1. Heb. 6:13-20 “God’s Promise, Our Anchor”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 17 Feb. 2019

vs.13-14 For God, having promised to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Of course I will really bless you and I will really multiply you.”

• This is clearly a quote of Genesis 22:17, practically word-for-word the same as the Septuagint translation into Greek of that passage.

  • Gen. 22:13-18 “And Abraam lifted up his eyes and beheld, and lo! a ram caught by his horns in a plant of Sabec; and Abraam went and took the ram, and offered him up for a whole-burnt-offering in the place of Isaac his son. And Abraam called the name of that place, The Lord hath seen; that they might say to-day, In the mount the Lord was seen. And an angel of the Lord called Abraam the second time out of heaven, saying, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and on my account hast not spared thy beloved son, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is by the shore of the sea, and thy seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast hearkened to my voice.” (Brenton)

  • The Greek Septuagint – as well as the KJV – are word-for-word translations of the original Hebrew of the quote; it is a peculiarity of Hebrew grammar to repeat a verb in order to intensify it: “blessing I will bless” means “I will REALLY bless” or “I will abundantly bless.” But the passage in both Gen. 22 and Heb 7 is even more intense than that: the opening particle in the original quote is used to introduce something very sure and certain, which, unfortunately, the NAS, NIV, NLT, and ESV all omitted in their translations of Hebrews 6:14 (although it’s there in the NAS back in Gen. 22).

• Now, why would God add this assurance, “Of course I will really bless you”? I think it’s because God had made the initial promise years before – while Abraham was still in Ur, in Genesis 12:3, and because He knew how easy it would be for Abraham to doubt the fulfillment of that promise after so many years of not seeing it fulfilled yet. That’s why God heaped on the re-assurances at this point later in Abraham’s life.

• “Blessing” and “multiplying” are the words used in the covenants God made with Adam & Eve (Gen. 1:28), with Noah (Gen. 9:1), with Abraham (as quoted here), and with Moses and Israel (Deut. 7:13). Both words are also carried on into the New Testament: “blessing” (such as the beatitudes) and “multiplication” of people in the church (Acts 9:31).

• So, how are blessings such as this obtained?

v.15 Indeed he obtained the promise after being patient in this way.

• How did Abraham “obtain the promise”? It was “after being patient/longsuffering.” (Most English versions also add an extra verb like “waited” or “endured.”)

  • It occurs to me that the first adjective describing love in 1 Corinthians 13 is this word “patient/longsuffering/makrothumia.” (“Love is patient...”)

  • If you love the Lord your God with everything you’ve got, you will be patient - just like Abraham was - and wait for Him to fulfill His promises to you as well!

  • I believe that the adverb “thus/so” was intended to be related to the participle “being patient/longsuffering,” which immediately follows it in Greek without the comma which is in most English translations.

    • In other words, although all the standard English translations translate houtws as an indicator of logical or temporal order (“and so/thus/then”), but I believe that the emphasis is rather on Abraham obtaining the promise in the manner of being patient.

    • He didn’t get the land and the descendants and the reputation by being cunning and hard-working or better than everybody else; he got it by being patient.

    • That is the nature of God’s grace. It’s a promise. It comes free, but you do have to trust Him for it and wait for it.

  • Romans 11:5-6 “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” (NKJV)

  • James 5:7 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord...” (NKJ)

v.16 For humans swear by that which is greater [than themselves], and among them, the oath for the purpose of confirmation is an end of any controversy.

• An “oath/vow” is a formal promise,

  • Like the one that King Herod made to Salome (Mat. 14:7) to give her anything she pleased – up to half the kingdom,

  • or like the oath that Peter made to the servant girl at the high priest’s house when he denied knowing Jesus (Mt. 26:72).

• Now, this isn’t to be construed as an encouragement for us to take oaths, for we are warned in James 5:12 “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your ‘Yes,’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No,’ lest you fall into judgment.” (NKJ) The point is just that people everywhere make oaths, and that’s what God did, and so the customs of oaths apply in this case too.

• One of the customs of oaths is to “SWEAR by a greater¹”

  • I don’t think anyone would take my promise seriously if I said, “I swear by my son Jed that I will finish this sermon in the next ten minutes.” My 7-year-old doesn’t have any authority over how long I preach. An oath is traditionally sworn under the authority of someone more authoritative!

  • For, instance, when the King of Gerar wanted to make a peace treaty with Abraham, he asked Abraham to swear by his God in Genesis 21:22-24²,

  • And when Laban and Jacob made their peace treaty, the only way Laban could trust that sly fox Jacob was for him to “swear by the fear of his father Isaac… the God of Abraham...” in Gen. 31:51-52³.

  • And so, when the President of the United States takes his oath of office, he places his hand on a Bible (or at least that’s what the Christian Presidents have done) and he ends the oath by saying, “So help me God,” because God is greater than the President and can therefore hold the President accountable to follow through on the promised oaths.

• A properly-configured oath should settle the matter, and God’s oath to Abraham was as proper as could be.

• Furthermore, it is part of God’s character to confirm things with us⁴, and this Greek word for “confirmation” (βεβαίωσιν) has already showed up four times in Hebrews before this passage: Hebrews 2:2-3 “For, since the word spoken through messengers got confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just payback, how would we ourselves escape after showing apathy for such a great salvation? Which, after it received its beginning by being uttered by the Lord; it was confirmed to us by those who heard… 3:6 Christ, on the other hand [is faithful] as Son over His administration, which administration we ourselves are, if indeed we hold on to the confirmed open practice and confident expression of THE hope until the end… 14 we have become companions of the Anointed One if indeed we hold on to the beginning of our confirmed understanding until the end.” (NAW)

• v. 17 uses another Greek word which adds to this concept of confirmation, ἐμεσίτευσεν,

  • which unfortunately the King James and New International Versions confused with the Greek word Bebaiwsin in v.16 by translating both Greek words with the English word “confirm.”

  • However, Friberg’s Greek-English Lexicon defines the word in v.17 as to “bring about a sure agreement, mediate, act as surety of a contracted obligation, guarantee,” from which the ESV and I got our renderings. (The New American Standard Bible translates it “interposed.”)

  • This interposition was prophesied by Isaiah “53:6 All we like the flock have strayed, each has faced toward his own way. But Yahweh interposed [הפגיע/παρέδωκεν] in Him the iniquity of us all… 53:12 Therefore I will divvy up loot for Him with the many, and with the strong He will divvy [it] up, instead of whom He poured out His soul to the death and was numbered with rebels. And He Himself carried the sin of many, and will interpose [יפגיע/παρεδόθη] for the rebels…. 64:4 And from way-back-when, they have not heeded, they have not given ear, eye has not seen a god besides you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him. 64:5 You interposed [פגעת/συναντήσεται] the one who is glad and does righteousness; in your ways they will remember you. As for you, you were angry, and we sinned; but in them forever we will be saved.” (NAW)

v.17 Toward this [end], God mediated with an oath, planning to show overwhelmingly to the inheritors of the promise the unchangeableness of His plan.

• The book of Hebrews uses the noun form of this Greek word emesiteusen multiple times⁵ to speak of Jesus being the mediator of the New Covenant, for instance, Hebrews 9:13-15 “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator [μεσίτης] of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” (NKJV) For what reason is Jesus the “mediator”? Because His blood shed on the cross made our sanctification much surer than the death of any goat, so that we can be sure to receive the promise of inheriting Him and His kingdom eternally!

• Hebrews 6:11-12 “Now we desire for each one of y'all to display the same diligence toward the full assurance of the hope until the end, in order that y´all might become... imitators of those who, through faith and longsuffering, are inheriting the promises.” (NAW)

• The “promise” and the “inheritance,” we have seen before from scripture is Christ and His eternal life.

• And that plan of salvation is “unchangeable/immutable.” This is the only time the Greek word for “change of placement” meta-tithemi, appears in the Bible with an alpha-privative as “un-changed” a-meta-theis. Without the alpha privative it is used to speak of changes in all sorts of earthly things:

  • Earthly men “change” [μετετέθη], like Enoch did in Heb. 11:5,

  • The priesthood may “change” [μετατιθεμένης] and the law may “change” [μετάθεσις] too, as it says in Heb. 7:12,

  • And the location of an entire nation may change [μεταθεῖναι⁶], as it did in the Babylonian exile of the Jews (Isa. 29:14).

  • In fact, according to Heb. 12:27, the entire created world will “change” [μετάθεσιν].

  • But God doesn’t change, so His promises don’t change, and therefore we can be certain that what He says will come true. (Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change [שׁניתי/ἠλλοίωμαι]; Therefore you are not consumed...” ~NKJV)

• So, with a determined will/desire/plan, God accommodated the human convention of an oath to help us trust Him. And whether, the adverb “very/overwhelmingly/abundantly/convincing­ly” is applied to the abundant greatness of God’s desire (as the KJV and NAS translated it) or whether it is applied to the main verb of the sentence “to show more overwhelmingly/ abund­antly/convincingly” (as the New King James, NIV, ESV, and I did), the practical upshot is the same that, as the next verse puts it, “that we might have strong consolation/encouragement.”

v.18 in order that, by means of two unchangeable matters (including that it is impossible for God to lie), we who have escaped to grab the hope which is being set forth, might have strong comfort.

• What are the “two unchangeable things” which give us this confidence?

1. The phrase and its key words don’t occur anywhere else in scripture, and it appears that only one thing is listed, namely the fact that God can’t lie. That fact is indeed comforting, and God’s people have had it in writing ever since Balaam’s prophecy was recorded in Numbers 23:19-20, "God is not a man, that He should lie [διαρτηθῆναι], Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.” (NKJV)

2. But God not lying is only ONE thing. What’s the other thing? I suggest that it is the thing that was called “unchangeable” in the previous verse – and which is the topic of all the surrounding verses, and that is the fact that God made a promissory oath to bless Abraham as Abraham trusted in Him. Formal vows like that, as a general rule, can’t be changed. God has always blessed those who trusted in Him, from Old Testament to New Testament, and that can’t change because He has sworn on that. Add to that the fact that God would never lie because He is a truth-teller by nature, and you have two really good reasons to take His promises to the bank. (In fact, I would place far more confidence in His promises than I would in any bank!)

• So why are there two things? It might be related to the Biblical principle that any legally-binding matter must be established by at least two witnesses⁷.

• Now, what should this confidence inspire us to do?

  • “escape to grab the hope which is being set forth” and “have strong comfort”

    • To escape/flee/katafugein is probably an allusion to the Old Testament cities of refuge, considering that most of the instances of this word in the Greek translation of the Penta­teuch refer to cities of refuge (Lev. 26:25, Num. 35:25, 26, Dt. 4:42, 19:5, Josh. 20:9),

    • but the word is applied more figuratively in the rest of the Bible to God’s salvation, for instance, Psalm 143:9 “Deliver me from mine enemies, O Lord; for I have fled to thee for refuge.” and Zechariah 2:11 “And many nations shall flee for refuge to the Lord in that day, and they shall be for a people to Him....” (Brenton).

    • What do we flee from?

      • The world that stands in rebellion against God,

      • the wrath of God which is falling upon that world,

      • and our own efforts at redefining a right relationship with God.

  • We flee to God in order to grab/lay hold of/hold fast to the hope He sets before us:

    • The Greek word describing what God has done with this hope is used throughout the Old Testament only to denote serving up a meal⁸. God has “laid out” this hope like a dinner-table-setting in front of us for us to “grab” a fork and dig in to! That’s the picture created by the language of this verse.

    • Hebrews 4:14 “Therefore, since we have Jesus, the Son of God, the Great High Priest who has crossed into the heavens, let us keep grabbing/holding on to [κρατῶμεν] our confession [of faith in Him].” (NAW)

• What is the result? “Strong comfort”!

  • Psalm 94:19 “thy mercy, O Lord, helped me. O Lord, according to the multitude of my griefs within my heart, thy consolation have soothed my soul.” (Brenton)

  • The triune God Himself is our “strong comfort,” in the persons of:

    • Jesus: Luke 2:25 “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Sim­eon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel...” (NKJ)

    • the Holy Spirit: Acts 9:31 “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” (NKJ)

    • and God the Father: 2 Corinthians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (NKJ).

  • Furthermore, God’s promises in the Scriptures are also our comfort: Romans 15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (NKJ, cf. 1 Cor. 14:3, 1 Thess 2:3, 1 Tim. 4:13, Heb. 13:22)

• 2 Thess. 2:13-17 “...God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Him­self, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” (NKJV)

• Verse 19 opens in Greek with an accusative feminine singular relative pronoun – translated into English with the word “which” or the word “this.”

  • The nearest accusative feminine singular word that this relative pronoun could refer back to is the word παράκλησιν in v.18, which is translated “comfort/consolation/encouragement.

  • (I do not think it refers to the word for “hope” because that is in the genitive case, not the accusative as this relative pronoun is.)

• This relative pronoun in v.19 is followed by four accusative feminine singular words which form a list of four qualities describing the comfort God has set out before us through His promise of eternal salvation:

v.19 which we have like an anchor of the soul, both unfailing and con­firmed, even entering into the inner-place that was curtained-off,

Let’s look at each of these four descriptive words in turn:

1. ἄγκυραν τῆς ψυχῆς = anchor of the soul

• This phrase does not appear anywhere else in the Bible, but it does create a picture based on what sailors do with a literal anchor: It connects them to stable earth while floating in the midst of turbulent seas and keeps the ship from moving away from where the boatsmen want to stay.

• Knowing that God can be trusted to keep His promises gives our hearts something stable to tether to, so that we don’t have to get whipped around emotionally by all the upsetting things that happen in life. Do you have this anchor for your soul?

2. ἀσφαλῆ - literally “un-failing,” but also translated “Sure/firm.”

• This word is used in the Greek New Testament to refer to the security that soldiers provide to keep notorious suspects from getting away or to keep places secure so they don’t get broken into by vandals and thieves⁹.

• This word is also used in the Greek New Testament to describe what detectives do. They look for concrete evidence which won’t be proved wrong, and they write down and present incontrovertible facts¹⁰.

• Both meanings apply to the Gospel, for it is factual information: Luke used this very word to express why He wrote His Gospel: Luke 1:4 “that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” (NKJV) This truth also results in imperturbable peace and security, as we lay our hopes up in heaven where “thieves can’t break in and steal.”

3. βεβαίαν – this is another form of the word in v.16 for “confirmation,” but is translated “steadfast/secure” here by most English versions.

4. εἰσερχομένην εἰς τὸ ἐσώτερον τοῦ καταπετάσματος – coming into the inner-place which is veiled

• About 80% of the time that this word for “inner” is used in the Greek Bible, it refers to the inner room of the temple called the Holy of Holies.

• The entryway to this room was cordoned off by a big, heavy curtain or veil.

• Leviticus 16:2 “And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to Aaron thy brother, and let him not come in at all times into the holy place within the veil before the propitiatory, which is upon the ark of the testimony, and he shall not die; for I will appear in a cloud on the propitiatory.” (Brenton)

• Only once a year, the designated High Priest could enter that holiest place, and only if he had no defects, and only if he was carrying the blood of an animal which had been sacrificed to propitiate God’s wrath against the sins of God’s people.

• This, as we’ll see later, was typological of the holiest place of God’s presence in heaven, into which Jesus brought His own blood to fully and finally propitiate God’s wrath against us. (Hebrews 10:20 tells us that the veil was Jesus’ flesh, not just a curtain in Jerusalem.)

• This clearly relates our comfort to Jesus’ priestly action of pacifying God’s wrath against our sin.

v.20 where Jesus the forerunner, entered on our behalf, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.

• We’ve already met with Jesus’ calling to this priestly order in Hebrews 5:9-10 – the Son of God “became legally-responsible for eternal salvation to all those who obey Him, having been publicly-called by God as high-priest according to the order of Melchisedek.”

• I hope to finally get to an explanation of the priestly order of Melchisedek in my next sermon, but for now, notice the priestly work of Jesus and the comfort it brings us.

• Hebrews 10 picks up on this theme and explains more fully: “14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified…. ¹⁹ Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (NKJV)

• Notice who is to enter the holy place now. We are! Jesus was a forerunner, which means we are to do it after Him. When Jesus entered heaven with His blood to satisfy God’s justice against our sin, the veil of the earthly temple in Jerusalem was torn in two, symbolizing that God’s people now have free access into God’s intimate presence. So that’s where we should go!

1. APPENDIX: Side-by-side Greek Text & English Versions of Heb. 6:13-20^A