This is the hope offered to us: the surety of His oath

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 6:19-20

Recently I have been studying Hebrews, which I love, I think it is one of my favorite books. This morning I was in chapter six and was really encouraged by it.

It starts by encouraging believers to not fall away, talking about diligence as a way to "make your hope sure" and to "inherit what has been promised".

The interesting thing about this book is that the writer never says something without backing it up; they never assume that we take God's promises, hope, or faith as a given. The next section goes on to explain why we have reason to have hope in God's promises, the title of it is "The Certainty of God's Promise"... I like that. Anyway I thought it was really cool so I'll share what God showed me through it.

God showed me that we can trust in His promise because: He has no greater name by which He can swear by than His own. And because an oath assures us that His words are trustworthy. (Hebrews 6:13-17)

I never really understood the significance of an oath until I looked up the definition. It is defined as "a solemn appeal to a deity, or to some revered person or thing, to witness one's determination to speak truth, to keep a promise." The idea is that no one swears by God unless he is absolutely determined to speak the truth. Since God has no greater name by which he can swear we can trust his promises.

Jesus once talked about a man's oath saying "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." (Matthew 5:34-36) That really put the significance of the word in perspective for me! We do not even have the ability to keep a promise the way God can because we are so much more limited than Him. We cannot even swear by our own head without relying on God because He makes our hairs white or black and He created all things that we might swear by.

And in another place Paul talks about it like this:

" Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself."
2 Timothy 2:11-13

The saying is trustworthy because God cannot deny himself, His name is higher than all names and He cannot break a promise without denying His very nature.

I love how God's trustworthy nature is called "an anchor for the soul". It's so true! If there is one thing in life we can really rely on it is God, we can anchor ourselves to His promises and never be let down! That is awesome... it's a promise within a promise, God will keep His word. And it is the whole reason we have to be diligent in following him, it gives us reason to hope and to have faith. I'm encouraged, how about you?? :)