced in his own mind that this was the secret of the physical universe, he performed experiments that he might be able to demonstrate to others. This is the way of truth. This is also the way of faith. Believing is seeing with our hearts. This is, therefore, the secret of faith and godliness for it rests on the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
