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Life without hope is like a sunrise with no sun; something is desperately wrong with the picture. In humanity’s darkest hour, God’s voice broke the silence and hope sprang from the silence. Here’s what the first glimpse of hope looked like: “So the LORD God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.’” (Genesis 3.14-15).

Noah was a man who persevered in spite of the circumstances around him. Abraham was another of the patriarchs who proved himself before God through the faith that he exercised. However, Paul made a special point of noting that hope was also a great motivation and preserver of Abraham. Consider the following passage: “[Abraham] who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be’. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (Romans 4.18-21).

Paul wrote to the Corinthians stating that love is greater than faith or hope (1 Corinthians 13.13), but it was hope that sustained Abraham when everything about him seemed to deny the reality of God’s promise. However, hope was not alone; it operated alongside of faith. Or, to put it as Paul did, Abraham “in hope believed.” This simply means that hope and faith were intertwined and sustained one another. Just like “….a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4.12), faith and hope make an unbeatable combination; they feed on one another. Faith gives rise to hope, and hope encourages to greater faith. Such was the life and character of Abraham. When every pointer indicated otherwise, he refused to believe anything that was contrary to God’s promises. Even the apparent deadness of Sarah’s womb and the passage of time could not dissuade him from his confidence in God. It was this trait that enabled him to constantly move forward with his life and it was also this trait that was responsible for him becoming “the father of many nations.”

Hope is so much a part of what God wants us to be, to have, and to share. Without hope; life as God intends it soon ceases. I am convinced it was for this reason that the first prophecy of Jesus’ triumph over the devil (Genesis 3.15) came immediately on the heels of the first sin. God did not intend for the creatures which He made in His own image to exist apart from hope! It was the sustaining virtue of hope that caused Abraham to cling so tenaciously to God’s promises. It was this virtue that permitted him later to take the son that had been given him and offer him as God had directed. It was hope that moved his descendents to continue in the persons of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It was hope that moved Moses to lead his brothers out of Egypt and it was hope that allowed David’s flesh to rest (Psalm 16.9 and Acts 2.26).

Life cannot be grasped apart from hope! God give hope; believe God and hope in Him!

Questions:

1. How do we know that Noah had hope?

2. What did hope have to do with Abraham’s offering of Isaac?

3. Consider what might have become of man had God not intervened with hope?

4. What is the connection between faith and hope? How are they interdependent?

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

3 steps to peace...