Faith, Hope, and Promises

We got some discouraging news this last week. We’d been struggling to even HAVE hope about this situation, waffling between resignation and a thin thread of hope and determination. But, short of a miracle, it’s done. Kaput. I don’t see how we can ever see the positive outcome we’d been watching for. We’ve run out of “one more step to try” options, and we recognize that, in human terms, there is no hope.

There are a few people in the Bible who might be able to relate. Have you ever thought about what life must have been like for “The Inbetweeners”? Yes, I made up that word. It is especially used to refer to the people who lived on that one blank page in your Bible – that page between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew. Trusted scholars say that Nehemiah was probably the last OT book to actually be written, so this isn’t a strict definition, but hang with me. When Malachi (or Nehemiah), rolled up that final scroll he’d been writing on, put up the ink, and went on with his work for the Lord, what happened? Next thing WE know, Rome has charge over Israel, Jews are hired as tax collectors, priests must answer to the Roman government, and… Jesus is born, lived, died, and lived again. The Savior has come!!! Yay! God’s promise was kept!

But what about all those people who lived BEFORE God’s promise of a Messiah was kept? Technically this starts way back at Adam, as we have generations of those who had been promised a Savior. However, after Malachi, I don’t find any indication of prophets, written text, etc. It doesn’t mean they didn’t have those things, but WE have no record in our Bibles. So, the question in my mind is this: how did they keep the faith? How did Mary, 400 years later, still believe the promise of a Savior? Think about where Mary sat: the Roman government has been ruling for longer than she’s been alive, and though the Jewish leaders talk of a Messiah, it sure seems like He should have come a long time ago. Looking at human circumstances, it would not be easy to believe that the Messiah really was coming. 400 years without the promise kept – 4,000 years since Adam, and no answer.

If you were Mary, or Joseph, or John the Baptist, or Peter, James, or John… would you even believe God’s promise, anymore? The government had harsh restrictions, and their “Godly” leaders weren’t any better. Their main leadership in worshiping God was a corrupt old-boys club that demanded ridiculousness, rather than heart-felt worship. Did God even see what they were dealing with? Did God actually even make that promise of a Savior, or was that just made up by their leaders, too? In human terms, there wasn’t any reason to believe in a Savior, much less live a life of faith.

I’m sure that many lived that way – gradually giving in to the culture around them, succumbing to the civic responsibilities and corruption around them. Hey, you’ve got Zacchaeus and Matthew, examples of Jews who were working for the Romans – and they don’t seem to be like Mordecai in days past, who still served God. The more your “Godly” peers began to give in, the harder it would be to stand for God. What would you do?

What DO you do? I don’t have to tell YOU how crazy our culture is – abortion, homosexuality, greed, lust, all accepted in the name of “tolerance”. It seems hopeless. But let’s bring it home: culture aside, YOU may have a crazy situation that seems hopeless. Maybe the bills are piling up with no way to pay them. Maybe it seems like everything you touch seems to crumble around you. Maybe family or work relationships are stressful to say the least. Maybe you battle depression or your health is sliding fast. Looking at the situation, it must feel how the Inbetweeners must have felt. “God, are you SURE you’ve got this? Are you REALLY sending a Savior?”

This is the moment of truth. The moment you get in your own face (tricky, I know), and demand an answer: Will you trust God? Will you still have hope? Will you still live like his Promises are true?

Are you going to be a Zacchaeus, trying to solve your problems your own way? Or are you going to be a Mary, trusting God, finding favor with Him?

How do we do that? How do we find hope, when it all seems hopeless? Perspective. An ETERNAL perspective.

We get stuck in our own perspective – the car won’t start, that bill came in, that person’s a jerk. And though I have a suspicion it’s just human nature, I’ll say that especially in today’s culture, we want it fixed NOW! But the inbetweeners didn’t have that liberty, and neither do we. God’s plan is still in motion. Even while no one could see how God was preparing a Savior, you see that there was still a lineage of the line of David even during the in between time. Matthew and Luke could look at it later, and piece it together for us to see in the New Testament (Matthew 1, and Luke 3), but Heli couldn’t know that his son would care for the Messiah as his own child. Nor could Ezekias know that it would be through his line that the Savior would arrive. All they knew was what a mess the Jews were in, and how miserable to be under the Romans.

We have little but their names, so we don’t know how they handled their perspective. Did they trust God? Did they rebel against God? We don’t know. Do you think they might have lived differently if they had seen their position in the line of Christ? Would that have made a difference in their circumstances? It certainly wouldn’t have brought the Messiah any sooner. But it would have given them HOPE.

Is that where you’re stuck? Hopeless?

I’ll tell you what: When we got this news last week, our first reaction was not to praise God, to recount his promises, or to rejoice. At all. Really it was more of a grief of things lost. It’s not easy getting that news.

But as I sat and wept before God, journaling my heart out to Him, He began to whisper hope to me. Not hope that the situation will change, but hope, nonetheless. Hope, knowing that “my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory”. Hope that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard… what God has prepared for those who love him”. Hope that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. And hope that God hears me when I “let my requests be made known to God” and that He provides “peace… which surpasses all understanding.”

As he spoke these whispers to me, the resolve grew in me to live like they’re true. Because they are. I may not see the answers in my lifetime, even, but they’re true.

The inbetweeners didn’t get to see the fulfillment of God’s promise. Some chose to live like it was true, some didn’t. Some had God’s strength to live on in faith. Some doubted and gave themselves over to the world’s ways. Some received God’s promised Savior with joy. Some didn’t recognized His promise when He came. Some had hope, others didn’t.

You have a choice. Trust His promises, sight unseen, live by faith, and get the bonus of hope. Or cling to your own strength, live your own way, and lose hope.

Moment by moment, you get to make this same choice again. When that devastating news comes, you have a choice. When things are going hunky-dory, you have a choice. Decide now to decide then to trust His promises.

Philippians 4:6,7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 2:9

But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Romans 8:18-19

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.