And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: ) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. ~ Hebrews 7:20-22

The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. ~ Psalm 110:4

Under the Old Testament we have moments recorded when the scriptures tell us that God repented (changed his mind). That the all sufficient, all powerful, all knowing, and all wise God would have moments of repentance (changing his mind), is a mystery.

During the days of Noah, we read the following.

… God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. ~ Genesis 6:5-7

Notice that it was the great wickedness of man that brought on the repentance of the Lord, (the changing of God’s mind).

In Numbers 23:19 we read that God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

On the surface this text seems to contradict the other texts in the Old Testament which speak of God repenting. However, the emphasis in Numbers 23:19 is placed on the character of God and not his response to humanity’s rebellion.

God is fundamentally holy and good, and he will never change in his glory and holiness. This truth is bore witness to throughout the scriptures. In Malachi 3:6 God says, I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Hebrews 13:8 bears the same witness to Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. ~ Hebrews 13:8

The steadiness and reliability of the character of God is the most important truth that undergirds the true faith of those who follow Jesus. We are not consumed because God is faithful and he never changes in his good and holy character. He who comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. ~ Hebrews 11:6

We are told in the 6th chapter of Hebrews, For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee (v. 13-14).

God’s promise to Abraham was backed by the very character of God himself. It wasn’t just a promise made, but a promise by which God swore by himself, putting his own reputation on the line.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. ~ Hebrew 6:16-17

God’s oath to Abraham was that he himself would fulfill the promise! And he did just that in due time in the person of Jesus Christ, who is brightness of God’s glory and the express image of his person (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s own holy, righteous, and good character (the oath that undergirded the promise to Abraham).

In Hebrews 11 we read that Sara (Abraham’s wife) gave birth to Isaac in her old age because she judged God to be faithful!

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. ~ Hebrews 11:11 

Sara’s persuasion that God is faithful gave her the strength in her old age to give birth to the child that God promised Abraham in his old age. She took hold of the faithfulness of God, for she judged him to be faithful!

This is also what Moses took hold of when the idolatry of the children of Israel provoked God’s wrath against them. 

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down (from the mountain); for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. ~ Exodus 32:7-14

Notice that Moses interceded for the Israelites whom God wanted to consume in his wrath, based on the two following truths:

First, God’s reputation: Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?

God’s reputation among the nations was the first appeal that Moses made to God. Moses was making the case before God that if God destroyed his people, then his reputation among the heathen nations would be no different than the false gods worshipped among those nations. What a powerful appeal to the Almighty God! What an example we should follow in our own prayers.

Secondly, God’s oath to Abraham: Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

It was when Moses appealed to the reputation of God’s own character and God’s oath to Abraham, that God relented.

And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Moses was an Old Testament type of Jesus, for he represented God to the people (though in a veiled manner) being the one through whom the law was given, and he represented the people to God, making intercession for the people.

Jesus in the fullest sense of the word, is he who represents God to humanity, and humanity to God. He is both God’s representative to us and ours to God. This is what the surety of Jesus is all about, and this is why the New Covenant is guaranteed to never need to be replaced.

God has sworn with an oath that Jesus, his beloved Son, will be a priest forever! Thus forever, Jesus will be the one and only representative of the character and nature of God, and the only representative we will ever need in the presence of God for unhindered access into the grace of God.

He is our Great High Priest, and the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob has sworn it and will not repent!