Hebrews Chapter Six, Behind The Veil

 

Hebrews 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, [20] where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

Verse 19 leads in from the verse previous, which stated that the saints should, “lay hold of the hope set before us.” The idea is that this hope, visible through faith, is on display for the pilgrim walking in its direction. When we face it, we may see it; when we turn from it, it is gone because we have chosen a path, of which, the hope displayed is no longer our end goal. We have “fallen away” from the foundation of our faith if this is so, and thusly our hope likewise shifts to another object.

But what is the hope the writer wants his readership to keep their eyes upon? He attests that this hope we possess (present tense, “have”) as an anchor for the soul. If our soul is a ship tossed on the tempest, the anchor goes down into the places we cannot see to secure our course and protect us from drifting away. We don’t see what the anchor has latched onto, but we have seen the anchor itself and trust in its craftsmanship and legitimacy. If we didn’t trust in the anchor we wouldn’t employ it for the purpose intended. Here we see James’ expression of lively faith as opposed to a dead faith: faith expresses itself most clearly when we act according to what we believe. We know not what lay in the depths beneath the hull of our vessel, but we know the anchor has gone down, out of sight and beyond reach, to do what we cannot.

 

The author refers to this anchor as sure, or certain, and steadfast. It enters the Presence behind the veil. Of course this reference is made toward something the Jewish Christians knew quite well: the Holy of Holies within the temple. “And the Lord said unto Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat,” Leviticus 16:2, ESV. God’s Shekinah glory—His visible theophany given to Israel as a token of His presence among them—dwelt within the veil above the mercy seat of the ark. This is the only image that would be conjured in the Jewish mind when they considered the anchor, their hope, entering behind the veil. In the Old Testament the High Priest alone was given the honor of entering the Holiest of All, and that only once a year, for a specific purpose. “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat,” Leviticus 16:6, 15, ESV.

 

If the hope on display for the saints is also the anchor gone into the veil and into God the Father’s presence, and if the Law showed that only the High Priest chosen of God can enter at all even if only once a year, we may comprehend who the author means. Just as it is the anchor’s task to secure a ship so it remains steadfast, Jesus our Lord preceded us into the veil, once for all, God’s appointed High Priest bearing His own blood, which He offered to the Father as payment for the sin of mankind. Like Aaron and his descendants could enter but once a year with the blood of another to atone for sin, Jesus entered the Holiest of All in Heaven once for all to accomplish forever what all animal sacrifice was merely a type of: the true atonement.

 

The author calls Jesus the forerunner, or the one who goes before us. He led the way; He opened the gates of salvation and paid for our sins on the cross with His own life. Furthermore, we are told, He has forever become a High Priest according to Melchizedek’s order. “Having become,” can translate into, “after being changed into,” and gives a clear delineation of the writer’s thought processes about Jesus’ person and role behind the veil. He changed into our High Priest forever. The same language is employed to describe the nature of life Christ imparts to believers through faith, i.e., eternal, everlasting, or forever. All three terms connote the idea of a state of being that has no termination point. Once instituted it never abates. Created things cannot interfere, and the Uncreated God will not interfere because He said as much. More than that, the Father swore to the Son, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” Psalm 110:4.