Anchor of the Soul

Most anchors hold a ship by going down to the sea floor. The anchor in today's passage does something different, and all the comfort is in which way it goes.

Hope, Hebrews says, is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." The veil was the curtain in front of the most holy place, where God's presence dwelt. So this anchor goes up and in, into the presence of God. It is not lodged in a sea floor that might shift, or in anything on your side of the curtain at all. Then comes the reason it holds, and the reason is a person: "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."

"Forerunner" is the word I want to put in your hands. It means a runner sent on ahead, and the word only makes sense if others are meant to follow. A forerunner who arrives alone has failed at his job. Under the old way, the high priest went behind the veil only once a year, alone, and then came back out, and nobody followed him. Jesus went in and stayed, and the passage tells us why He can: He is "made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

Read the two verses before it, too, because Hebrews has been building up to this. God backed His promise with an oath, "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation." The two unchangeable things are God's promise and God's oath. He is piling up guarantees for people He knows will be frightened.

In the small hours of the night, worry gets its turn. Everything you settled in daylight seems open to argument again.

So here is a question worth answering before tonight, not in the middle of it: are you holding the anchor, or is it holding you? If you are holding it, your grip will get tired. If it is holding you, it is fastened to Jesus on the far side, and He has been there for you since before you were born.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 120 is Crowning the Year (Psalm 65:11).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna