An Anchor for the Soul
“That by two immutable (unchanging) things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hope upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:18-20
We’ve seen it many times on television: a person who is a witness in a trial places his or her left hand on the Bible, holds up his or her right hand and swears or confirms that he or she will tell the truth about what he or she knows about the crime that was committed. The witness is taking an oath by calling on something greater than himself in this court example calling on the God of the universe represented by His word. The writer of Hebrews stated that men will swear by One greater in order to hold them to what they say in testimony, and this oath is binding. Ecclesiastes 5:5 tells us that it is better to not make a vow than make one and then break it. That can also apply to swearing to tell the truth, thus, to lie on the witness stand is a serious matter. Not only will the one who lies and gets caught be in trouble, his lie may either free a guilty person or send an innocent one to prison. However, the truth will help settle the case one way or the other.
God, who is sovereign, righteous, holy, and almighty, does not have to give His people an oath as the seal of His intent to follow through with His promises, but in order to show His people that He will not change His mind about any promise that He has made, He gave them an oath. There is nothing that will happen in the future which could cause God to change His mind. He already knows the future. A man might have a thought and say, “It just occurred to me…..”, but nothing ever “occurs” to God. Nothing takes Him by surprise nor is there anything of which He is not aware. That is a scary thought, but it is also a comforting one.
By God’s promise and His oath, these two unchangeable things, His people are assured that He will bring His people to the ultimate conclusion as He promised: life in Christ and eternal life with Christ in glory. God cannot lie. He doesn’t change His mind, and He doesn’t renege on His promises. He can’t. He wouldn’t be God if He did. He swore on Himself to bring His promises to fruition. Had He sworn on the earth, the sea, the mountains, or even the universe, all those created entities will eventually pass away and would take God’s oath with them. However, God is eternal and so are His promises, thus His oath sworn on His own name is also eternal. There is no greater consolation for God’s people who have fled to Him for refuge from sin, shame, guilt, and an evil world than to trust in Him and His promises. In 1834, Edward Mote wrote the song, “The Solid Rock”, which states that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Everything else is just sinking sand.
The writer of Hebrews described our hope as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast”. I am reminded of the apostle Paul who traveled by ship several times during his missionary journeys. In Acts 27, Paul had warned the shipmaster that it was too dangerous to sail at that time, but the shipmaster disregarded Paul’s warning and set sail. Sure enough, they ran into problems. They feared that they had landed upon rocks and so they “cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day” (Acts 27:29). How many times have we laid awake at night wishing for the day? Those are the times when we need to let our anchor in Christ go a little deeper to hold us sure and steadfast in His love and mercy.
In ancient Israel, only the high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies to meet with God. However, Jesus’ sacrifice has broken down the veil, the wall of partition between us and our Creator. We can, as it were, step behind the veil through Christ and approach the throne of grace (Ephesians 2:14). Jesus is our High Priest who goes before us preparing the way whereby we can be in the presence of God. He is the High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, a king and priest who served Abraham bread and wine (Genesis 14:17-20) and was a symbol of Christ even before the law was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Christ has been our Savior since the beginning of time and will be for all eternity.