Hebrews 6:13-15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For when God made promise, &c.— "And a glorious confirmation you will find these promises to be, when you come to compare one spiritual object with another, and are better skilled in the method of interpreting the sacred oracles, on principles which I am going to lay down. For I may, in the first place, lead you to observe, that when God made the great and comprehensive promise to Abraham, (Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 17:1-7.) on which so much of our hope as Christians does also depend, the promise that he would be a God to him, and that all nations should be blessed in his Seed,—seeing he had no greater a person to swear by, he swore by himself, even by the honours of his own sacred and divine name; saying, by an audible voice from heaven when he repeated the promise, while Abraham stood with Isaac before that altar on which with humble submission to the divine appointment he had just before laid him, (Genesis 22:16-17.) By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that blessing I will assuredly bless thee, and multiplying I will assuredly multiply thee; I will bless and multiply thee remarkably, so as to make thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. And thus having waited long in humble faith and patience, he obtained in due time the accomplishment of the promise, first in the birth of Isaac, and then, after a much longer attendance, the consummation of a better hope. And we whose circumstances so happily resemble his in this respect, may well follow the example of his faith, when we survey the foundation of it."