Hope
Hope, in the Bible, is of the Holy Spirit,….
….it is the confident expectation that God will do what He says.
If He gives us a word, or promise…..the Holy Spirit places hope within us….giving us assurance that God will fulfill all He has said.
It is not the “hope so”, which is more like a wish….but the Holy Spirit within us…implanting the roots of what will be the tree of promise,….and in the end….the fruit of the fulfillment and answer.
There is stability in this hope….for again, it is of the Holy Spirit within.
Hebrews 6:18-19 “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope sent before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
Our example:
Jeremiah and the land he buys:
Jeremiah was in prison….the king had ordered his arrest for speaking the truth about the coming victory of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon….and the destruction of Jerusalem.
He tried to save the people……but most did not want to hear the truth.
(Jeremiah had warned Zedekiah, king of Judah….to simply go out to Nebuchadnezzar….and submit to him. Then the king and the people would be able to stay in the land.
God was trying to teach His people about submission…..giving up their proud ways of doing what they wanted….and yield.
But Zedekiah the king of Judah….was too proud and scared to do what he should….for himself or his people.)
But in prison, Jeremiah hears the word of the Lord….a very strange word, in these times:
Jeremiah 32:7 “Behold, Hanameel…..thy uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: the right of redemption is thine to buy it.”
Anathoth was Jeremiah’s hometown…..and with the siege of the country…..there was much poverty…..and little crops were being produced.
His uncle, no doubt needed the money….perhaps to save some of his family from becoming servants.
“The right of redemption” was Jeremiah’s right to buy the land of a poor relative….at a reasonable price….for himself……in order to keep it in the family.
Jeremiah 32:9-11 “And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
So I took the evidence of the purchase,….”
This is very remarkable…..an act of hope about the word of the Lord:
….Jeremiah knew that Nebuchadnezzar would take the city….that the inhabitants of the whole land would be divided into slave…and dragged away to a foreign land…
….and servant….taking care of the land so that the crops would go to Nebuchadnezzar.
There was no reason of thinking that Jeremiah would ever use that land….
…why then did he buy it?
Remember hope is the confident expectation that God will do what He says.
And Jeremiah’s hope was in the Lord’s Word…..not in lands, or deeds.
Jeremiah 32:12-15 “And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch….in the sight of Hanameel….and in the presence of the witnesses….
…..and I charged Baruch before them…
…..Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences,….and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.”
Here was where Jeremiah’s hope lay…..in….”Thus saith the Lord of hosts”.
What a joyful word this was! This land will be possessed by Israel again!
Hope for a time coming….hope in the Word of the Lord.
After the purchase…..he prays….
Jeremiah 32:17, 24-25 “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth, by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee:
Behold the mounts (places they put the machines which catapult into the city), they are come unto the city to take it;……and the city is given….that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what Thou hast spoken is come to pass;…
And Thou hast said unto me, O Lord God, buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”
Though God saw all that Israel had done…..and was chastening them for it….yet God also saw what would be…..and gave a word of hope to His servant.
During this siege, there was sword, famine, and pestilence…..
…..yet Jeremiah heard of a time….through God’s Word….that things would return to “normal”….
“…and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” (Jeremiah 32:37-38)
This purchase was to be an earnest….a down payment….on the promise to come.
The Lord showed Jeremiah that the land and the people would be desolate….for a time (seventy years)….but then:
Jeremiah 32:27, 42-44 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for Me?
For thus saith the Lord; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate….
….for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord.”
Jeremiah knew that he, himself would not redeem this land, in this life (though certainly in the Millennial reign, that land will be his.)….
….but he was looking to the promise of God in hope.
(And in fact, among the very first of Israel to return from captivity, were men of Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown. Ezra 2:23)
What of us?
Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Hope is the confident expectation that God will do what He says.
He has done all that He has said….
….and all that is written in the scriptures will certainly come to pass.
Romans 15:13 “ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
I do not know how Jeremiah felt about his uncle…or about the land….or about the process of redeeming the land (the deeds and witness)….
….what I do know about Jeremiah, was that he desired above all else God’s glory and honor…
….and that a deed in an earthen vessel…..symbolized hope….and that it honored God.
Are we yielding to the hope of the Holy Spirit?
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 