Bible Devotions for Living

I want to follow up on yesterday’s theme of holding fast with a similar idea from Hebrew 6:

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Heb 6:13-20)

This passage has another nautical concept tied into our assurance of glory in Christ. In this passage, we are assured of our salvation through Christ through the promises of God. We are to hold fast to those promises of salvation. Then in verse 19, we are told that God’s promise of salvation through Christ and the promise is like a ‘steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain’. To fully grasp this incredible image to the fullest you need to understand a couple of things. First, the Temple of God was divided into two separate rooms the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. These rooms were separated by a huge thick curtain. The inner place (Most Holy Place) was where God’s presence dwelled. It is also the place where the Jewish High Priest would enter once a year to provide atonement for the sins of Israel per the Old Testament instruction. More importantly though, it is this inner place that Jesus entered to present His blood as atonement for your and my sin in the true Temple in Heaven. So, the inner room behind the curtain referred to in the passage is the Most Holy Place where Jesus made atonement for you. The second thing you need to understand is that in ancient times, entering a shallow, treacherous harbor during a storm was nearly impossible for a large ship. To solve the problem, a small rowboat would take the ship’s massive anchor and row through the dangerous surf and narrow passage into the harbor. Once there, it would drop the ships anchor in the harbor, and the larger ship would then use its winches to pull itself safely into the harbor by the anchor rope.

This paints a real visual for you. Right now, you are still outside of Heaven fighting the storms and difficulties of life. In a sense, you are the ship waiting to enter the harbor (Heaven). Your anchor, which is the guarantee of your salvation, is already anchored in Heaven. You are attached to that anchor with a long rope and you are slowly being pulled into the harbor. As you fight the storms of life, hold ‘fast’ onto that rope that is anchoring you in Heaven … that is, your faith in Christ for what He’s done and the promise of salvation. Each day, pull on that rope to get a little closer to the harbor of safety in Heaven. Hold onto this hope.   Keep your eyes on eternity, Heaven, and God’s promises no matter what to pull you through.