Life has a way of shaking even the most solid foundations of faith. Sometimes it happens suddenly, like a tsunami that capsizes everything in an instant. Other times, it's a slow drift—barely noticeable at first—until one day you look up and can't even see the shore anymore. In either case, what's needed is an anchor: something sure, steadfast, and unshakeable that holds firm when everything else gives way.
This teaching opens with a powerful personal account from 2008, when a profound spiritual calling led to a life-changing decision to pursue church planting. After two years of prayer, research, and careful consideration, the step was finally taken to leave a staff position and begin full-time fundraising for what would eventually become Riverwood Church.
What followed was unexpected and devastating. After eight and a half years of faithful service at a church that regularly talked about church planting, reaching the lost, and generosity, the response was shocking: the elder team prohibited approaching anyone for financial support, and the missions board voted not to provide missionary support.
This moment exposed what was truly anchoring the heart. Standing in the kitchen, putting away dishes, the floodgates opened. The internal dialogue was raw: "I faithfully served for eight and a half years and this is my reward? I took this step of faith and get nothing for it? This is how you treat me, God?"
It was a moment when faith felt capsized, when confidence in God's goodness and presence turned to questioning and doubt.
These experiences aren't unique. Many people have faced moments that rock their world in all the wrong ways:
But faith doesn't always fall away through dramatic tsunamis. Sometimes it's the slow drift—like a boat that can see the beach one moment but looks up to find nothing but open water. Looking back at life, the question becomes: "How did I get here? How did I become this person? How did this view of God develop?"
Whether through tsunami or slow drift, what's needed is an anchor—a sure and steadfast anchor into God that holds fast when life tries to ruin faith and distort the view of God. The book of Hebrews presents this powerful truth: believers have a sure and steadfast anchor in Christ. When He becomes the anchor, it's possible to weather any storm, whether a slow drizzle or a devastating tsunami.
The passage in Hebrews 6:13-20 points back to one of the most challenging stories in Scripture: Genesis 22, where God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. This request seems to contradict everything about God's character, especially since God forcefully condemns child sacrifice elsewhere in Scripture.
In Abraham's time, child sacrifice was tragically common throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. Various cults and religions practiced sacrificing firstborn children to gods or goddesses of fertility, believing this ultimate sacrifice would result in multiple children—a form of great wealth in that era.
Some scholars believe in a Canaanite god called Molech, possibly fashioned as a statue with a man's body and a bull's head. This hollow metal statue would be heated with fire, with arms extended and a cavity in the abdomen where children would be placed and slide into the flames.
God strongly condemns this practice in Leviticus 18:21: "You shall not sacrifice any child to Molech." This prohibition makes clear that people, created in God's image, are not ours to kill. Children are a blessing and heritage from the Lord, not sacrifices to be offered.
So why would Abraham even consider following through with God's command? The answer lies in understanding the full story and Abraham's faith.
God told Abraham to take Isaac—the son he'd waited 24 years to receive—to a specific area called Moriah, about 80 miles away. Isaac wasn't an infant at this point; he was likely between 8 and 15 years old, old enough to ask intelligent questions and strong enough to carry wood on his back.
They traveled to a specific mountain, built an altar, and Abraham bound his son and raised the knife. At that critical moment, an angel stopped his hand, saying, "Don't do it. Now I see that you will not withhold anything from me." A ram caught in the bushes became the substitute sacrifice, and Isaac was spared.
Hebrews 11:17-19 reveals the foundation of Abraham's faith:
"By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac, shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."
Abraham had such profound faith in God that even when faced with this incomprehensible request, he trusted. He believed that even if Isaac died, God could raise him from the dead because God's promises had to be fulfilled.
Hebrews 6:18 identifies the source of this unshakeable anchor as "two unchangeable things." These are:
After Abraham passed the test, God made an oath, saying in Genesis 22:16-18: "By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore."
When God swears by Himself, it might sound pompous if a person said it. But for God, there is nothing greater to swear by. People swear by something greater than themselves—that's why witnesses in court swear on the Bible. But God cannot swear on the Bible because He wrote it. He cannot swear on His life because no one can take it—He is eternal.
God didn't need to swear; Hebrews 6:18 confirms it's impossible for God to lie. He did it for Abraham's sake, to make absolutely clear the certainty of His promise. When God swears by Himself, He swears by His character.
Verse 17 describes "the unchangeable character of his purpose." God doesn't have good days and bad days. Hebrews 13:8 declares He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." When you encounter God's goodness in any moment—through the flavor of food, a sunrise, a child's laugh, provision of a job, or an encouraging text—you're experiencing who God eternally is, not just in that moment but from eternity past into the eternal future.
God's character is unchangeable. This is why Abraham could obey such a difficult command—he knew God's character, even though Leviticus 18:21 hadn't been written yet. Abraham understood this wasn't what God ultimately wanted, so he trusted that God would bring Isaac back from the dead if necessary.
The second part of the anchor flows directly from God's character: His promises (also called oaths). With Abraham, God promised to make him into a mighty nation back in Genesis 12. At that point, Abraham was 75 years old with no children. Yet he believed God and trusted His promise.
God fulfilled it 24 years later when Abraham was 99 years old—an age when most men are great-great-grandfathers. Abraham finally held his son Isaac.
While God does not change, Abraham did. During those 24 years, he had good days when he trusted God's promise and bad days when he struggled and doubted. One of those bad days led him to listen to his wife Sarah's suggestion to have a child through her servant Hagar, resulting in Ishmael. But God clarified that Ishmael was not the son of promise—it would come through Sarah.
They had to wait even longer, but eventually Isaac came. God cannot lie, so when God makes a promise, He will fulfill it.
This truth should bring incredible comfort because God makes countless promises to believers today:
When eyes stay focused on circumstances, God seems weak and small. But when eyes remain on God's character and His promises, suddenly He becomes bigger than any problem, providing a steadfast anchor for the soul.
To have this anchor requires intentional action: get to know God's character more and more, and continue to trust in His promises, because He will not lie and He will fulfill them.
This isn't a call to blind faith or simply trying harder. In fact, believers today have an advantage over Abraham.
In Genesis 22, Abraham had no religion, no scriptures, nothing to rely upon except God alone. Yet he obeyed.
His obedience in Genesis 22 actually foreshadows the entire Easter story. Consider these parallels:
The entire Genesis 22 story points to the cross.
In dark moments, questioning moments, when drifting at sea or capsized by a tsunami, the choice is clear: look at Jesus. See the promises that were made and fulfilled. See His character, His goodness, His love, His grace. He becomes a steadfast anchor to the soul.
The question becomes: What will you look at?
Where focus and eyesight are placed makes all the difference in the type of anchor possessed. When the gospel becomes the anchor, it's possible to weather both tsunamis and slow drifts and find genuine peace for the soul.
Hebrews 6:19-20 declares: "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
Jesus is the true and greater anchor. Many people search for anchors in all sorts of areas of life, but the reminder is clear: the anchor must be placed in Him.
For those who have never fully placed faith in Christ, the invitation is to give life fully to Him. This means confessing sin, admitting the attempt to live for self and lead self, and recognizing that Jesus did what could not be done independently. His character is evident, and His promises are fulfilled.
For those struggling in their faith, feeling far adrift at sea, unable to understand why God allowed certain circumstances, the message is one of hope. God loves His people, He is with them, and He can provide. Just as provision and presence have been experienced by countless believers who thought they were abandoned, God can reveal Himself as more than enough—not smaller than problems, but far bigger.
The anchor is secure. The question is whether faith will be placed in circumstances or in the unchangeable character and unfailing promises of God revealed through Jesus Christ, the true and greater anchor of the soul.
