Transcript Document

Presentation 09
Presentation 09
Introduction
The writer is constantly grounding his teaching and
illustrating it from O.T. history. And for him the obvious
place to go to illustrate the patience of faith mentioned
in v12 is the life of Abraham. The readers would be
familiar with the promise God made to Abraham in
Gen.12.1ff. This promise was staggering in its
content; a land, a great name, a nation and
all the peoples of the earth would be
blessed through his lineage.
And of course the fulcrum upon which the
outworking of these promised rested was
in the provision of an heir to this elderly
childless couple.
Presentation 09
Abraham’s Confidence
The readers of this epistle were aware of the
long years that Abraham waited for a child to be
born. In addition they would know of Abraham’s
temptation to discouragement on the one hand
and to disbelief on the other. Just think of the
incident with Hagar when Abraham reasoned
that all he was doing was helping God out by
having a child through Sarah’s servant. He was
helping God keep his promise!
Despite ‘hiccups’ such as these, the thing that
marked out Abraham’s life was his patience of
faith, waiting for God to fulfil his promise. Cf.
Rom. 4v18-21
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Abraham’s Confidence
The writer was calling his readers to do what
God called Abraham to do when he instructed
him to go to Mt. Moriah. They too needed to
continue to trust and obey, as they had done
in the past, even though it looked as though
perseverance would result in tragedy.
Having patiently waited and remained
steadfast in the face of trying circumstances,
Abraham was qualified to receive everything
God wanted to give him cf. Col. 1v11; Heb.
12v1-3, 7; James 5v11.
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Abraham’s Confidence
The issue for Abraham had become the issue
for these Hebrew Christians. Could God be
trusted? The particular point the writer is
eager to underline is that God did something
to strengthen Abraham’s confidence. He took
an oath! This could be a reference to
Gen.22v15-19 after Abraham had been
prepared to sacrifice his son – the
consequence of which would have made the
fulfilment of God’s promise a bit more
difficult from a purely human perspective.
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Abraham’s Confidence
But of equal significance is what transpired in Gen.
15 which records the cutting of the covenant
which God transacted with Abraham. The
covenant was unilateral in that Abraham was held
back from participating. God took upon himself
the fulfilment of all covenant promises.
Commenting on these verses someone has said,
“God’s word cannot be made more true but it can
be made more credible.” In what way did God’s
oath make his promise to Abraham more credible?
God was saying something like this, “my whole
existence hangs upon my trustworthiness, if I fail
to keep my promise I am pressing the self destruct
button on my own existence”.
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God’s Oath
The oath which God made teaches us
something about God’s condescension to our
human frailty. John Calvin, commenting upon
the way in which God communicates with the
limitations of a finite humanity, describes God
using ‘baby talk’.
Here in this oath we have another example of
divine condescension. Oaths are necessary
among men because of the uncertainty and
unreliability of their behaviour due to human
sin. The fact that God binds himself in this way
to an oath tells us more about human
perversity that divine unreliability.
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God’s Oath
When a person wants to end an argument,
one way to do so is to appeal to a higher
authority with an oath. For example, some
people do this by saying, “I am telling the
truth so help me God.” Men generally swear
by something greater than themselves. You
will undoubtedly have experienced that.
In the law-courts of our land witnesses are
sworn in by saying, ‘I swear by almighty God
that the evidence that I shall give shall be the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.’
Presentation 09
God’s Oath
But here is the important point that the
writer now makes, God cannot swear by
anything greater than himself for he alone
is eternal and unchangeable in a world of
constant change and impermanence.
For further examples of God going on oath
see, Exod.32v13; Isa. 45v23; Jer. 22v5;
49v13.
The significance of God swearing by himself
signifies that he binds his word to his
character.
Presentation 09
God’s Oath
The verbal oath of Gen. 22, in contrast with the
pictorial symbol in Gen. 15, was given after, and
not before, the greatest trial of Abraham’s faith.
Abraham was prepared to offer up his son,
believing that if he was obedient to God’s
command, that God would raise him up again.
Therefore, the writer draws our attention to the
fact that this oath was designed to reward and
confirm existing faith rather than create faith.
God had responded to Abraham’s action saying,
‘Surely, I will bless you’ Gen. 22v17. The N.E.B.
translation helpfully attempts to bring out the
force of the Hebrew, ‘I vow that I will bless you.’
Presentation 09
Perseverance
It was by testing and perseverance that
Abraham laid hold of the promise. It is in this
context that the writer talks about Abraham
obtaining the promise. It was obtained through
a faith that had been tested and had overcome.
The readers are therefore encouraged to follow
Abraham’s example and obtain the promise
through perseverance and by similarly
triumphing in the trials of their faith.
The oath that was made to Abraham was made
not only for his sake but for the sake of all the
heirs of the promise cf. v17 including the N.T.
church. Cf. Gal. 3.29....
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Perseverance
Clearly God has guaranteed his trustworthiness to
the church by two unchangeable things; his word of
promise and his oath of confirmation. He has done
so that we might have a strong encouragement to
seize hold of the promise. There is therefore no
excuse for the sluggishness mentioned in v12. God’s
word and oath are there for us to lay hold of.
What particularly are we to hold onto? The word of
hope! In other words the promises made in the
gospel which point from the present to future glory.
Cf. Jn. 14v3, 17v24, 1Cor. 2v9, 1Pet 1v3ff. This hope
is sure and certain unlike mere human hopes and
wishes.
Presentation 09
Place Of Safety
The figure that closes v18 is an O.T. one. In our
times of temptation to apostatise we can flee
to the promises of God. We can take hold of
them as a fearful person in Israel could flee to
the altar of burnt offerings, take hold of its
horns, and be safe from his assailants. Cf.
1Kings 2v28-30
The cities of refuge also provided safety for
the Israelites who feared for their lives and
their future wellbeing [Num. 35v9-15; Josh.
20]. Christians have a better refuge than that
which served O.T. Israel.
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Place Of Safety
Another illustration of our security is provided in v19-20.
When Jesus entered heaven at his ascension, he took
our hope of future reward with him. In the first century,
sailors would carry their ship's anchor in a small boat
and deposit it on the shore so the ship would not drift
away as waves beat against it [Acts 27:29-30]. Likewise
the hope that Jesus Christ has planted firmly in heaven
should serve as an anchor for our storm-tossed souls.
It should keep us from drifting away from God [cf.2v1].
Our anchor rests firmly in the holy of holies, in God's
presence in heaven, with Jesus.
There are at least 66 pictures of an anchors in the
catacombs under Rome indicating its popularity as a
Christian symbol of Christ.
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Conlusion
The writer has been preparing the way for
his development of the high priestly role of
Jesus after the order of Melchizedek. He
has earlier alluded to the fact that Jesus’
priesthood is different from and superior
to that of Aaron. He now wants to establish
how any priesthood can be superior to the
one instituted by God in the wilderness
through Moses. This he will begin to do in
7v1-10. Indeed this would appear to form
part of the solid food which he said his
readers needed to eat [5v14-6v1] - the
high priestly ministry of Jesus.
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