“And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek'”) (Hebrews 7:20-21).
An “oath” represents a solemn or official affirmation that validates a promise or statement. Of course, an oath is only as good as the person who makes it. That explains why witnesses are placed “under oath” when testifying in a court of law. While liars may not care about the damage to their reputation if they are found to be dishonest, the prospect of going to jail for lying under oath is often enough to motivate those individuals to tell the truth.
Yet, interestingly enough, the members of the Levitical priesthood were never sworn into their priestly offices. As mentioned previously within this chapter, the Levitical priests were selected on the basis of their genealogy. This makes Jesus’ priesthood superior in the sense that it is associated with an oath of God. In other words, the Levitical priests served according to their ancestry. Jesus served according to an oath taken by God Himself.
Unlike fallible human beings, God’s truthful and unchanging nature means He never needs to swear an oath. Nevertheless, “God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind” (NLT). Thus, God certified His oath by the greatest authority possible: Himself.
That being said, God’s affirmation of an oath does not mean that we should regularly engage in that practice. For instance, the New Testament letter of James says, “But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned for it” (James 5:12 NLT). In fact, Jesus served as the source of that counsel…
“But I tell you, Do not swear at all… Just let your ‘Yes’ be a simple ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ a simple ‘No’; anything more than this has its origin in evil” (Matthew 5:33, 37 CJB).
As the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it” (Ecclesiastes 5:5 NIV). Therefore, we can take comfort in God’s sovereign decision to bind Himself with an oath while following this wise counsel regarding such oaths for ourselves.