Hebrews 6:15

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) And so, after he had patiently endured.—Better, and thus (thus being in possession of the promise and the oath of God), having patiently waited (Hebrews 6:12) he obtained the promise—the promised gift. Though some portions of the promise received a partial accomplishment during Abraham’s life, it is not this that the writer has in view. (See Hebrews 6:12, and Hebrews 11:13.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:11-20 The hope here meant, is a sure looking for good things promised, through those promises, with love, desire, and valuing of them. Hope has its degrees, as faith also. The promise of blessedness God has made to believers, is from God's eternal purpose, settled between the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. These promises of God may safely be depended upon; for here we have two things which cannot change, the counsel and the oath of God, in which it is not possible for God to lie; it would be contrary to his nature as well as to his will. And as He cannot lie; the destruction of the unbeliever, and the salvation of the believer, are alike certain. Here observe, those to whom God has given full security of happiness, have a title to the promises by inheritance. The consolations of God are strong enough to support his people under their heaviest trials. Here is a refuge for all sinners who flee to the mercy of God, through the redemption of Christ, according to the covenant of grace, laying aside all other confidences. We are in this world as a ship at sea, tossed up and down, and in danger of being cast away. We need an anchor to keep us sure and steady. Gospel hope is our anchor in the storms of this world. It is sure and stedfast, or it could not keep us so. The free grace of God, the merits and mediation of Christ, and the powerful influences of his Spirit, are the grounds of this hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Christ is the object and ground of the believer's hope. Let us therefore set our affections on things above, and wait patiently for his appearance, when we shall certainly appear with him in glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And so, after he had patiently endured - After he had waited for a long time. He did not faint or grow weary, but he persevered in a confident expectation of the fulfillment of what God had so solemnly promised.

He obtained the promise - Evidently the promise referred to in the oath - that he would have a numerous posterity. The apostle intimates that he had waited for that a long time; that his faith did not waver, and that in due season the object of his wishes was granted. To see the force of this, we are to remember:

(1) that when he was called by God from Haran, and when the promise of a numerous posterity was made to him, he was seventy-five years old; Genesis 12:1-5.

(2) Twenty-four years elapsed after this, during which he was a sojourner in a strange land, before the manner in which this promise would be fulfilled was made known to him; Genesis 17:1-16.

(3) It was only when he was an hundred years old, and when he had persevered in the belief of the truth of the promise against all the natural improbabilities of its accomplishment, that he received the pledge of its fulfillment in the birth of his son Isaac; Genesis 21:1-5.

(4) The birth of that son was a pledge that the other blessings implied in the promise would be granted, and in that pledge Abraham may be said to have "received the promise."

He did not actually see the numerous posterity of which he was to be the honored ancestor, nor the Messiah who was to descend from him, nor the happy influences which would result to mankind from the fulfillment of the promise. But he saw the certainty that all this would occur; he saw by faith the Messiah in the distance John 8:56, and the numerous blessings which would result from his coming. It was a remarkable instance of faith, and one well suited to the purpose of the apostle. It would furnish ample encouragement to the Christians to whom he wrote, to persevere in their course, and to avoid the dangers of apostasy. If Abraham persevered when "appearances" were so much against the fulfillment of what had been promised, then Christians should persevere under the clearer light and with the more distinct promises of the gospel.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. so—thus relying on the promise.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And so, after he had patiently endured: Abraham’s carriage was suitable to this sworn promise, his soul did patiently wait for it full thirty years, enduring and suffering many temptations about it; yet he overcame all, and continued firm in the covenant to the end; his faith extended his soul in a patient expectation of its accomplishment, without doubting or murmuring, knowing God would fulfil it in the best time: he was a long-breathed believer, John 8:56 Romans 4:20,21 Jas 1:2,3.

He obtained the promise; he did not fall short of any piece of the promise, but fully possessed it at last, both in Isaac, the type of the blessed Seed, and the Messiah himself, as to all the spiritual and eternal good promised in him and by him in the heavenly Canaan, Matthew 22:32.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And so, after he had patiently endured,.... He waited long for a son, from whom the Messiah was to spring, after he had had the promise of one; and he endured many afflictions with patience, in his journeys from place to place, throughout his life to the end:

he obtained the promise; he was greatly blessed in temporal things; he lived to see the son of the promise, and his sons; he saw the day of Christ by faith, and now inherits the heavenly glory, which is the thing chiefly designed.

Geneva Study Bible

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 6:15. Καὶ οὕτως] and in this way, i.e. since God on His part had in such manner afforded documentary evidence for the solemnity of His resolve. οὕτως belongs to ἐπέτυχεν. The combining of it with μακροθυμήσας, as is done by Stein, Tholuck,[79] and Bisping, and consequently taking the participle as an epexegesis of ΟὝΤΩς, is inadmissible, because in that case the ΜΑΚΡΟΘΥΜΊΑ of Abraham in particular must have been spoken of immediately before. The opinion of Delitzsch, however, who is followed by Maier, that “the combination of the two combinations” is “the right one,” refutes itself, since it requires that which is logically impossible.

ΜΑΚΡΟΘΥΜΉΣΑς] because he showed [or: had shown] persevering stedfastness (sc. in the faith, comp. Hebrews 6:12), in particular by the fact that he had just now been so ready at God’s behest to sacrifice his son Isaac, although this soon appeared to afford the only hold for the realization of the divine promise.

ἐπέτυχεν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας] he obtained the promise, i.e. the thing promised, inasmuch, namely, as not only Isaac was given back alive to Abraham, but he further lived to see the time when two sons were born to Isaac (comp. Genesis 21:5; Genesis 25:7; Genesis 25:26), and thus the divine promise was fulfilled in its earlier stage. Not a fulfilment, which Abraham first witnessed in the life beyond the grave (Maier, Hofmann), is intended. Nor have we here to take ἐπαγγελία, with Bleek, in the active sense [the giving of a promise], and to refer it to the Messianic salvation placed in prospect. For, apart from the consideration that in this case ἐπέτυχεν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας would, in relation to ἘΠΑΓΓΕΙΛΆΜΕΝΟς, Hebrews 6:13, indicate no advance, the emphatically preposed ἘΠΈΤΥΧΕΝ can be understood only of the obtaining possession of the promised object itself. The promise repeated to Abraham, Genesis 22:17-18, presented itself under a two fold point of view. His seed was to be multiplied, and in his seed were all nations of the earth to be blessed. Only the first of these in its earlier stage could Abraham, from the nature of the case, live to see; the fulfilment of the latter was attached to the appearing of Christ upon earth, which was to be looked for in the distant future. The first-named reference obtains Hebrews 6:15. The last-named mode of contemplating the subject underlies the ΚΛΗΡΟΝΌΜΟΙς Τῆς ἘΠΑΓΓΕΛΊΑς, Hebrews 6:17. That, too, which we read Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:39, is spoken from the last-named point of view, on which account there is not to be found in these passages a contradiction of ours.

[79] Who unaccountably advances, as an argument in support, the supposition that “then a parallel arises between the Christians, who, according to vv. 17, 18, are, on the ground of the divine oath, to hold fast the hope, and Abraham, who likewise did so.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

Hebrews 6:15. καὶ οὕτω μακροθυμήσας … “and thus having patiently waited he [Abraham] obtained the promise”. οὕτω, in these circumstances; that is, thus upheld by a promise and an oath. The oath warned him of trial. It would not have been given had the promise been a trifling one or had it been destined for immediate fulfilment. f1μακροθυμήσας, having long kept up his courage and his hope. Delay followed delay; disappointment followed disappointment. He was driven out of the promised land, and a barren wife mocked the hope of the promised seed, but he waited expectant, and at length ἐπέτυχε τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, for although it was true of him, as of all O.T. saints, that he did not obtain the promise, [μὴ λαβόντες τὰς ἐπαγγελίας, Hebrews 11:13; οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, Hebrews 11:39], but could only wave his hand to it and salute it at a distance, yet the initial fulfilment he did see and was compensated for all his waiting by seeing the beginnings of that great history which ran on to the consummate performance of the promise in Christ. Bleek and Rendall understand by ἐπέτυχε … “obtained from God a promise of future blessing,” and not the thing itself. But in this case μακροθυμήσας would be irrelevant. He had not to wait for the promise, but for its fulfilment.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. after he had patiently endured] Lit., “having patiently endured,” which may mean “by patient endurance.” The participles in this passage are really contemporaneous with the principal verbs.

he obtained the promise] Genesis 15:1; Genesis 21:5; Genesis 22:17-18; Genesis 25:7, &c.; John 8:56. There is of course no contradiction to Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:39, which refers to a farther future and a wider hope.

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 6:15. Μακροθυμήσας, after he had patiently endured) This is evident from the life of Abraham.—ἐπέτυχε τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, he obtained the promise) he got what was promised; Hebrews 6:14.

Hebrews 6:15

Vincent's Word Studies

After he had patiently endured (μακροθυμήσας)

Pointing back to μακροθυμία long-suffering, Hebrews 6:12.

He obtained (ἐπέτυχεν)

The compounded preposition ἐπὶ has the force of upon: to light or hit upon. The verb indicates that Abraham did not personally receive the entire fulfillment of the promise, but only the germ of its fulfillment. It was partially fulfilled in the birth of Isaac. See Romans 4:18.

The security of the divine promise illustrated by the analogy of human practice.