A Boat on a Moving Lake
Good morning; I hope you are having a restful day. As I write this, it is a Saturday, and today we begin Hebrews, reading chapters 1–4.
Throughout my adolescence, I focused on one place—Apache Lake in Arizona. I learned to water ski there when I was twelve. We would drive up Friday night, set up our tents, and wake up before sunrise so we could be the first ones on the water. Smooth water, no other boats, just endless trips back and forth behind the boat.
Years later, I bought a boat and taught my son to ski on the same lake. By then I had enough vacation time to avoid the weekend crowds, but one October we went up for a final ski run on a weekend. We arrived early and watched others roll in to set up camp and anchor their boats for the next morning.
One man pulled in with what looked like a brand-new 21-foot Bayliner. He ran the bow up onto the rocks, shut everything down, and walked back to his campsite. I assumed he’d only be gone a minute, but he never came back to secure the boat. We were worried about what might happen, but we hoped he knew what he was doing.
The next morning, as we drank coffee and cooked breakfast, we watched the water level rise. Apache Lake is part of a river system; when they release water through one dam, the level at our spot climbs. As it did, the Bayliner floated. We went to the man’s campsite and warned him his boat was about to drift. He thanked us. Then…nothing. He still didn’t come down.
His boat was soon free and bumped other boats that were anchored. It slipped past them and drifted away. When the man came to the shore, he couldn’t find it. Several of us pointed far downstream. He saw it, panicked, and dove in.
He swam hard for half an hour. By the time he reached the spot where the boat had been when he first saw it, the boat had drifted just as far again. We could see him slowing down and were about to rescue him when another camper got there first and pulled him out.
That man was fortunate. His boat could have smashed on the rocks. It was possible he could have drowned catching up. He trusted that the boat would just stay where he left it. The object was neither tied nor anchored by him. Faith is important, but you must anchor it to something solid.
Drifting Hearts and the People of Hebrews
The writer also wrote Hebrews to believers who, like that boat, were drifting. He warns,
“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).
We don’t know who these people were or where they lived, but the author of Hebrews addressed Christians who knew Israel’s Scriptures well. Jewish believers were tempted to return to their old patterns and depend on the Law of Moses instead of focusing their hope on Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:7-19).
The Law was a blessing from above, a divine gift (Exodus 20). But Israel’s history shows that a law written on stone could not change a hard heart. Their unbelief kept them wandering in the wilderness for forty years and barred that generation from entering God’s rest in the promised land (Numbers 14:20–23; Hebrews 3:16–19).
The author of Hebrews makes it clear: Jesus reigns supreme. What the Law could not do, He did. “For what the law was powerless to do… God did by sending his own Son” (Romans 8:3). Jesus took on our flesh, making Himself weak, so that He might make us strong in Him (Hebrews 2:10–18). The salvation He brings is what enables us to enter God’s true rest (Hebrews 4:1–3, 9–10).
Jesus: Radiance, Rest, and a Finished Work
Hebrews opens by lifting our eyes to who Jesus is:
“In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:2–3).
In creation, God spoke and everything came into being (Genesis 1:1–3). But those spoken words could not keep us from falling. So God sent His incarnate Word, Jesus (John 1:1–3, 14). He made all things, and He sustains all things (Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:3, 10).
We were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–27). We are like a mirror—real, but finite and cracked by sin. Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3). He is not just a reflection; He is of one substance with the Father. As Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). (2)
Because He was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15), His atoning sacrifice was enough to end the need for repeated animal offerings (Hebrews 7:27; 10:11–14). When Old Testament high priests went behind the veil, they never sat down; the work was never done. But after Jesus “had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus finished the work of salvation (John 19:30).
The veil tore (Matthew 27:51). We no longer need a human high priest to enter once a year on our behalf. Jesus, our great High Priest, has entered heaven itself and invites us to draw near:
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Anchored Instead of Adrift
Satan uses sin to make us slaves to fear—especially the fear of death and judgment (Hebrews 2:14–15). Guilt keeps us awake at night. Hiding and covering our sin is exhausting. It is far more work to live with unconfessed sin than to bring it into the light and fix our eyes on Christ.
Hebrews says God’s Word is “alive and active… sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). It cuts deep, but like a surgeon’s scalpel, it cuts to heal. It exposes “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12–13) so that we can stop pretending, stop drifting, and tie our hearts to the One who alone can hold us fast.
So let me ask: what are you leaving on the shoreline, hoping it doesn’t float away? Is it your faith? Maybe your marriage? Your time with the Lord? If we stop paying attention to Jesus, our hearts rarely rebel all at once. They just drift.
Hebrews calls us to do the opposite:
“Fix your thoughts on Jesus… our apostle and high priest” (Hebrews 3:1).
He is God’s final Word in “these last days,” the One who made you, sustains you, died for you, and now invites you into His rest (Hebrews 4:9–11). Don’t trust that your boat will stay where you left it. Anchor your trust in Him.
Tomorrow, we will read Hebrews 5-7.
Footnotes
- F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 7–12.
- BibleProject, “Hebrews,” video, accessed December 11, 2025, https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/hebrews/.