Hope

So, let's say you want to describe the feeling of anticipating a future that is better than the present. You might be giddy, or excited, or maybe unsure. But most of us know that experience.

We call it "hope". It is a state of anticipation and it is crucial for healthy human existence. And, it is a really important concept in the Bible.

In fact, there are many words for hope in the ancient languages of the Bible. They are all fascinating. In the Old Testament, there are two main Hebrew words translated as "hope".

The first is "Yakhal" which means simply "to wait for", like in the story of Noah and the ark. As the floodwaters recede, Noah had to "yakhal" for weeks. The other Hebrew word is "Qavah" which also means to wait.

It is related to the Hebrew word "Qav" which means "cord". When you pull a qav tight, you produce a state of tension until there is release. That is "qavah", the feeling of tension and expectation while you wait for something to happen.

The prophet Isaiah depicts God as a farmer who plants vines and qavahs for good grapes. Or the prophet Micah talks about farmers who both qavah and yakhal for morning dew to give moisture to the land. So, in biblical Hebrew, hope is about waiting or expectation.

But, waiting for what? In the period of Israel's prophets, as the nation was sinking into self destruction, Isaiah said, "At this moment, the Lord is hiding his face from Israel, so I will qavah for him. " The only hope Isaiah had in those dark days was the hope for God himself.

You find this same notion of hope all over the book of Psalms where these words appear over 40 times. In almost every case, what people are waiting for is God. Like in Psalm 130, the poet cries out from the pit of despair, "I qavah for the Lord.

. . and let Israel yakhal for the LORD, because he's loyal.

. and will redeem Israel from all its sins. " Biblical hope is based on a person which makes it different from optimism.

Optimism is about choosing to see in any situation how circumstances could work out for the best. But biblical hope is not focused on circumstance. In fact, hopeful people in the Bible often recognize there is no evidence things will get better.

But you choose hope anyway. Like the prophet Hosea. He lived in a dark time when Israel was being oppressed by foreign empires.

And he chose hope when he said, "God could turn this valley of trouble into a door of hope. " Like the day when Israel came up from the land of Egypt. God had surprised his people with redemption back in the days of the exodus and he could do so again.

So, it is God's past faithfulness that motivates hope for the future. You look forward by looking backward, trusting in nothing other than God's character. Like the poet of Psalm 39 who says, "And now, O Lord, what else can I qavah for?

You are my yakhal. " In the New Testament, the earliest followers of Jesus cultivated this similar habit of hope. They believed that Jesus' life, death and resurrection was God's surprising response to our slavery to evil and death.

The empty tomb opened up a new door of hope. They used the Greek word "Elpis" to describe this anticipation. The apostle Peter said that Jesus' resurrection opened up a living hope that people can be reborn into new and different kinds of humans.

More than once, the apostle Paul says, "The good news about Jesus announces the elpis of glory. " In both cases, the elpis is based on a person, the risen Jesus who has overcome death. This hope wasn't just for humans.

The apostles believed that what happened to Jesus at the resurrection was a foretaste of what God had planned for the whole universe. In Paul's words, "It's a hope that creation itself will be liberated from slavery to corruption into freedom when God's children are glorified. " So, Christian hope is old, waiting for humanity and the whole universe to be rescued from evil and death.

Some would say it is crazy. And maybe it is. But biblical hope isn't optimism based on the odds.

It is a choice to wait for God to bring about a future that is as surprising as a crucified man rising from the dead. Christian hope looks back to the risen Jesus in order to look forward. And so, we wait.

That is what the biblical words for hope are all about.