“God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he (Abraham) became the father of many nations.” Romans 4:17,18
The life of Abraham is a great and true study of the subject of hope. But this hope which he had did not originate in and of himself, for God gave it to him. We find the Apostle Paul affirming this when he writes of several presently abiding “great” things: “And now abide faith, HOPE, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13) Thought hope is not the greatest of these three things, like faith, it is an imperative, essential gift of God to be exercised and lived by until it is fulfilled in the glorious meeting of the soul with the Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is hope, and how is it to be rightly exercised, with great eternal ramifications, or effects, to serve forever as a testimony to the faithfulness of God?
First, we must distinguish between the “hope” of the world, that of man, which has its origin and working out according to man’s concepts, and abilities. Though not a divine hope, it does, by definition reveal a certain truth. The hope of the world is an expectation of things to come, an anticipation of things to be realized or accomplished. It is based upon one’s concepts of what is real, true, can be realized, but which might not be. That which distinguishes men’s hope from that which is given by God, is the very present element and fact of God’s presence, promise, power, and provision. Where man falls short in his own “concepts” of what he should hope for in truth, and the necessary resources to realize that hope fully, God provides an eternal foundation, or basis for hope. Like faith, hope is founded in trust in God, a whole-hearted belief in Him, where all confidence is placed in Him. Specifically, faith and hope are rooted in the faithfulness of God, His unchanging ability and commitment to BE and to DO exactly what He has declared in His word, the Scriptures. The element of God’s presence and power is essential to grasp, for the hope that He gives will carry the believer “beyond what he could ask or think,” that for which he does not how to pray, and to believe that which he has not seen nor heard, except as God has revealed it to him by the Spirit. In other words, as faith is a present trust in God for things in the immediate moment, hope reaches beyond the present to the future, or coming time, when the promises of God will be fulfilled for His glory. Such would be the experience of Abraham, who was called to faith according to the revelation of Christ to him, when he still lived in Ur of the Chaldees. It would be later in life that he would begin to see ever so clearer the hope of his descendants possessing a land where the promises of God would be revealed, and accomplished, in answer to faith and obedience. However, there in that land of promise, Abraham would learn the difference between faith and hope, for hope’s promise, though called upon to believe in the present moment, would have its realization in the future. Only God will be able to accomplish such a promise, for he will call Abraham to believe something that is humanly impossible, to be realized at a time of God’s own choosing, and in a way by which God alone will receive the glory.
Scripture tells us that Abraham, contrary to hope, believed in hope…according to what was spoken.” (Romans 4:18) Not only would Abraham be called to believe God for the birth of a son of promise in his old age, but then to surrender that promised son, and all that concerned him, so that God alone could spare him, raising him from the dead. Enduring hope overcame all.
Dear Father, Fill us with hope. In Jesus’ name, Amen.