And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:

“The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind:
    ‘You are a priest forever.’”

22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

When someone speaks on oath, say in a law court, we should be able to believe them. Should! But that would be in an ideal world. Sadly, you can’t believe what everyone says.

But you can always believe God.

We need to appreciate the Hebrew background to the argument here. When God speaks it is done! His Word is His work. If God says Jesus is ”a priest forever”, then He is.

Note too the strong word ”guarantor”. The Greek word used makes its only New Testament appearance here. In the Greek text the name ”Jesus” stands in the most emphatic place, right at the end of the sentence: ‘the guarantor is Jesus.’ Westcott points out that a surety ‘for the most part pledges himself that something will be: but here the Ascended Christ witnesses that something is: the assurance is not simply of the future but of that which is present though unseen.’

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for the certainty, confidence and security we have in Jesus.