Hope

Hope - a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Today, let’s talk about hope in the Bible.

Abraham had an astronomical amount of hope and faith. In Genesis 17:4 God told Abraham that he would be “a father of many nations”. At first, Abraham is really confused. He doesn’t have a son and he and his wife, Sarah, are a little too old to be having kids. But, he has hope in God. In Genesis 21, we find out that Isaac is born. Abraham is probably thinking, “Hey, I’ll probably end up being a father of many nations.” Then, in Genesis 22, God tells Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” If I was Abraham, I would be really confused. But, the amazing thing is that the Bible says, “Abraham rose early in the morning…”(Genesis 21:3). It doesn’t say, “Abraham had a long talk with his wife” or “Abraham thought long and hard about it” or “Abraham flipped a coin to see if he should go or not”. Abraham got up early in the morning, to do what God told him to do. He had hope and faith that God would use the confusing circumstances for good.

Hannah had an immense amount of hope throughout her life. Her husband, Elkanah, had two wives - Peninnah and of course, Hannah. Peninnah could have children and since Hannah could not, Peninnah mocked Hannah and made fun of her all the time. Even though Elkanah loved Hannah much more than Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:5), he didn’t quite understand what Hannah was going through.

Even though Hannah’s womb had been closed for many years, she went to the temple of the Lord. She had hope in the Lord so she asked for a son. “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” And because Hannah had hope in the Lord, she conceived (I Samuel 1:20). Since Hannah had hope in God, Samuel became a well known man of the Lord.

Esther is a prime example of hope. When she learned that Haman was planning to wipe out the Jews, her cousin, Mordecai, told her that she needed to tell the king.

Back in that time, a king and queen were married, but not close to each other. Kings usually had many wives. Also, women weren’t considered important by many members of society back then. (Of course, we know that God uses men and women alike for His work.) For Esther to come to King Ahasuerus when she had not been summoned, she needed to have hope that God would keep her safe. In Esther 7:3-6, we find out that through Esther’s hope in the Lord, a whole race was saved.

Moral of the story: We need to have hope in God! Through hope and God’s will, we can accomplish what God needs us to do.

Hope you are encouraged!