OATHS GOD HAS SWORN
Genesis 22:15-18; Psalm 110:4; Isaiah 45:23
It is a remarkable thing that God should swear oaths. It says in the epistle to the Hebrews, “Wherein God, willing to shew 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” (Heb.6:17,18); that would be the background. It explains the thought that God should swear an oath, and what is in mind is that there should be for us a strong encouragement. God is the God of truth. We had that referred to in the psalm on Lord’s day, and we sang just now that the Spirit is the “Spirit of truth” (Hymn 401). We see how truth is throughout all of the sayings of God. He is a God of Amen1, He is a God of truth: that is His character. So there is a condescending grace towards us in that He would take this up, to swear an oath. Abraham had that full and strong encouragement. God had already spoken to him about the land (Gen.13:15), and would now in the light, and in view of his faithfulness commit Himself in this rigorous way. God says, “By myself I swear”, and “By myself” is repeated in the thought of His swearing. God’s own glory and honour is brought into view in that He would secure, and would assure to Abraham, and assure to Abraham’s line of faith, that what He had said, He would do and it could not be challenged.
It has also been said that the swearing of an oath is in the face of what is contrary, and I suppose the scene that surrounded Abraham at that time was a scene of the Amorites with their iniquity operative, but not yet full. It would not be for hundreds of years that the actual entrance into the land would take place, and yet throughout that time there was a full assurance that God had not only said it, but that He had sworn, and sworn by Himself. How reassuring it is to think of what was in God’s mind in type, the entrance into what is heavenly, the entrance into the enjoyment of what is the divine sphere. As we think of these things, we know that God has, with this certainty, sworn by Himself that there should be those of the seed of Abraham, those on the line of faith, who should enter in and should enjoy and should be secured in this.
It is remarkable how God speaks of His oath regarding the land in Deuteronomy. Chapter 6 is an example: Moses speaks of this again and again, “God bringeth thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee” (v.10); then again, “the good land which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers” (v.18), and “to give us the land which he swore unto our fathers” (v.23). It goes into the next chapter, “he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers” (v.8). Moses, in going over these things as there was preparation for going into the land, looks back over the history, looks back at the way in which God had faithfully answered to His oath and was about to introduce His people into the land of promise, the land that He had sworn to them. How glorious it is that we can really go back to God, as Moses was doing here, and draw His attention to what He has promised. God delights that we should think of the things that He has sworn to do and that we should go back and speak to Him about them, and be assured of them. How blessed this is.
But then it comes the point in the psalm where His swearing has a particular glory in relation to the Lord Jesus. Psalm 110 says; “Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent”, referring to the inauguration of Christ, and the glory and dignity of His priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. We see how publicly there had been failures and turning aside. God had sworn that they would come into the land, but there had been what there was of turning aside with them, so that what there was even in the priestly family had to be dealt with by God. How serious and severe that was. But God has Christ in view and the glorification of Christ. Christ is Priest, and He is Priest as the ascended Man now. He has a priesthood that will persist, but always there is this strong encouragement, this strong assurance, that God has sworn. Christ is there in the glory of His Person, the glory of His victory and in the moral worth that attaches to Him. But not only that – He is there as the One who God has sworn should be Priest after the order of Melchisedec, showing the definiteness of the divine view of Christ.
I thought too about the fact that the Lord Jesus said that we are not to swear at all (Matt.5:34). It comes into the epistle of James that we are not to swear (Jas.5:12), as if God would reserve to Himself to use this strength and vigour of determination of what is to happen, and particularly in the present dispensation, this swearing that Christ, the Lord Jesus, should be magnified forever as a Priest according to the new glory and dignity of the order of Melchisedec. It is the order that relates to One without beginning and without end, it relates to One who is there in an unfailing glorious order. How wonderful it is that God could swear in this way, for the glorifying of Christ as Priest.
But then God is going to secure a whole scene for Himself, so that we come to Isaiah 45 and again God has sworn by Himself. “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return”. How definite it is that God is going to secure His end, and that end is “that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear”. There must be some echo of this in Philippians 2 when we see that Christ is the One to whom every knee shall bow, and Christ is the One of whom every tongue shall confess that He is Lord to God the Father’s glory (vv.10,11). We see the operations and glory of God to secure His glory in Christ. How wonderful it is that these matters are so dependable. It is a strong encouragement for us that God is going to secure His end and that end is that every knee shall bow. How blessed it is that there is the privilege and the opportunity now for every knee to bow, and for us to be subject. Yet God, having determinately decided that there is going to be that response to Himself, assures us and confirms it in that He has sworn by Himself.
These are just a few thoughts for us to consider: the glory and majesty of what it is that God should assure things by swearing by Himself, for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
6 February 2018
D.C. Brown