The Shoot of Hope
I’ve been thinking a lot about hope. It’s a new year, but not just any new year. It’s a new year that comes in the wake of two years of hardship, loss, stress, fear, and hopelessness. Frankly, it’s been an exhausting two years. Perhaps we finally get a hint of what Israel felt as they waited 400 years to hear from God. Or how they felt when they waited in exile for God to keep his promise to bring them back home to the promised land. Would today be the day that hope springs new?
Hope.
That single flame in the darkest of nights. That oasis in the desert that you thought was empty and endless.
Hope. How we long for hope in times of distress, heartache, bondage, and darkness. This year, in particular, hope seems more feeble, more necessary, and less tangible. Do you feel that tension? The longing, the anticipation for something better versus the current reality? They pull at one another and tug at our hearts. The Bible describes this tension, this understanding of hope as “’ Qavah,’ the feeling of tension and expectation while you wait.”[1]
Can you imagine the hopelessness the nation of Israel must have felt after four HUNDRED years of silence from God? Four hundred years filled with war, famine, being conquered by other empires and ruled over with brutality? The dream of Israel, the nation of God, now nothing more than a smoldering stump of a long-lost dream. A stump that one might strip over and remember in bitterness the future promises that appear to be broken, dashed, and forgotten.
Knowing the state of hopelessness the whole nation would feel, God gave them a promise to cling to for four hundred years. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”[2] Can you imagine this word picture? A tiny, green shoot unfolding from the middle of a charred, old stump of a tree? Hold that picture in your mind and consider the implications of this picture. Jesus, the sprout of promise fulfilled, qavah being realized, when all hope seemed lost.
Isaiah goes on in his prophetic writings to describe Jesus- who he is, what he will do, what his purpose here on earth will be. In Isaiah 42, he prophesies,
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.”
And of what God promises to do for the hopeless,
“And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them.”
These promises came true through our Lord, Jesus Christ! That shoot of hope blossomed into a new reality, packed full of life and more hope for even better, future promises!
Do you feel hopeless? Are you sitting in the tension of hoping for a better reality while your world seems to be crumbling? Are you weary, dry, and stump-like? Do you feel hope flickering, threatening to extinguish? Look to Jesus, the fulfillment of all hope. Run to Jesus, your gentle savior, who will not break those who are bruised, nor extinguish those whose hope is almost snuffed. He promises to take you by the hand, lead you when you cannot see, down new paths, level paths that you will not stumble on. He promises to turn the darkness pressing around you to light. “These are the things I do, and I will not forsake them.”
This is hope for you and hope for your patients, co-workers, friends, family. This is hope that brings life when the world would shout that all is hopeless, life is empty and meaningless. Cling to the hope of Christ and walk into the new year with confidence. The world might crumble and groan, but the Lord will never abandon you or forsake you.
[1] The Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/yakhal-hope/
[2] Isaiah 11:1
Written by Sara Danielle Hill