The Two-Hundred-Ninety-Ninth (Hope: A Different Perspective)
- Rob
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
As you may or may not have noticed, I don’t typically revisit topics unless I learn something new about them. I figure every weekly study we’ve done is available on the website and is searchable, and if I’m writing on the same topic, I’ve lost an opportunity to learn and share something new. This week, however, we’re going to revisit the topic of Hope.
I also try to stay away from “topics of the day” or subject matter related to typical talking points people have day-to-day; things like politics, news, movies/tv shows, etc. Obviously, as you can tell from last week’s topic, I understand that sometimes those things need to enter the conversation in order for us to analyze them from the point of view of scripture and determine our position as a believer. It also helps us reset ourselves to prevent being sucked back in to letting those topics dominate our conversation or thinking, as is what typically happens in the world.
When you start to better understand scripture, what YHWH is showing us in it and how He wants us to live our lives, those worldly topics gradually lose meaning. You start to see them as distractions from our main purpose: fear YHWH and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Rather than being in the middle of those subjects, actively involving yourself in conversation and trying to convince others of your position, you stay on the outside. You realize that the conversations are pointless because whatever is going to happen will happen, whether or not you’re right and whether or not you’ve convinced someone else that you’re right.
As believers, we should definitely have a scripture-based opinion on the things of the world, like we saw last week. We can even hope that for whatever the subject matter is, the thing that happens is the thing we wanted or expected to happen. That was the case for me this past week.
If you were following the drama and hype regarding the KY-04 primary that happened this past Tuesday, you probably had some opinion or hope that a particular outcome would occur. I certainly did. Unfortunately, in my case, that outcome did not come to pass.
While I certainly wasn’t devastated at the outcome, it cemented in my mind that we need to regularly remind ourselves that there is no hope for the systems put in place by men. Every single one of them is either already corrupt or will be corrupt at some point. The corruption is either the result of man or the result of Satan’s influence in the system.
I appreciate the enthusiasm and perseverance of all those good people out there that think they can fix things like our political system, how the government is run, our media, etc., I really do. Unfortunately, at this point, I don’t see it as a wise use of resources. There are too many things at play, too many knobs to turn, by the corrupt and evil people in the world for us to be able to fix it at this point.
One by one, just over the last few years, we’ve seen that when there is a glimmer of hope that something might change, that corruption would be dealt with or evil would be stopped and receive its just consequences, that hope gets dashed on the rocks of reality. There’s too much control over all these systems by those corrupt and evil in order for change to occur. There’s too much division amongst those who want the systems to change in order for us to be successful in achieving that change.
A media company focused on truth and independence fails to gain traction based on the overwhelming market share of the fake news media and the ability to control people’s social media feeds through bots or paying for posts. A sitting member of our government gets thousands of letters from constituents regarding their desire for him or her to vote a certain way, but the real paycheck only comes from voting the opposite of that and he or she knows they’ll have no problem getting re-elected either way. Someone focused on honesty, transparency, and actually representing the people tries to get elected (or re-elected) without being bought out, but for every million dollars raised by thousands of citizens throughout the country, not even just those in their own district, they get countered by a million-dollar donation from a billionaire to the opposing candidate through some political organization.
All this is not to get you cynical or depressed based on the state of things today. It’s to put in perspective what we’re seeing. It’s so easy to get onboard with those that talk about taking action and fixing things. Most everyone, believer and non-believer alike, is wired to have hope or a desire to hope in something.
The question is who or what we should really be spending our energy hoping in. We can spend energy putting hope in a voting process being secure enough to prevent a corrupted result, or that people will turn out to vote in numbers that will achieve our desired result, or we can put our hope in something else. We can hope that our local leadership like town councils will approve and disapprove things based on our best interest, or we can put our hope in something else.
Based on what we’ve all been told growing up in this country, it seems anti-American to not have hope in our election process and the “checks and balances” that are supposedly present in our government, but I submit for your consideration that this sentiment is just another way we have been convinced to be distracted from our primary duty as believers. The thing about it is that if we all were to focus on that primary duty, and thereby place all our hope in YHWH and what He will do, all those other things will eventually become aligned with what is right and what is good. And honestly, with all that I’m seeing in the world, this past week included, I think that’s exactly what He’s trying to get us to realize, now more than ever.
The only way this all gets fixed is by Him, and that is the only thing I will ever fully place my hope in. There’s multiple ways He could do this, but right now, the only way I could see it ever happening is through Yeshua’s physical return to reign on earth. I thought, for a moment, that YHWH may work through our current systems and processes in order to bring the world into alignment with Him and then send Yeshua back to earth, but the more I see every day, the more I realize that is not the path He is taking.
As we saw the last time we covered this topic, almost two years ago, there are a lot of references to hope in scripture. A few times, it’s hope for short term things like the writer of a letter being able to see who he’s writing to once again in his travels. However, most of the time in the New Testament, for example, it’s a hope in things from above.
Hope, by definition, is simply expectation. By hoping in something, you expect that whatever it is will achieve your desire for it. That desire is a certain outcome for whatever the “thing” is. Sometimes, it’s that a person does the right thing. Sometimes, it’s that a certain thing happens in a given situation.
Whatever the things are that you have put your hope in over the years, I’m sure you’ve been disappointed more than a few times when that hope is not met. I know I have. From my experience, there’s one thing I have had hope in where I have never once been disappointed. However, I warn you, in order for you to have the same result, you have to change your perspective on hope from what the world tells you it is and from what you’ve lived your life believing it to be.
The New Testament has a lot of references to hope that include salvation (Romans 8:24), eventually being in the physical presence of Yeshua (1 Thessalonians 2:19), the forgiveness of our sins (Hebrews 6:19-20), inheritance (Ephesians 1:18), etc. Yes, we can be confident that our hope for these things have been/will ultimately be met, but what we’re talking about today is something more tangible. We’re talking about hope for things in the here and now.
No matter who you are, as a believer you can agree that hope for those intangible things goes a long way, but right now, in our current, physical bodies, we need to also be able to hope for things we can see, feel, touch, or experience, and not worry about being disappointed if they don’t come to pass. This is an area, in my opinion, where many, most of the time well-intentioned, believers have trouble. I believe in YHWH and Yeshua, and I’ve given my life to Them, so why didn’t I get that job I was hoping for? Why do I still struggle financially? Why did my relationship fall apart?
The believer, even with the hope of salvation, seeing YHWH and Yeshua face to face in the future, or having their sins forgiven and blotted out, also hopes in things of today, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I read a little while ago that the artist Kanye West recently stopped being a believer despite his short stint creating Christian content. That didn’t last long, did it? The article stated that he stopped because he didn’t get some sponsorship or shoe deal he asked God for and he didn’t get his ex-wife Kim Kardashian back, which he also asked for.
We can look at that situation and judge how ridiculous it is, but are the majority of believers any different? I’m not talking about those that walk away because they didn’t get what they asked YHWH for, I’m talking about the believers that remain believers but have been disappointed so many times by not getting what they ask for that they cease to believe that they will ever get what they ask for. They pray about something, never expecting it to come to pass. To put it bluntly, they lose faith that YHWH has any desire for them to be blessed in their lives or that He even answers prayers.
They still sit in the pew, they still call themselves a believer, and they may even still read and study their Bible, but instead of turning to YHWH for the things in their lives they believe that the only way for them to be blessed or get what they hope for is by doing it themselves. I mean, God helps those who help themselves, right? The answer is not that they should stop hoping for things and just hope for the future, intangible things. The answer is to change what they hope for.
This change is certainly not something that happened in me overnight. It came as a result of little things, and some big things, that over time “rewired” my thoughts and feelings to be this way. Yes, as you can tell, I still hope for somethings to happen a certain way in the world, but I never have a 100% expectation that it will come to pass. Some might say, expect to be disappointed and you’ll never be disappointed.
I do, however, hope for things in my life and for my family, and I can tell you for those things I have never been disappointed. How do I do that? Simple. I only hope for YHWH to bless us with whatever is in His plan for our lives.
You may feel like that’s a cop out, but I can tell you from experience that whatever I could have ever hoped for to specifically happen in our lives, YHWH has surpassed it. It’s not about seeing specific things, or possibilities, in your life and hoping they would happen. It’s about hoping for His plan for you to be fulfilled, and I can tell you that what’s in His plan is better than what you could come up with to hope for on your own.
When you look at it that way, and hope in that way, you don’t get disappointed when you didn’t get that job, that car, or that relationship. Instead, you try to figure out why you didn’t get those things, to see what YHWH was trying to teach you or show you, or what His better plan is for your life. By doing that, once you figure it out, you’re certainly not disappointed. Instead, you’re excited to see what the next thing in His plan is!
There are many reasons why you don’t get what you hope for. Sometimes it has to do with evil influencing it, sometimes it has to do with it not being the best thing for you, and sometimes it’s because YHWH has something better in store for you. Out of all of the many reasons though, there’s one thing for sure: YHWH has something for you to learn from it. Why not just start from that perspective and hope for His plan for your life to be fulfilled? That way, you still learn from all the things that happen along the way, but you’re never disappointed!
Have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
The Gospel
We are born sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 1 John 1:8)
The consequence of sin, which is unavoidable through our own works, is death (Romans 6:23)
Yeshua, the Son of YHWH, lived sinless and was put to death (Hebrews 4:15)
His death, therefore, cleanses us of sin that would have required our death
He rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4)
Because of His resurrection, we are confident in our future resurrection and eternal life
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