Hebrews 6:11-20 (NKJV)
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Lord encourages us in today’s verses to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Faith and patience go together. Faith hears a promise of God and says, “Yes, I believe in God to be true to His word and to do as He says.” But the things God promises are often to be sought in the future, and so patience is required.
This was the case with most of the promises made to Abraham. He was promised offspring, for which he had to wait 25 years. He was promised descendants as numerous as the stars—something he never saw during his earthly life. He was promised the “Promised Land” of Canaan, but he was told from the start that it would be 400 years before the promise would be fulfilled. He was promised that all nations would be blessed through him and his offspring, which began to be fulfilled when Christ came and won’t be completely fulfilled until all the elect from all the nations are brought into the Holy Christian Church.
Abraham clung in faith to the word of God, to the point that he was ready to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac, fully believing that the Lord would raise him from the dead in order to fulfill his unbreakable promises. And as a reward for Abraham’s faith and patience, God made the promises even stronger by adding an oath to them, swearing by Himself that He would indeed fulfill them all. That oath added yet another solid layer to the already-solid foundation God had already laid in His promises, so that Abraham had all the more reason to keep believing and keep waiting patiently.
New Testament Christians have good reason to imitate the faith and patience of Abraham and all the Biblical saints, and to hope for all the good outcomes God has promised us. Not only do we have His inspired promises to rely on for the present and future, but we also have the record of God’s faithful fulfillment of every promise made along the way. So let us trust in the word of our God, wait patiently for the help and deliverance He has promised from sin and every evil, and let us “flee for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” Let us pray: Lord God, increase our faith, hope, and love, and grant us the gift of patience, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.