Hope

I heard an inspiring first week of advent message recently, and it was on the theme of “Hope”. The message, as you might expect, was focused on Christ’s atonement for our sins and looking forward to his second coming.

As part of the message, the Hebrew word for “hope” was explained as, in the root word meaning, a rope where one party has an expectation that the other party on the other end of the rope won’t let them down (I apologize for butchering this from memory). Anyway, I googled the Hebrew meaning of the word “hope...”

Expectation:

In English, hope is a somewhat abstract idea of expectation. The word for hope in Hebrew (Tikvah), however, is more concrete. In Hebrew, the word means expectation—and it also means cord or rope, which comes from a root word that means to bind or to wait for or upon.

I started comparing this to uses of “hope” that I’ve either heard or experienced to see how it fit.

The first (silly) example is from the intro to a tv show called Court Cam. Court Cam shows videos of, shall we say, court room bad behavior. In the intro, the judge says, “I hope you die in prison also”. I’m fairly sure the judge was expressing frustration with the convicted defendant’s reaction and general bad behavior prior to the statement. The next example is along the lines of “I hope I get minibike for Christmas” (I had to reach back a few years when I was 14 for that recollection). This use of the word “hope”, at least as far as this definition, is likely the wrong use of the word. I believe a better word would be “desire” or “wish” and may have been strong enough to be idol worship at that time. The final

example is when I’ve told someone in the past “I hope you get better soon”. This is much closer to the concept of expectation but likely more along the lines of wishing someone well. However, I can’t picture myself holding the other end of their rope though.

This brings me back to the warm, joyful feeling I experienced during the advent message yesterday. Focusing on God holding the other end of the rope and saving me from myself and pulling me into heaven with him was a far better mental image than any use of the word “hope” I could come up with.

If you need more examples, I found a few biblical verses to reflect on…

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” - Romans 15:13 ESV

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1-5 ESV

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I

shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.” - Psalm 62:5-7 ESV