²⁰ And inasmuch as it was not without an oath ²¹ (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’ ”) …

Some people are surprised when reading the Scripture for the first time that God gives oaths. It does seem odd that He would elevate some of the things He says to that level of accountability. In Hebrew 6:13 we saw that He could not swear by anyone greater than Himself because there is no one greater than He. Therefore, He swore by Himself. That makes sense. But then God is always true to His word and His word is always true to His character, even when not making oaths. And His character is perfect. So why use oaths?

When God swears with an oath, it does not make His word more certain. But it does convey to us humans a level of intensity we need to hear and understand. It adds gravity for our benefit. To be certain, everything God says is weighty—but we as humans do not treat everything God says that way. So, throughout the history of humanity on earth, there are times when God want us to understand in no uncertain terms, with absolute clarity His plans and purposes.

One of those times and purposes when God does not want us to miss has to do with the identification of Jesus with Melchizedek! With the Levitical priesthood, there was no oath—and even given that it was such a revered institution, it did not rise to the stature of emphasis that an oath would have given it. To be sure the Israelites were to observe all the multiplied details of the ritualistic commands concerning the priesthood. But the Melchizedekian priesthood exists on a completely different plane. The paucity of ink spent on scribing the story of that seemingly obscure king-priest stands inversely proportional to its significance! So much so, that God confirmed Christ’s Melchizedekian membership with an oath (Psalm 110:4).

The story itself, as originally told in Genesis 14, contains no mention of such an oath for Melchizedek himself. But Psalm 110:4 tells us that the Messiah (which we understand as the primary referent in that psalm), became a priest in that Melchizedekian order by way of an oath! We need to understand that God gave His word, He swore an oath, and He “will not change His mind…” Therefore, we conclude that the Lord sees the priesthood of Jesus as far surpassing anything else. That speaks about the gravity of our need!

Oh Lord, when I see the true nature of Christ’s priesthood, I appreciate even more the solution You have provided for my sin, as grave as it was.