Bible Teaching on "The Hope of Israel"

WE talk about hope in everyday conversation. We say "I hope you feel better soon", or "We hope to go abroad this year" or "I hope the strike will be over by next week". We mean there is something in the future we should very much like to happen, and we feel cautiously optimistic that it will. Life without hope would be very grim. Even in the worst of circumstances, people like to look on the bright side. A poet wrote: "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Hope can give men extraordinary tenacity of spirit-miners trapped by a roof fall, or sailors drifting on a raft, will often fight death for days, convinced that their friends will come to the rescue before it is too late. Sadly, of course, they are sometimes disappointed. It can happen that the rock fall is too deep to tunnel through, or no one knows the ship has foundered. In this case the chance to which they cling does not exist, and their hope is an illusion.

Hope with a Foundation
Hope is a topic that crops up frequently in the Bible. Both in the Old Testament and the New, the writers are full of optimism. They look about them on a dreary and unjust world where so frequently suffering comes upon the innocent and evil men triumph, yet they have tremendous confidence that one day God the Creator is going to turn the tables the right way up. Not only that, but they seem to be convinced that they themselves will have a share in the improvements that will come. Listen to the Psalmist, for example: "Thou who hast done great things, O God, who is like thee? Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles wilt revive me again; from the depths of the earth thou wilt bring me up again . . . I will sing praises to thee with the lyre, 0 Holy One of Israel. My lips shall shout for joy, when I sing praises to thee" (Psalm 71:19-23). There is no doubt about this man's confidence in the future.

Or Paul the Apostle, in calmer mood, in this passage from his letter to Timothy: "I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." See how assured he is, as he continues: "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

This last passage is particularly interesting because it was written from a death cell. The Roman Emperor had turned against the Christians, and the aged Apostle was on trial for his life. There had been a first court hearing, and he was waiting for the second. He knew the outcome already as he penned the letter to young Timothy from his chilly prison. He was going to die. In spite of this gloomy prospect, he is full of hope. Unlike the trapped miner or the shipwrecked mariner, he does not grab at the slender chance that something will turn up-some vital document, or friendly witness, perhaps, to clear him of the charge. His hope transcends the certainty of his death. He is absolutely positive that even after he has died, a God in heaven will bring him back to a new and better life, at the last Day.

Absolute Conviction
The hope of the Bible writers is clearly something much stronger than cautious optimism. They have definite ideas about what is going to happen in the future, and they really look forward to it coming to pass. You probably envy the Apostle Paul his conviction, especially if you are passing through pain or sorrow in your life. You may have doubted in the past that you could ever be sure there is something to hope for beyond the grave. You may wonder, too, what the world is coming to, and what your children and grandchildren are going to inherit when you are gone. Well, take heart. The Bible has the key to the future, both the world's and yours. It presents a plan that God has been following consistently from the beginning, based on promises He has made. The outline, beginning with Abraham, the patriarch of Israel, and expanding through the Prophets into the New Testament writings, is so clear and logical a child can understand it. It can give you a confidence that will take you through the darkest valley of suffering, and God has provided evidence to support your faith so strong that only the folly of pride could blind your eyes. Read on and see how it all hangs together.

The Promises to Abraham
The beginning of our story is in the Old Testament, the book of the people of Israel. Do not let this put you off. The Old Testament is neither redundant nor out of date. The territory may be unfamiliar, but there is real treasure to be found in these early books of the Bible. Few people have heard, for example, of the promises to Abraham, yet they form the very foundation of God's master plan. Let us briefly recount them.

Abraham was a remarkable character who lived around 3,000 B.C. in a city called Ur which was in the land we now know as Iraq. He was visited one day by a messenger from the Lord, who told him to leave his birthplace. "Go", said the Lord, "to a land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1). Because he trusted in God, Abraham sold up all his possessions and set off across the desert with his relatives. They came to the land we know as Israel. After he had briefly surveyed the country, the Lord appeared again, and said: "To your descendants I will give this land" (Genesis 1 2:7). This generous offer was particularly pleasing to Abraham and his wife Sarah, because in spite of a long and happy marriage, they had no children. It seemed the Lord was promising them a family, as well as somewhere to live. Some years passed. Abraham continued to camp out in his tent, waiting patiently for something to happen, but there was no sign of a baby on the way, and the native inhabitants of the land continued to go about their business.

One evening the messenger of the Lord appeared again. Abraham seized the opportunity to ask two important questions. "Behold", he complained gently, "thou hast given me no offspring". For answer, he was taken outside his tent and shown the sky, ablaze with stars. "Number the stars, if you are able to number them", he was told. "So shall your descendants be!"

The other point troubling Abraham was the matter of the land. "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur . . . to give you this land to possess the angel reminded him. O Lord God'', he replied, "how am I to know that I shall possess it?" (Genesis 15:3-8).

A Solemn Covenant
For answer, the Lord proceeded to make a very solemn agreement with Abraham, after the custom of the time, termed a "covenant". He was instructed to collect a number of carefully specified animals and birds, which were sacrificed. The bodies were divided and laid on the ground. Normally, the two parties to a covenant would pass between the pieces, thus making it legally binding. In this case, as God was promising something to Abraham, He passed between the pieces. What Abraham saw, in the velvet darkness, was a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, the form in which, so often, God has revealed Himself to His people. Abraham was satisfied. A covenant confirmed in this way could not be broken.

The years flew by. In time, as Abraham grew to know God, the promises were repeated and enlarged. Two themes ran through them unchanged-the possession of the land, and the future of his descendants. It is worth tracing the development, through Genesis 1 3, 1 5, 1 7 and 22. The most impressive promise of the whole series was the last. This one began with an oath: "By myself have I sworn", said the Lord. It continued on a familiar note: "I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." It ended in mystery:

"Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:17,18, A.V.).

Notice the change in person from a plural, numerous, "seed" or offspring, to an offspring or seed in the singular. Note, too, his importance. To "possess the gate" of someone is a Hebrew idiom. In ancient times, the gate was the only entrance to a fortified city. It was also the place where the rulers held court. To possess the gate of your enemies was to have complete control. Abraham's descendant was to be all conquering, and bring universal happiness. Whom did God have in mind? Abraham could only guess, and believe.

Twenty-five years after the making of the covenants, Sarah told Abraham with great excitement that she was going to have a baby. God was keeping His word. Through all that time Abraham never doubted God would give him a son. The Apostle Paul makes this comment about him in Romans: "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised" (Romans 4:20,21). Abraham's faith was unshakeable.

No Inheritance . . . Yet
The only disturbing note in the biography of this great pioneer is the fact that when he died, he still did not possess the land. God had several times promised it to him, personally, as well as to his descendants. Yet, as the martyr Stephen recounts, God "gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length" (Acts 7:5). He died in a tent, with not even a house to his name. Yet Abraham's confidence in God could surmount even this final obstacle. Along with his wife and children, says the writer to the Hebrews, he "died in faith not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar" (Hebrews 11:13).

You can see now why Abraham is called "father of the faithful". God had brought him to the promised land. God had given him a son. If God said he would inherit the land, he believed he would, even though he had to die.

Four centuries after Abraham died, his family had grown into a nation. God had repeated the promise of the and to his son Isaac, and again to his grandson Jacob, so that it ran in the family. Jacob had a second name, Israel. He bore twelve sons, each of whom became the head of a tribe or clan with thousands of members. During a time of famine the family migrated to Egypt and settled there. As they multiplied, the Egyptians grew fearful of their power, and enslaved them. Moses, the great lawgiver, was sent to set them free. After a series of calamities which ruined his country, the Egyptian Pharaoh was forced to let them go, and the Israelites set off across the wilderness to their homeland. Remarkably, this very event had been predicted in one of the promises to Abraham, as you can check for yourself in Genesis 15:13-16.

God's Oath to Israel
At Mount Sinai, the angel of the Lord made another covenant, this time with the whole people of Israel. Sealed by the blood of sacrifices, it gave them the key to the land of Israel, so long as they kept the wise commandments of God's Law. Years later, as they stood on the brink of the Promised Land, Moses reminded them that God, after hundreds of years, was about to keep His word. "It is because the Lord loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand . . . Know therefore," he went on, "that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations" (Deuteronomy 7:8,9).

That was a staggering statement to make. A typical generation spans something like a quarter of a century. A thousand generations would require up to twenty-five thousand years of promise-keeping! So utterly reliable is God's word. Certainly a number of God's promises came unshakeably true, as the Israelites crossed the Jordan for the hills and pastures of their Fatherland.

We pass over several hundred fairly unfruitful years to the time of Israel's monarchy. King David, well known for his authorship of the Psalms, was, like Abraham, a giant of faith. Something of his love for God and his insistence on truth and right comes out in his writings. Abraham is often referred to in Scripture as "the friend" of God. David was called by the Lord "a man after my own heart". Both epithets mark off these men as exceptional characters.

During the wilderness journey and their subsequent occupation of the land, the Israelites had worshipped God at the Tabernacle, a tent-like portable building. Now the nation was firmly established with a king and a capital at Jerusalem, David felt it would be a nice idea to build for the Lord a more permanent sanctuary of stone. When he suggested this to the prophet Nathan, he was disappointed to be told that the project must be shelved until his son came to the throne. However, said Nathan, the Lord was touched by David's concern for His honour, and in return He proposed a magnificent promise for David and his family, very like the one made with Abraham.