There seems to be more than ordinary significance in that of which the apostle speaks when he makes use of the above expression. He has been urging the Hebrews who had believed in Jesus to follow the example of their father Abraham, who having received promises from God waited in patience for their fulfilment. Then he adds that he is persuaded of them better things than those of which he had spoken; 1:e., of some dangers that specially beset them in their changed position-one of faith, and not of sight. " But we desire earnestly that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience have been inheritors of the promises. For God, having promised to Abraham, since He had no greater to swear by, swore by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee:and thus having had long patience he got the promise. For men indeed swear by a greater, and with them the oath is a term to all dispute, as making matters sure. Where in God, willing to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, intervened by an oath, that by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before us, which we have as anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and entering into that within the veil, where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become forever a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 6:11-20, J.N.D.).

Having before spoken of Jesus according to the type found in Melchizedek, the apostle, after making these needful remarks, returns to that which was before his mind, and speaks in detail of it.

It is very beautiful to observe the manner in which the Spirit of God seeks to instruct and encourage the hearts of these Hebrew Christians through the types found in the Old Testament. In this particular instance He seems to lead them into a fuller understanding of the place of blessing into which the resurrection of Christ introduces the believer, showing in what way the "strong encouragement" is given us who have laid hold on the hope of the gospel. The manner in which He states it here is, of course, specially adapted to those to whom the epistle is addressed, though, as we shall see, having none the less the blessing of all true believers in view, whether Jew or Gentile.

We can well understand how anything that could be gathered from the history of their forefathers, and applied as an encouragement to the minds of these Hebrews, would come home to them with peculiar force. If they could look back, and see in one like their father Abraham circumstances akin to their own, it would indeed prove to those who had faith in God a stimulus to press on and not to be discouraged :hence the Holy Spirit recalls their minds to the time when God made promise to Abraham, and how he patiently awaited, under the most severe testing, the fulfilment of that which Jehovah had spoken, learning by means of the trial to know the One he trusted as the God of resurrection. The force of the argument seems to be as follows:

God had called Abraham when he was yet an idolater in Mesopotamia, to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house, and go into a land which God was about to show him. He said, " I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:2, 3). "By faith " Abram obeys God's call, "and he went out, not knowing whither he went"; yet God told him that the land whither He led him was to be his, and afterward promised him a "Seed," in whom all his hopes were to be realized.
After a time of testing, during which Abraham seeks to obtain God's promise of the seed by the strength of nature, God fulfils His own word:Abraham is "without strength," but in the "due time" of God's promise Isaac is born, and, as his name implies, faith now rejoices in the manifest fulfilment of the promise God had made. When Isaac is well grown, God commands Abraham to take his son, "thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." In beautiful submission, Abraham obeys, and is about to raise his hand to slay his son, when God intervenes, saying, "Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." After providing a ram to be offered instead of his son, the Lord again speaks to him, and says that which we have quoted in Hebrews:"By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice" (Gen. 22:16-18). It is important to observe here that Abraham still rests on the promise of God. "After he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." But he had now, not merely the promise of God, certain as that surely was, but also (for the sake of the "heirs of promise," we are told) the oath from God concerning the certainty of its fulfilment, assuring them in this manner of the un-changeableness of His purpose.

Do we see in the trial of the faith of these Hebrew Christians anything at all akin to that of Abraham? Let us inquire. If they were merely the natural seed, they had no claim on the promises; for Scripture teaches us that "it is of faith," without which "it is impossible to please Him." Abraham is the "father of all them that believe" (and here the Jew has no prerogative over the Gentile). Now by the proclamation of the same gospel which has come to us, who were Gentiles, these Hebrew believers were also called. Like their father Abraham, they were asked to .leave their former condition, for "the hope set before them." Like Abraham, they had obeyed-though there was a danger with some of them, like Lot's wife, to turn back to the Jewish system which was marked by the judgment of God. Spiritually, Jerusalem is called Sodom (Rev. ii:8). As a nation they had already had proved to them what Abraham learned as to Hagar and Ishmael, 1:e., that the flesh could produce no acceptable fruit for God, and therefore stood condemned before Him; while He had sent them the true Isaac according to His word of promise. While despised by '' His own," as Isaac by Ishmael, yet a remnant discerned Him as the promised Heir, and placed their hopes in Him. This remnant leave their all to follow Him; and when challenged, "Will ye also go away ?" reply, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we know and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of God." But while this little company knew and honored Jesus as God's only begotten Son, we find that they were all unprepared for that which was about to take place. They seemed not to realize that "He must first suffer " ere they could share the inheritance with Him; that this was the only ground on which He could righteously have them share His reign. Over and over He seeks to lead them into the truth of that which He had come for. They could not understand why He must suffer, but thought that by His almighty power He would deliver the nation from their enemies, and reign over them. They have their Isaac, so to speak, and expect to be blessed through Him. In this they were surely right; but as to the manner in which that blessing was to be accomplished, or the sphere of their blessing, they "understood not." When at last, instead of redeeming them according to their expectations, He is actually put to death by His enemies, their perplexity and fear give way to despair:they return to their homes dejected and overcome by all that had taken place. Their brightest hopes seem all to be dashed to the ground. Their Messiah, the Son of God, as they believed, instead of blessing them and reigning over that people and the whole earth, as the prophets predicted he would, has actually been put to the most ignominious death, and does not even attempt to deliver Himself. Nay, more:when men had done their worst to Him, He cries to God; and instead of being delivered by Him, is forsaken by God too:then, having died, and being buried, the disciples go away unto their own homes, saying, "We trusted that it was He that should have redeemed Israel." Here Abraham's faith was stronger than theirs:he had learned this same deep lesson in taking the son of promise to the mount of sacrifice, where, to all appearance, every hope given him of God was about to be destroyed. Yet it was just here that everything was established upon a foundation eternal as God Himself:at this critical moment Abraham found strength in faith, giving glory to God. Could God altogether take Isaac from him ? To do so were to abandon His faithfulness. Abraham waits; he is patient; by faith he endures the trial, "accounting that God is able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he receives him in a figure" (Heb. n:19). Isaac's deliverance from death was but a figure of the resurrection of Christ; and this, blessed be God, is His answer of joy to the deep sorrow of His people, who are now made to rejoice with Him in the One who by going into death has glorified God and opened the avenue of eternal blessing to all who will believe on Him. Thus in the resurrection of Christ God comes in with His oath of assurance to the "heirs of promise" of His unchangeable purpose in respect to their receiving the "eternal inheritance." If in the birth of Christ we behold the promised "Seed" given, and thus the "word of promise" fulfilled (Acts 13:23, 33), is not the resurrection of Christ the oath, so to speak, to all who believe in Him, of the absolute certainty of their blessing?

It is the only possible ground on which the "sure mercies " can and will be given to Israel, to restore them again in their land, and to save them with an "everlasting salvation"; and it is the same blessed way in which blessing has come to us Gentiles, and apart from which all faith and preaching of the gospel, and all hope derived therefrom, are "vain." (Comp. Acts 13:34; Gal. 3:8; Heb. 6:13-20 )1

No wonder, then, that the Spirit of God speaks of God as giving to all the heirs of promise, to all who hear God's voice in the gospel, a "strong encouragement "! How blessed to know that the death of Christ has (may we not say ?) placed God in a position of indebtedness for eternal blessing to every one who has fled for refuge beneath the precious blood of Christ, even to those who by faith have laid hold on the hope of the gospel; and the fact that He has raised His Son from the dead, and sent down the Holy Spirit with the message of good news, inviting all, whosoever will, to come and take the water of life freely, is the wondrous manner in which God declared His obligation, His righteousness, as also His great joy, in justifying and blessing every sinner who believes in His Son Jesus Christ.

To His own name be glory and praise from our hearts forever. Wm. H.