the anchor

Hebrews 6:16-20

The key words in this passage are: oath, hope, anchor, high priest. The author is continuing his thought about the certainty of God's promise of Sabbath rest. The author's argument that humans swear by something greater than themselves to confirm their statements. There is nothing higher than God so when God makes a promise, he swears by himself. This makes the promise doubly guaranteed: the first guarantee is that God cannot lie and the second guarantee is the oath that God made.
There are a couple of really interesting images. The first is the image of fleeing to take hold of the hope. There's a sense of urgency, even emergency. As if there is imminent danger and the readers and the author have sensed this danger and have fled to find refuge in the hope of Sabbath rest. The second image is that of an anchor that is secured in the Most Holy Place. The anchor speaks of security, the theme of this section. The fact that is secured in the Most Holy Place indicates that the disciple's security is tied to the unchanging character of God. The author also brings up the idea of Christ being a high priest in the order of Melchizedek again. This is something the author will explore more fully in the next section.
This passage reminds me of the unchanging nature of God's character. Part of being able to trust God is the fact that God never changes. He is eternally constant. He is and was and is to come. My understanding of God will change - hopefully continually growing fuller and deeper - but he is constant. This gives me great confidence in my salvation in that it depends on the unchanging character of God. I can rest assured that I will enter God's promised, future Sabbath rest - not because of my own character, abilities or accomplishments but because of God's. That takes the pressure off!