What is Hope?
Roy Blizzard III © 2014
In your times of turmoil or trouble in your life have you ever asked yourself the question, “Just what exactly am I Hoping for?” Or maybe you’ve asked yourself, “What good is Hope?” “I just can’t take it anymore.” Did these questions sound familiar to you? I’m pretty sure if you’re an average person, some sorts of a question similar to these have popped into your mind at least once in your life. But for us as believers in God why is it important for us as believers to correctly understand the simple word Hope?
Let me read to you the lyrics/words of a song that relates to our understanding of this word Hope. In fact the name of the song is, “The Hope” or “Hatikvah” in Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה – pronounced hatikˈva. It is the national anthem of Israel.
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Hebrew |
Transliteration |
English translation |
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כֹּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה |
Kol‘od balevav penimah |
As long as in the heart, within, |
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נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה |
Nefesh yehudi homiyah, |
A Jewish soul still yearns, |
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וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח, קָדִימָה, |
Ul(e)fa’atei mizrach kadimah, |
And onward, towards the ends of the east, |
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עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה, |
‘Ayin letziyon tzofiyah; |
An eye still gazes toward Zion |
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עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ, |
‘Od lo avdah tikvateinu, |
Our hope is not yet lost, |
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הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם |
Hatikvah bat sh(e)not ’alpayim, |
The hope of two thousand years, |
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לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ, |
Lihyot ‘am chofshi b(e)’artzeinu, |
To be a free people in our land, |
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אֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם. |
’Eretz-Tziyon viy(e)rushalayim. |
The land of Zion and Jerusalem
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Did you catch what was being said here in this song? In my heart a Jewish soul yearns. A hope is not lost. To be free. Ok, here we have a beginning to our understanding of Hope. Something to do with a yearning within our hearts and within our souls a hope of some sort of freedom that we have yet to experience still exists, unfulfilled.
When we look at the Bible in Hebrew the root word for Hope is tiqvah. While this word is used many times, one of the best usages of it for our understanding, of the way we need to utilize it is here in Ezekiel 37:11ff, “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12) Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13) And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14) And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD. In verse 11 it is stated that our hope is lost. What is it that they lost? What was it they were hoping for? We can see though that it has to do with a Spirit of God that is missing and therefore Life is missing. Let me read you another passage from Jeremiah 29:11, “11) For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” So it seems here that one of the things that appear to be lost to us is some sort of an ability to actually exist within a place of our good welfare and our peace and protection.
Let’s look at one last passage from the Old Testament and that is Psalms 71. Here it is really made clear to us certain points regarding Hope.
New American Standard Bible, This is called The Prayer of an Old Man for Deliverance. 1) In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed. 2) In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; Incline Your ear to me and save me. 3) Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come; You have given commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress. 4) Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the grasp of the wrongdoer and ruthless man, 5) For You are my hope; O Lord GOD, You are my confidence from my youth. 6) By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You. 7) I have become a marvel to many, For You are my strong refuge. 8) My mouth is filled with Your praise And with Your glory all day long. 9) Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails. 10) For my enemies have spoken against me; And those who watch for my life have consulted together, 11) Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.” 12) O God, do not be far from me; O my God, hasten to my help! 13) Let those who are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me. 14) But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more. 15) My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And of Your salvation all day long; For I do not know the sum of them. 16) I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone. 17) O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare Your wondrous deeds. 18) And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come. 19) For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You? 20) You who have shown me many troubles and distresses Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth. 21) May You increase my greatness And turn to comfort me. 22) I will also praise You with a harp, Even Your truth, O my God; To You I will sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. 23) My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You; And my soul, which You have redeemed. 24) My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long; For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my hurt.
So within this text of Psalms what do we see as regards to Hope? First, we take refuge within this hope since in verse 5 it says that God is our hope. Secondly, We are not to be ashamed of this fact. And thirdly, now listen to this, God has given a Commandment to save us! To Save us. This is critically important. So within God then we experience deliverance, salvation, strength, sustenance, instruction and greatness. |
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In Colossians 1:21-23 we read, “21) And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22) yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach, 23) if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
So what Paul is saying here is that in order to actually have Hope we must first be reconciled back to God through salvation and renew our mind in God’s word from the hostile mind of the flesh. We must be buried with Jesus in his baptism and be found blameless before God and we must remain Faithful to God and His Gospel – Whatever that is, a teaching for another day. In other words, we must ask Forgiveness for our sins, be forgiven by God and then remain Faithful to God within the Hope of the Gospel.
2 Thessalonians 2:16, Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us and gave us by way of grace eternal compassion and a good hope. And again we have to ask what is that good hope?
We read in Romans 8:18-25, 23) And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24) For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25) But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Ok, we can see that Hope is not some ethereal aura that just floats about us and by seeing it we suddenly have it. No, Hope is manifest within us. True Hope is that which is spirit not flesh. It is a spiritual yearning for something from God that gives rest to our soul. It comes from a calm spirit. Why? Because it is the assurance of the resurrection of the Messiah.
The world has False Hope as found in Job 14:19, hope that fades away or is destroyed. It should more properly be called a wish, or a desire, but not a Hope. There is nothing that the world can offer that can do what True Hope can do. Why is that? Well, Proverbs 13:12 tells us 12) Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
Why is this True Hope a Tree of Life? Because True Hope looks forward to the rule of our King breaking forth in our lives and Him going out before us in Power. Micah 2:12-13
True hope is that which is founded upon a rock, that which is not moved by every wind of doctrine or circumstances. It is the ability to actually exist within a place of our good welfare and our peace and protection. It is a place of refuge within God that is our hope and that is nothing to be ashamed of because within God lies deliverance, salvation, strength, sustenance, instruction, greatness and Life!
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So are there any of you here today who have a yearning to be free that you have yet to experience? Do you have a yearning in your heart to have a relationship as you’ve never had with your Messiah and your God? People have been hoping or yearning for the last two thousand years. You don’t have to wait. Today, today you can have that relationship, that intimate relationship with your Messiah that allows us to have that Hope that passeth all understanding and one that will literally give you Life!
