Day 28 – God’s Oath

Today my sermon was focused on the Gospel reading. Since you will be able to watch or read the sermon later when it is produced, I decided today’s Daily Lenten Journey would feature the Epistle Reading from Hebrews. Another Sunday, another day with empty Churches, continues to create anxiety on the people of God. When will this virus subside? When will God make everything better?

As Saint Paul write in his letter to Hebrews (you can read it below), God made a promise to Abraham. In order for Abraham to trust the promise, “God desired to show more convincingly” that His word was to be trusted. God made an oath. He made the oath that we “might have strong encouragement” in our struggle.

As we embark upon our fifth week of Great Lent, I invite you to have trust that God always fulfills His promise. He promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and we are proof of that promise as members of Christ’s Church. He also promised that we would live forever with Him, and His Word was given as an oath. As Saint Paul reminds us, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” Keep in your heart the promise of God, and you will be comforted during this virus pandemic, and all other struggles.

BRETHREN, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore to himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. – Hebrews 6.13-20