After warning his hearers/readers of the dangers of falling away from their commitment to Christ and his way of life, our Preacher gives us reassurance in very strong terms. Well, strong terms in his day! Omit verses 19 and 20, but imagine someone today saying the same things as in verses 13-18, and ask yourself, “is this a convincing argument?”
13 When God made the promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, “he swore by himself,” 14 and said, “I will indeed bless you and multiply” you. 15 And so, after patient waiting, he obtained the promise. 16 Human beings swear by someone greater than themselves; for them an oath serves as a guarantee and puts an end to all argument. 17 So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, 18 so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. 19 This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
What is the problem? Oaths, in our day, a culture 2000 years removed from New Testament times, have nothing like the forcefulness or importance of oaths of the Preacher’s day. Do we (modern Americans) really believe that “an oath serves as a guarantee and puts an end to all argument”?? We have replaced much of the use of oaths with provisions and penalties set by positive (human-made secular) law, to be enforced by law enforcement personnel, lawyers with accounting backgrounds, and elected or appointed judges. This is so pervasive in our day, so ordinary, we hardly ever consider oaths as having much significance. Even when testifying “under oath” in a legal proceeding, no one actually expects God to intervene if a person lies–we look to perjury charges under some human-crafted positive law.
Things were drastically different in the first century A.D., much less in Abraham’s day some 18 to 20 centuries earlier. There was NO secular law in Abraham’s day. There were NO secular legal enforcement possibilities. Even under Roman law in New Testament times, about the only things that provoked legal attention were acts considered threats to the rule of the Empire (non-payment of taxes, overt political/military resistance). Enforcement by local military commanders, as you might imagine, was not too discriminating. But first degree murder in some local town? Robbery from a shop or farm? The Empire did not bother. Jews had their laws–ALL religious, all given by God–and oaths were a large part of that. That only works if most everyone believes that God or gods are real and not to be trifled with. Lie, with God as your witness (backing up the truth of what you say) and you are inviting your own destruction.
It is difficult for many in the modern, not-god-haunted world to understand this.
Now, we, as Christians, DO believe in oaths. Remember, “oath” in Latin is “sacramentum.” We have 7 oaths we are committed to and rescued by! They permeate our daily life, our weekly practices. We can hear what the Preacher is saying when he reminds us that what God promised Abraham originally in Genesis 12, he later made absolutely certain by unilaterally making an oath to Abraham through the covenant ceremony in Genesis 22.
For reflection:
Have you considered the sacraments as oaths, taken personally or for us by our parents, that bind us to God–and God to us? Are oaths to be taken lightly? Do we honor the ones we have made? Being party to an oath, God will never stop upholding his commitment to us. He is always willing our good, eager to review and renew if we have let down our end. He will always work with us from the very point, any point, that we turn back to him. That is, he does not say, “get your act together and I will work with you,” but rather, “work with me, just begin, and we will make steps towards getting your act together.”
Note that after this diversion to challenge and then reassure his listeners/readers, the Preacher is now ready to resume his teaching on Jesus and “the order of Melchizedek.”