Hebrews 6:14
"Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee."
Stop and think. What are we talking about? We’re talking about one man who is already 75 years old. His legitimate wife is already 65, well past the normal age of expecting children. And then God makes them wait another 25 years. By that time you would think they would have totally given up. But you know, isn’t that the way it works. God stretches us past our limits of endurance to prove His supernatural abilities and when we've passed through those limits we find that God uses the some simplest of things which baffle us. For this is the meaning of Isaiah 49:13 where He uses the word afflicted, Jesus used such words as broken and contrite of heart.
I have to tell people when they ask, "Why do we have to go through pressures and so forth before God answers." I always use this comparison - I don’t know how many of you like to eat the blue concord grapes like I do. But the first thing I do when I put a blue concord grape in my mouth is, I squeeze out the pulp, you know what I’m talking about. And how that pulp in your mouth just pops out of the skin. Alright, That’s how I feel when God deals with me a lot of times? I feel like the pulp in that grape skin. He just squeezes me into the corner, tighter and tighter and I finally get to the place, "God aren’t you ever going to hear me?" Then ‘faster than ever’- there’s the answer! And so this is what He did even with Abraham. He just squeezed him and squeezed him and I suppose Abraham was almost thinking he could never have a son by this 90 year-old wife. That is exactly how we're dealt with because first it produces His Love in us and then it turns our trusting of Him into faith, why, because we're trusting His faithfulness.
And what happened? The miracle of God, she had the promised son Isaac! And so this is what we have to constantly remember, that God will never go back on His promises. And that’s what makes our Christian experience so exciting. Now verse 15.
Hebrews 6:15
"And so, after he had (what?) patiently endured, and he obtained (what?) the promise."
Here it came! A hundred years old - his wife 90, and here came the promise. Up until that time, he must have agonized, how will a nation of people possibly come from me when there’s no chance that my wife can have a child. But you see, Abraham, just like us, underestimated the power of God, but it came. And he held the promise. Verse 16.
Hebrews 6:16a
"For men verily swear by the greater:…"
In other words, the more authority you can get backing you up the better we like it. I imagine if you deal with corporations, I’ve found that you don’t like to make the underlings angry or anything like that but I’ve found one thing, if you want to get something done, you go as far up the ladder as you possibly can. Even if you have to bypass a few people that won’t like it. You go to the top if you want to get something done, and so, this is the same way here. Why go to anything less than the God of Creation, because He is the greatest that can give a word of promise.
Now then the two things that are mentioned here are the two immutable witnesses which would be His Word and His Oath. He not only spoke it but He promised it! He put an oath on it.
Hebrews 6:16b
"…and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife."
The casual reader probably reads right over that. What does that really mean? Well, until you get somebody to sign on the dotted line, what is there still room for? Negotiation. But once you get them to sign on the dotted line, there’s no more argument. That’s what you signed, and that’s what you agreed to.
Well, that’s what God has done. God has sworn it with an oath, that these things are going to come to pass and there’s no room for argument. Oh, they can scoff all they want. The unbelieving world can ridicule it but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Sovereign Creator God is in total control. It’s going to happen according to His timetable and you can rest on it. Verse 17.
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