Saved by Hoping against Hope

Saved by Hoping against Hope.

“We have been saved (“sozo”) by hope. Yes, our salvation is by this hope, groaning inwardly as we await the redemption of our bodies. But hope that is seen is not really hope, for who hopes for what he sees? Who hopes for what he already has? But hoping for what we do not see means eagerly waiting for it with confident, patient endurance.” (refer to Romans 8:19-25).

“Sozo” – A comprehensive Greek term meaning saved, rescued into safety, delivered out of danger, healed and made whole, fully preserved.

Hope Defined. The biblical words for hope point to being able to anticipate the future with pleasure, to welcome whatever comes next, to have confident expectations of good in one’s life. Hope is faith in the future and a deep assurance of God’s hand in whatever is coming around the corner. The Hebrew word in Scripture for hope, “tikvah,” can also mean a connecting cord. Its root word is “qavah” which means to wait, literally to weave together the strings to make an unbreakable cord. Thus in Scripture we find that occasionally the words hope and wait are somewhat interchangeable. The Greek word is “elpis,” and means much the same thing. As has been said by many, hope is faith in the future tense.

“Hope moves the heart of God to come to our help with His grace.” (Father R. Cantalamessa).

Hope Described. Various descriptions of hope might include: Hope is confidently expecting a positive outcome, as opposed to despair, which is fearfully expecting a negative outcome; hope is trusting God for one’s future, as opposed to doubt, which is distrustful of God for one’s future; hope is an optimistic assurance based on reality, as opposed to wishful thinking, which is based on uncertainty; hope is a patient waiting that keeps one actively moving forward, as opposed to a frustrating resignation which passively keeps one stuck; hope is the strong inner urge to work through a difficulty and do what one can to solve it, as opposed to the inclination to avoid a difficulty and thus not solve anything; hope is the positive conviction that there is something substantial to look forward to, as opposed to one’s pessimistic belief that the future holds nothing but a bleak emptiness; hope is the anticipation of a triumphant future in the long run, as opposed to someone who doesn’t even believe in the possibility of a long run of any kind. As the ancient Church Father put it, “Hope is the loving movement of one’s spirit towards that which it hopes for.” (St. Didacus). So hope is not only a deep assurance and steadfast conviction, but also includes the object of the hope itself, the hope in the flesh, Jesus Christ, “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

“Yes, Abraham is our father in the sight of God in whom he trusted, the God who restores the dead to life and calls into being those things which had not been. Hoping against hope, Abraham trusted in God’s faithfulness, and so became the father of many nations… Abraham never questioned or doubted God’s promise. Rather, he was strengthened in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully persuaded that God could do whatever He had promised. Thus, Abraham’s trust was credited to him as a righteous way of living, and in right standing with God.” (Romans 4:17-22).

The Abrahamic Covenant was extraordinary, a singular event in the history of mankind. God promised in His covenant with Abraham: that his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations of the world, hinting at a coming Messiah from his family line; that God would give the lands of Abraham’s wanderings to his descendants as an everlasting possession, a treasured Land of Promise; that God would be the loyal, faithful, all-sufficient God of all his descendants, and that his family line would remain God’s Chosen People in the world; God promised that Abraham’s descendants would come through Abraham and Sarah, and no one else.

Hope Against Hope. St. Paul used a curious phrase in this passage… hoping against hope. The scholars claim that this literally means, “contrary to hope, in hope he trusted,” or, “over against hope, in hope he yet believed.” So evidently, beyond one kind of hope lies another kind of hope. There are many ways to look at this phrase, this idea of Paul’s, and as it turns out, glancing at the many angles of hoping against hope gives us a more complete look at Father Abraham’s profound trust in God’s faithfulness. In other words, Abraham’s hope against hope in this passage could mean that he:

1. acted on a hope that went far beyond hope, his natural hope giving way to supernatural hope;
2. realized that against all hope, humanly speaking, he continued hoping in God’s promise;
3. despite obvious evidence to the contrary, he chose to remain hopeful as he trusted God;
4. chose to go past the logical, human reasons for hope into the realm of unsubstantiated hope in God’s faithfulness;
5. continued to hope in God even after His promise appeared to be hopeless;
6. chose to remain hopeful despite what were clearly impossible promises from God;
7. went from a vain hope rooted in uncertainty to a certain hope rooted in trust, one hope against another hope;
8. moved from a practically impossible hope to a spiritually probable hope;
9. went from an earthbound hope into a new dimension of hope grounded in God;
10. rested in God’s hope even if His promise seemed overwhelmingly unlikely;
11. against all odds, contrary to human reason, and despite everything in his life that told him not to hope, he nonetheless took hold of another whole level of hope and trusted in God’s character and faithfulness.

A Little Backstory on Abraham. God had made a binding, everlasting promise to Abraham, and that Covenant was always on God’s mind. God is faithful to His promises, always. God had warmed up to the Covenant of Genesis 17 by making three earlier promises to Abraham. First, God said, “Go out from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house. I will make you a great nation.” (12:1-2). Then God told Abraham, “I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, so shall your offspring be counted.” (13:14-16). The third prelude to the Abrahamic Covenant was, “God took him outside and said, ‘Look at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your children be.” (15:5). And now comes the official Covenant… “Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” (17:15).

Abraham was a friend of God” (2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23; Isaiah 41:8)

Hope Within a Friendship. “My Friend Abraham.” Abraham is the Biblical champion of saying hineni, ‘Here I am,’ saying it three times in one chapter alone (Gen. 22). By this time he and God were building an intimate friendship. Many years earlier, Abraham left his home in Ur at the simple urging of Yahweh, and “Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:4). When he and Sarai and his possessions finally made it to the land of Canaan, he built an altar at Bethel and “called upon the Name of Yahweh” (12:8). He made a little side trip to Egypt and returned to Bethel, and once again “called on the Name of Yahweh” (15:4). Abram was then known as “Abram of El Elyon, God Most High,” and was blessed by Melchizedek (14:19), the mysterious king and priest of Salem, soon to become Jerusalem. Yahweh then spoke to Abram in a vision and promised him a son and countless descendants. Abram fully trusted God and took God’s words to heart, as he always did. Fast forward to the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, and the divine encounter with the Lord in respect to the doom of Sodom. Abraham and the Lord seemed to be bargaining as to Sodom’s fate at that time, and they seemed to trust each other as close friends through the whole exchange (Gen. 18). As we approach chapter 22, it’s clear that Abraham is a model of faith in God, and that he maintained, usually, an attitude of “Here I am” with Yahweh. Abraham lived with God in the spirit of ongoing availability and trust. It’s no wonder why Abraham became known in Scripture as “the friend of God.

“Truly, I will bless Sarah richly, and she shall become the mother of many nations; kings of nations will come from her and will be her descendants.” (Genesis 17:16).

Mother Sarah. Father Abraham casts quite a long shadow in the biblical story and in human history. He was the pioneer of Judaism, of monotheism, of the three primary religions in the world. But at the same time, we wouldn’t have Father Abraham without Mother Sarah. Unlike too many Christians, Jewish believers do not in any way neglect to honor Sarah. She has long been declared a prophetess in Hebrew history, she is the founding mother of the Jewish faith, she is the matriarch of the Covenant. Lord Yahweh gave her that special blessing in Genesis 17 that promised her a unique place in His plans for the Jewish people. Sarah wasn’t merely a dutiful wife who followed her husband away from her home to places unknown. She wasn’t just someone in the shadows of a monumentally great husband who didn’t bother to tell her what was going on most of the time. If we are to take seriously the two-as-one marital idea when Creator God anointed marriage in the very beginnings of the world, then we have to acknowledge that Sarah’s story is inextricably linked with Abraham’s story. Despite biblical evidence that Christians spiritually came through Sarah just as much as Abraham, and therefore is a mother of the Christian faith; despite the fact that Messiah Jesus was a descendant from her family tree with Abraham; despite the fact that she is the first woman mentioned in the Hebrew Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11… Despite all that, Sarah tends to be a neglected and underappreciated person in our faith history. Yes, as Paul says in Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Fine, but it takes two to tango, and at the crucial time in this miraculous conception, it wasn’t just Abraham’s seed that was involved. Both Father Abraham and Mother Sarah are our spiritual forbears. Sarah was an amazing, trail-blazing saint in her own right, so let’s take her out from her husband’s shadow.

Hopeful Laughter. When the Lord finally, in His wisdom, confirmed His promise of a world-changing family line (Gen. 17), by telling Abraham and Sarai they would have a child within a year, Sarah’s initial reaction was that the whole idea was laughable. To get pregnant at 90 years of age, and to enjoy sexual pleasure again, with a husband who is every bit of a 100, was quite a shocker. Was Sarai’s laughter one of disbelief, or the irony of it all? Was it a laugh of joyful relief, or of bewildered confusion? Was her laugh one of faith and wonder, or was it a laughter of friendly sarcasm, her thinking, “Pardon me, Lord, but isn’t this a bit ridiculous? You wait until I’m 90!” Sarai’s laughter might naturally have been a very human combination of all these emotions and thoughts. As a matter of fact, husband Abraham joined in the laughter to the point of falling on his face (Gen 17:17). It’s no wonder their miracle child was named Isaac, which is Hebrew for “laughter.” But Hebrews 11 makes a special point that sooner or later Sarah knew she could trust God with this outlandish development, and so Sarah proved to be a profound woman of faith. (Heb. 11:11). After a time, their shared laughter was now rooted in sheer joy, because, as Frederick Buechner said in his Peculiar Treasures, “… It suddenly dawned on them that the wildest dreams they’d ever had hadn’t been half wild enough.”