Promises and Hope

Hebrews 6:13-20
13 When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "I will surely bless you and multiply you." 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16 Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. 17 In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
In the twelfth episode of season six of the NBC comedy “The Office,” fans of the show were introduced to a special group of kids referred to as “Scott’s Tots,” named for the leading character in the show, Dunder Mifflin Regional Manager, Michael Scott. Scott’s Tots were an entire class of students that Michael had spoken to some ten years prior and promised them all that if they graduated from high school he would pay for their college tuition. Well, as you can imagine, the day came when Scott’s Tots were ready to graduate, and Michael (still the regional manager of a small paper supply company) wasn’t even able to afford to send one of them to college. So, after an elaborate show of thanksgiving for what Michael’s promise had done for Scott’s Tots, he had to break the bad news to them, and offer them all a laptop…battery for their trouble.
Needless to say, all of the “Tots” were disappointed, and Michael was humiliated because he had made a promise he couldn’t keep. However, at the end of the show his secretary Erin tells us that because of Michael’s promise, Scott’s Tots had the highest graduating class in years, and many of them were the first in their families to graduate from high school and even dream of going to college. You could say their hope in Michael’s promise motivated them to be better.
In September of 2008, I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Tom Long, professor of preaching at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, at a chapel service at Truett Seminary, and in his sermon titled “A Case of Misjudged Appearance,” he shared the story of a hospital chaplain in Louisville, Kentucky who had attended an Ash Wednesday service on his lunch break. When the chaplain began making his rounds after returning to the hospital, he came to the room of a woman that Dr. Long referred to as a “smiley-faced Christian” ( You know the type, always saying things like “Praise the Lord for dryer sheets!” or something like that). Anyhow, the chaplain entered this woman’s room on this particular Ash Wednesday with the ashen cross still imposed on his forehead. The woman, not knowing any better, reached over towards the chaplain with a tissue and said, “You’ve got some dirt on your forehead; let me just wipe that off for you.”
The chaplain said, “No ma’am. This isn’t dirt on my forehead; it’s a cross in ashes and oil.” “Well what is that for?” she asked. The chaplain thought for a moment and said, “This is a sign that when all the world goes to hell, God is still with me.” The woman reached up and touched the cross on the chaplain’s forehead and said, “I think I need some of that.”
It may be silly to think at first, but the fictional “Scott’s Tots” and Dr. Long’s story of a woman in a Louisville hospital are quite similar; both stories involve a promise and the hope that springs forth from such a promise. This morning, on this third Sunday of Lent, as we continue on our journey through this letter to the Hebrews, we have heard words that speak of a promise and the hope that comes forth from it, in the author’s brief exposition of God’s promise to Abraham.
In verses 13 and 14 the author of Hebrews writes, “When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and multiply you.’” Now, in the ancient world when one made a promise, it was not as simple as saying “I promise to (pay for your college tuition)” or signing a promissory note. When one made a promise, swore an oath, or made a covenant, one did so in the name of God, and therefore, it was understood that if one did not live up to the promise he or she had made, aside from breaking the third commandment, then God would follow through with whatever the agreed upon consequence was for failing to keep one’s promise. In other words, if you were going to make a promise in the ancient world it would go something like this: “I promise, in the name of God, that I will do such-and-such, and if I do not follow through, may he strike me dead.” Now people were so afraid of the severity of the consequences of breaking a promise, that they rarely uttered the consequences in an oath, in fact sometimes they would purposefully mutter the words; they were simply understood by all the parties involved.
So what our author is getting at here in verses 13 and 14 is that God is where the buck stops, so there is no one higher for him to swear by, no one higher than God to hold God accountable to the consequences of not following through. This, however, isn’t a reason not to trust God, for God swore by himself, the writer says, and if that wasn’t enough, in verse 17 he says, “In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath.” A promise and an oath: God, without needing to, made a promise to Abraham to increase his descendants, and in a desire to show “the unchangeable character of his purpose” he made an oath too. Therefore (as the author says in verse 18), “through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.”
“The hope set before us.” What hope is our author referring to here? Given the context, one might think that the promise referred to is that of Abraham for a multitude of descendants. However, the author is simply using Abraham’s situation as an illustration for the way in which God’s promise can be trusted. So to what hope is our author referring? Well, he says in verses 19 and 20, “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” So the hope being referred to here, the hope we have in the unchanging promise of God, is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” and something about a shrine and a curtain? Well…yes.
The author of this sermon to the Hebrews is referring to the curtain that separated the Holy Place of the Tabernacle (or the Temple) from the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies) was only entered by the high priest and only on the Day of Atonement, so one day a year only one person was allowed to go into this one cubical room, so what? Well, the Most Holy Place is where the presence of God was said to reside; this is where God was, in a box in a tent or in a temple, and only one person once a year was allowed to be in the presence of God. Sounds a bit like a sham doesn’t it?
But that is the author’s point here. It’s not that way anymore. We can trust the promise of God because of what and how he promised Abraham: his descendants were numerous; God had followed through on his promise. And now we have this hope—this ever-present, real, living, and breathing hope—that Christ has gone before us into the presence of God, being God himself, that we may be in the presence of God. No longer is it just one, special person, one, special day a year; it’s everyone everyday! And you and I can hold on to this hope, because we know that God’s promise is true, that he will hold to his word, just as he did with Abraham. We have this hope because Christ has become the great high priest who intercedes on our behalf, the great high priest who has offered up the ultimate sacrifice in himself and made a way into the presence of God for you and me. That’s the hope we have; a hope that we can trust in Jesus, our great high priest, our lord, and our ultimate sacrifice. We can trust in the power of Christ to forgive our sins and bring us into the presence of almighty God and truly live. What a promise God has made to you today! Won’t you trust in that promise this moment and “seize the hope set before you”?
Let us pray…