As you probably know, the book of Hebrews in the Bible was written as a whole letter, rather than chapters and verses. The Scriptural text for the next mini-series of articles is no exception, following on from verses covered in recent articles. As a result, I encourage you to read (or re-read) Hebrews 6:9-12 as a refresher. (In fact, the NASB translation includes these verses under the same heading as the rest of this chapter.)
Compared to the message of the upcoming text, the previous mini-series of articles probably talked more about how the behavior of this letter’s recipients provided evidence of their faith, as well as the author’s charge for them to remain faithful to the end. However, let’s look closely at a couple of things at the start of verse 10:
- “God is not unjust…” – Now, false gods in the Roman belief system (potentially including Caesar himself), were fickle, petty, selfish, and sometimes downright unfair. In contrast to them, the true God is perfectly just (i.e., fair and consistent). As I’ve heard before, one way of looking at God’s nature is to consider His perfect holiness to be His defining character trait, which produces both perfect love and perfect justice. Every sin has to be punished, whether an individual accepts Jesus’ sacrifice (when He took on our sins), or whether that individual pays for their sins themselves.
- “…he will not forget…” – In many cultures, while money, power, and fame can be piled up, as soon as you make a big enough mistake (or someone finds out you did something really bad in your past), all that you’ve accumulated goes “poof”! God remembers the good things we have done, though, and He also knows that Jesus paid for all of our sins. So, even if the world forgets the righteous acts we have done and focuses on our mistakes, God remembers our faithfulness. And, unlike our imperfect selves, He is perfectly faithful to His promises.
Remembering these key characteristics of God is key to what comes next.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
Hebrews 6:13-15 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.6.13-15.NIV
While it might seem like a change of subject here, let’s remember that the author of Hebrews had recently mentioned God’s justice and His faithfulness – specifically, His reliability in remembering the faith of God’s people who were receiving this letter of Hebrews (see Hebrews 6:10, mentioned earlier). In that light, what we have here is a great example of where God was faithful. In this case, God was faithful in His fulfilling His promises to Abraham (who the Jewish Christians reading this letter would have known about very well).
God wasn’t just faithful through an instantaneous, miraculous solution, though, where everything worked out for Abraham the next day after God made a promise to him. No, just like the first-century Jewish Christians who were being persecuted, and just like those of us struggling with our faith today, Abraham had to wait and to go through trials before God’s faithfulness to Him was fully realized.
However, that wait is part of the process. After all, how is there any evidence of faith when it is not tested? If you gave me two ten-dollar bills as I hand you a $20 bill, there would be no real faith being demonstrated on your part (except trust that my bills weren’t counterfeit, I suppose). If you had to wait a week for me to pay you back, though, then I – and others around us – could see evidence that you trust me.
We can look at this further in the next article, but for today, let’s consider that even though Abraham wasn’t perfect, his actions described in this passage are good examples for us to follow. For one thing, we must be patient. Being patient can be tough, but while we are doing so, we can:
- Remember God’s faithfulness and His perfect track record.
- Remember good examples of those who waited and saw God’s promises fulfilled.
- Remember that some people who patiently waited on God saw plenty of His goodness, but they died before seeing all that He did later in history. Even in those cases, God’s faithfulness validated the confidence of those who knew that God would do exactly as He had promised, even if they didn’t see all of it while they lived on this earth.
We can also remember bad examples of those who quit and gave up before seeing God’s promises fulfilled, missing out on something amazing. (Let’s avoid the pitfalls that they fell into.) And, we can remember to encourage others who are struggling: teaching and reminding them about the solid foundation upon which our hope is secured.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 22, 2026
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Hebrews, by Jim Girdwood and Peter Verkruyse. © 1997 College Press Publishing Co.
