Fleeing to Christ Our Refuge and Hope in Our Difficulties

Hebrews 6

 

 

GOD’S PROMISE

13 For when God made Promise to Abraham (presents the Patriarch as the most illustrious example of those who “inherit the Promises” [Jn. 8:58]), because He (God) could swear by no greater (refers to the solemnity and power of this Promise), He swore by Himself (a guarantee with resources of Heaven behind it that the Promise will be kept),
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you (refers to “Justification by Faith,” and is taken from Gen. 22:17), and multiplying I will multiply you. (This refers to his seed becoming a nation, and more importantly, every Believer being a “Child of Promise” [Gal. 4:28].)
15 And so, after he had patiently endured (there’s always a distance between the Promise and the Possession, and that distance is never uneventful), he obtained the Promise. (The immediate meaning was the birth of Isaac. However, the eternal meaning was Justification by Faith, which would come about from Isaac’s seed, Who is Christ [Gal. 3:16].)
16 For men verily swear by the greater (men never swear by one who is inferior to themselves): and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. (In our modern terminology, this means a contract has been agreed upon and signed by all parties, which ends all strife.)
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of Promise (refers to the Lord working in accordance with this universal custom) the immutability (refers to the fact that God will not change His Position as to His Promise) of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath (refers to the guarantee of the Pledge or Promise):
18 That by two immutable things (they are the Promise to Abraham of the coming Redeemer, and the Oath given as it regards Christ being a Priest forever after the Order of Melchisedec), in which it was impossible for God to lie (refers to the moral impossibility of such), we might have a strong consolation (refers to assurance), who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us (carries the idea of the sinner fleeing to one of the Cities of Refuge in Israel; in effect, he was fleeing to the High Priest who has offered Atonement for him and his sin [Deut. 4:42]; using that as a type, we are to flee as well to our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ):
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast (presents the Apostle changing the illusion from safety in the Cities of Refuge to a ship reaching harbor after a tempestuous voyage, knowing that her anchor is sure and steadfast), and which enters into that within the Veil (refers to the Holy of Holies, which Jesus has entered on our behalf);
20 Whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus (presents the imagery of the Great Day of Atonement, when the High Priest entered the most Holy Place on behalf of the people; all of that was a Type of Christ, Who has entered the Holiest for us), made an High Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. (This presents Christ as not in the line of Aaron, but another Order altogether. The old Levitical Order had an ending. This Order has no ending. Christ is an Eternal High Priest.)

Swaggart, J. (2005). The Expositor’s Study Bible (pp. 2126–2127). Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.