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.