¹⁷ In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie…

Oaths are not something God needs to do—His word is good enough. But to emphasize “even more” to mere humans, He adopts human convention to convey divine truth. First, He makes a promise (Gen 12:1-3), then He makes an oath (Gen 22:16)—these are the two unchangeable things that communicate the “unchangeableness of His purpose.” The phraseology is remarkable. The word “interposed” carries the connotation of “guaranteed.” So we have the staccato emphasis with words like promise, unchangeable, guarantee, oath—packaged together with “it is impossible for God to lie.” This describes “His purpose.” When God speaks, we have an anchor, a reference point for all else. Everything pivots on this. His Word is the ultimate singularity. If the big bang theory of cosmological speculation has any hint of reality to it, then the infinitely dense point from which all came is God’s Word!

Consider that when God created out of nothing, “ex nihilo,” He did it by speaking. “And God said, ‘Let there be light…’ ” (Gen 1:3). Before anything existed, there was the Word of God. Of course, this presumes the Word finds its origin in God Himself, who is, as theologian say, an uncontingent reality. In other words, He does not owe His existence to anything else. He simply is. And He spoke. From His Word all else exists; everything is contingent upon God and owes its existence to Him.

So what God speaks, by definition, is true in the ultimate and purest sense. But for us humans in fallen condition, He condescends to speak in ways more readily understood, based on our life experiences. So He stated His truth as a promise to Abraham, that He would bless the world through his physical downline, that is, through his descendants. And then He confirmed it with an oath. However, the fact that He simply said it in the first place makes it certain.

Now the truth that God cannot lie (“impossible”) should be obvious but since the human experience is rife with falsehoods, and the tempter (“father of lies” John 8:44) continually obscures the truth, we need constant reminders (see Titus 1:2, etc.). The question, “Is there anything God cannot do?” is hereby answered, at least in one case. This beachhead anchors the letter to the Hebrews. God made a promise, He would bless, and that blessing is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, descendant of Abraham, not through the Law.

Lord, I count on Your Word as truth, especially in this world of false imagery and deception. Help me walk in the truth.