Hebrews Chapter Six, Invoking The Name Of Yahweh

 

Hebrews 6:16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end to all dispute.

 

Verse 16 is not an endorsement of the practice of swearing, or taking oaths. The writer, as we have already noted numerous times, is addressing a readership of Jewish Christians who are therefore well acquainted with the concept of swearing in the name of the Lord, and all that it entails.

Israel, being God’s covenant people on earth and the only nation with whom God has had dealings with and given land to, often took vows in God’s name. For example in the book of Leviticus we read, “And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord,” Leviticus 19:12. This is predicated on verse 11 of Leviticus chapter 19, in which the Israelites are commanded not to steal or deal falsely with one another. Taking the Lord’s name was an oath of honesty and integrity. A man could make no greater vow of fidelity in regard to whatever subject their conversation involved, which in this context appears to deal with the legalities of testimony involving the treatment of one’s neighbor. Verse 13 adds that the Jews were not to cheat or rob their neighbor, or to withhold the wages of a hired worker until morning. A man could clear his name by “swearing to God” in these instances, or taking a vow about their moral integrity with Yahweh as witness.

 

Another example of swearing can be found in 2 Samuel. After Joab and Israel save David the king from his own son Absalom’s treachery, David mourns so vehemently for his son that it shames his saviors. Joab, angry that the king grieves for his enemy and does not congratulate Israel for their hard won victory, comes to him with this bit of necessary counsel: “Now therefore, arise, go out and speak comfort to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night,” 2 Samuel 19:7. Joab’s practical counsel reaches a grieving king and David consoles his people, mending the rift Absalom had created. Joab, wanting to impress upon David the urgency of this thing, swore in God’s covenant name, testifying that Israel’s God would vouchsafe the integrity of his advice that day. For Joab, invoking His name was indeed an end to all disputation.

 

Israel bore this special privilege among the nations: knowing and swearing by the name of God. The Hebrew’s name for God is the Tetragrammaton or YHWH, where in modern English we derive the name “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” a name unique to their people, given to Moses as the covenant God of the Jewish people. Swearing by their God was binding because Yahweh was their covenant God; it was as if to validate the veracity of their statement, they called on God to witness between parties. This alone should give us a graphic picture of the lengths God went to in order to assure Abraham that the promise of inheritance would be kept.

 

We will conclude the Jewish history of swearing with a final passage found in Nehemiah. When Nehemiah the governor returns to Jerusalem after serving King Artaxerxes, he found Jewish men married to pagan women from Moab, Ashdod, and Ammon, Nehemiah 13:23. In a fit of righteous anger much like our Lord when He cleared the temple with a whip, we read, “So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves,” Nehemiah 13:25. Notice how Nehemiah does not make them swear TO God, but to swear BY Him.

 

The covenant isn’t made between God and man; God’s name is invoked and His authority called to witness between men. In this instance, Nehemiah and the wayward Hebrews that married pagan women, producing offspring that spoke either/or language, Nehemiah 13:24. Referring back to the text currently being considered we again read, “For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end to all dispute.” Nehemiah, attempting to obey God’s injunction from the Torah about not marrying pagan wives, bound these men to God’s name as an end to all dispute about whether or not they should further implicate themselves in the matter. For the pious Jew, God was a Father of that nation, and the invocation of His name reminded them that their sin was not secret. If it was not secret to men, it was certainly not with God. They had transgressed the commandment that once brought the whole of the nation into captivity, and were endangering their religious freedom and lives once again. The confirming oath proved satisfactory, for it produced unequivocally in the Jewish mindset that in the end, the covenant-breaking party would answer to Yahweh.