5 Minute Read

Prepare Your Heart

To the best of your ability, get rid of all distractions. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and quiet yourself in the Lord’s presence. Then, ask the Lord to speak to you in this time. Let Him know that you will listen and make whatever adjustments He will reveal to you.

Read God’s Word

Jeremiah 47-48
Hebrews 6:13-7:10

A Verse for Today

Slowly and reflectively read the following verse(s) and listen to what God will say to you through His written Word. Consider writing down any insights He reveals to you.

Hebrews 6:13-14, 16 (CSB): “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. … For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute.”

Reflecting on God’s Word

In the verses I have chosen for today, we observe that God made a solemn promise to Abraham. God swore to bless him and give him a vast number of descendants.

To demonstrate just how serious He was, Hebrews 6:13 tells us that God took an oath.

When a Christian is sworn into office, they typically like to place their left hand on a Bible as they raise their right hand. Then, they take the oath. The picture demonstrates the solemnity of the occasion. They appealed to something greater than themselves (the Bible) as a demonstration of how serious they were.

Years ago, witnesses in a court of law would place their left hand on a Bible as they “swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help (them) God.” Again, they appealed to something so much greater than themselves as a demonstration of just how serious they were about their oath.

Hebrews 6:16 (CSB): “For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute.”

So, when God took an oath to bless Abraham, what did He appeal to? He didn’t place His hand on a Bible. He didn’t (as kids used to say) “swear on my mother’s grave.”

Why did God not swear by anything outside Himself?

It isn’t merely that God didn’t. It’s that God couldn’t appeal to anything greater than Himself to demonstrate the seriousness of His oath because there is nothing greater than Him.

So, what did He do? What did He swear on?

Hebrews 6:13 (CSB): “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself:”

God swore by Himself because there is nothing greater than Himself to appeal to.

This may seem like an obvious but insignificant point. After all, we agree with it, but how does it play out in our lives?

One way that immediately came to my mind as I reflected on this verse is unpacked in John Piper’s incredible book, “Desiring God.” In it, Piper writes that “God is uppermost in His own affections.” By that, he meant that God delights in Himself and values Himself above all else, like you or I could never do. In fact, Piper builds the case for God being the only One in all of Creation who can seek His own glory without being sinful in doing so. Piper even goes so far as to say that if God gloried in anything but Himself, He would be guilty of idolatry.

These biblical convictions about the supremacy of God and related matters explain how we are to understand verses like the following…

John 4:23 (CSB): “But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.”

Essentially, God is focused upon His glory. The Trinity has delighted in their glory for all of eternity. Salvation is the doorway Jesus has provided in which we are invited into the joy of that relationship.

When Jesus tells us that the greatest command in all of Scripture is to love God with all of our being, He is saying that God is love, He loves us, and He is calling us to love our God and enter into that love relationship.

Why not spend some time in prayer today, asking God to take you deeper into the joy-filled relationship within the Trinity, above whom there is nothing and no one else?

Spend Time in Prayer

  • Ask God to help you understand what His Word has to say about His glory and His supremacy over all Creation.
  • Ask God to give you a greater vision of how wonderful He is.
  • Ask God to help you enter into the joy of the relationship within the Trinity in ever-increasing degrees.

Going Deeper

If you want to dig a little deeper into understanding how jealous God is for His own glory, consider reading the following GotQuestions article:

“Why will God not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8)?”

Sharing

If this post has been helpful to you or if you think it could help others, please consider tapping one of the social media buttons below to share it on your favorite platform.

____________________

Matt Ellis is the pastor of White Hall Baptist Church in Richmond, Kentucky (whitehallbaptistchurch.org)