Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #35 - A Feeling of Hope

We have been considering the Hebrew word "batah" and its derivatives as expressing "a feeling of well-being, safety and security."  This is an aspect of "hope" that we have not encountered before in our study of the word "hope".  Whenever we begin to contemplate the idea of "feeling" or "feelings" in connection with the Christian life all kinds of red flags come to mind to caution us against trusting in our feelings or placing any confidence in them.  We all know that feelings can be misleading.  They can be faked, faulty, phony or false!  But feelings may also be valid and valuable in the believer's experience and life when they are verifiable.  Feelings should never be the basis of our security, but they can be and even should be one of the benefits of it.  We are saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8).  This is the basis of the believer's security in Christ.  But we are also saved unto hope (Greek text of Romans 8:24).  This is one of the blessings of our justification in Christ.  Faith is the root; hope is the fruit.  True faith results in a true feeling of safety and security in our relationship with God.  Feeling is not a substitute for faith, but I would not want a faith without feeling, would you?  Last time we looked at this "feeling of hope" expressed by our Savior in the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 22:9.  There we saw this sense of security and safety beautifully portrayed in the description of the infant Jesus in the loving arms of His earthly mother. Thus His earthly life began with a consciousness of trust and the accompanying feeling of hope in His Heavenly Father.  This was a sense of security that was to continue in the life of our Lord unto the very end, even when He was being crucified on the cross.  But it was also to continue beyond His crucifixion even as He contemplated His own Resurrection from the dead and the fullness of joy He would possess eternally in the Presence of His Father afterward.  This is described for us in Psalm 16, another of the Messianic Psalms:  "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope (betah). For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:9-11).   That this passage speaks of Christ and His Resurrection is verified by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:22-36 and by the Apostle Paul in Acts 13:30-37.  The Pulpit Commentary contains the following comment: "More than 30 generations of believers read and sang this Psalm, pondered and prayed over it, and drew, no doubt, sweet though vague comfort from this verse, before the hidden glory of its meaning was disclosed.  At last ... the time arrived for putting the key into the lock.  The same Spirit who inspired the prophecy interpreted it."  This betah hope in Christ Jesus was a feeling of safety and security He experienced even in the face of death.  He was confident of His own triumph over death and hell to the bitter end.  Delitzsch who applies this Psalm to both David and to Christ makes the following comments:  "David here expresses as a confident expectation ... that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life .... He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz. without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David's hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God  his own, to fall into the hands of death (emphasis mine).  He goes on to define "resting in hope" as "dwelling in safety under the divine protection" as in Deut. 33:12,28 where the word "safety" is also the Hebrew word "batah".  Thus David prophetically spoke of his own resurrection in connection with the Resurrection of God's Holy One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because He lives we shall live also!  It is this hope that gives to the believer in Christ a sense of well-being, security and safety even in the face of death and indeed well beyond it!  What a wonderful feeling of hope flowing from and based upon our faith in our Risen Lord!

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #34 - A Secure Hope



Our next Hebrew synonym for "hope" is the word "batah" and its derivatives (Strong's #s 982 - 987; Theological Wordbook #233).  The etymology of this word is not well established.  Strong states that it properly means "to hie (hasten) for refuge" but "not so precipitately" (abruptly, suddenly, violently) as "hasa" (which happens to be next in our Hebrew word studies).  While there is a clear connection between "hasa" and taking refuge in a shelter (as we will see in future posts), there is no place that I could find in the Scriptures where "batah" is literally associated with this idea.  The Theological Wordbook states that "There is no clear cognate in the other Semitic languages", but cites one scholar who connects it with the Arabic word meaning "to be stretched out, taut" which would suggest the idea of "firmness" or "solidity".  This would be in keeping with some of the previous words for "hope" we have studied that are based on the root idea of "strength" that inspires "confidence".  Gesenius in his Lexicon has another take on this word and its root meaning.  He connects it with an Arabic word meaning "to throw one down on his back" and proposes that the root meaning of "batah" may  perhaps be "to throw oneself or one's cares on any one" and therefore "to confide in any one, to set one's hope and confidence upon any one".  Whatever its etymology, whether that of taking refuge, trusting in strength, or casting one's self down,  it is clear that this word is used of a feeling of security and therefore of confident trust.  The Theological Wordbook concludes that "in Hebrew, batah expresses that sense of well-being and security whic'h results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence" (emphasis mine).  It is important to recognize that this word "batah" is one of the main words used in the Old Testament to convey the idea of trust.  In fact, while it is only translated with the word "hope" five times in the King James Version of the Bible, it is translated as "trust" around a hundred times!  Other times it is rendered by such words as "safe" or "safely" (28x), "confidence" (10x), "secure" (8x), "bold" (2x), "sure" (1x), and "assurance" (1x).  It can even have a negative connotation of being "careless" (8x) whenever a person's "secure feeling" is based on the wrong things! (More about this later).  It is instructive to note that despite this strong association with "trusting" or "relying upon" in the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek Version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, consistently translates "batah" with the Greek word for "hope" (elpis, elpizo) but never with the word for "believe" (pisteuo).  The Theological Wordbook concludes from this observation that "This would seem to indicate that batah does not connote that full-orbed intellectual and volitional response to revelation which is involved in 'faith,' rather stressing the feeling of being safe or secure.  Likewise, all the derivatives have the same meaning 'to feel secure', 'be unconcerned'." (Emphasis mine).  One of the most endearing pictures of this feeling of safety and security is found in the use of this word in Psalm 22:9 - "But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts."  Is there any greater mental picture of a feeling of safety and security than that of a nursing infant in its mother's loving arms?  Does such a child have any cares at all?  Any anxiety at all?  Any worries or fears?  No, not one!  There may not be any intellectual or volitional action taking place in the mind or heart of this child, but there is certainly a feeling of contentment and well-being!  What a picture of the believer's hope in God.  No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ said that we must become as little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that one who will humble himself as a little child is greatest in God's Kingdom (Matthew 18:1-4).  I have learned more about trust from young children, especially Christian children, than from most preachers I have known.  There is something so simple, yet so profound in the faith of young children that escapes and confounds most adults.  We need to be more child-like and yet not become childish in our relationship with God.  We could learn a lot about true hope just from studying this one passage in Psalm 22.  We must remember that this Psalm is primarily Messianic in its interpretation.  It is a prophetic picture of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross.  In the midst of that suffering and in response to the taunts of the jeering crowd our Lord spoke of his batah hope in God: The Son's feeling of safety and security in the Father that existed in His humanity as the God-Man.  There was never a time in the humanity of Christ that that hope did not exist!  He was apparently conscious of that hope from the very moment of his birth! While the crowd mocked Him and shouted "let Him trust in the LORD to deliver Him now", the Lord replied to His Father, "I always have" - "I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou  art my God from my mother's belly" (Psalm 22:8-10).  His sense of hope was as secure then as it had been when He was in the arms of His earthly mother Mary. As always, Christ is our Example as well as our Source of true hope.  Fanny Crosby captured the thought well:

"Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast,

There, by His love o'er-shaded, Sweetly my soul shall rest."

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #33 - The Fullness of Hope

In our last post we introduced the Hebrew words "kesel" and "kisla" as expressing a full hope.  We noted that the root idea behind these words was that of "fatness" and sought to explain how the connotation of this "fatness" could be either good or bad depending on the context.  In fact we could have suggested the idea of a fat hope if it were not for the largely negative association we have with the word "fat" in English.  For example, when we speak of a "fat chance" we mean it in a very ironic or sarcastic sense to convey the opposite of fullness: a chance that is practically non-existent!  So we have chosen the more positive description of "fullness" for this type of hope in order to avoid any negative misconceptions.  However we must recognize that the Bible uses these words for "hope" in both positive and negative contexts.  We may say that there is such a thing as a fat hope or foolish hope described in the Scripture as well as the full hope we have been speaking of.  This is evident from the fact that kesel and kisla are translated in the KJV three times by the word "hope", twice by the word "confidence" and three times by the word "folly".  Of the three times it is translated as "hope" two of the three are in a negative context!  We may categorize these verses as follows:
A False Hope:

Job 8:14 - "Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." (Referring to the unsubstantial "hope" of the hypocrite mentioned in the previous verse).  Job 31:24 - "If I have made gold my hope, or have said to fine gold, Thou art my confidence;"  (A declaration by Job denying that he had ever made his wealth an object of trust or regarded it as the source of his well being and security).  The Bible contains numerous warnings to the rich not to trust in their riches but in God alone (see for example Proverbs 11:28; Jeremiah 9:23; Mark 10:23,24; I Timothy 6:17,18).  Job even associated such misplaced trust with idolatry as did Paul in the New Testament (Job 31:28; Colossians 3:5).

A Foolish Hope:

Psalm 49:13 - "This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings." (This refers to the foolish confidence the wicked may have in thinking that they will never face death or will be forever immortalized in their wealth or lands they leave behind - vs. 6-12).  Delitzsch very accurately captures the meaning here when he translates: "This is the lot of those who are full of self-confidence ..." and refers to such thinking as a "foolish delusion" (emphasis mine).

Psalm 85:8 - "I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly." (Here is a warning to the nation of Israel who were delivered from captivity that they do not return to the cause of their captivity - principally the folly of idolatry which led them to foolishly place their hope in false gods;  see also Ezra 9:9-15).

Ecclesiastes 7:25 - "I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:"  (Here is the sad confession of King Solomon who in his quest for satisfaction and fulfillment in this life satiated himself with all this world had to offer).  Yes there is a "fullness" that is wicked and foolish.  Solomon found out experientially that filling his life with such things was mere "emptiness" and "vanity" - it brought no satisfaction in the end.

A Full Hope:

Job 4:6 - "Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?"  (We have looked at this verse before.  The word translated "hope" here is "tiqwa"- see our post on 2/15/2013).  Job could have full confidence because of his worshipful reverence (fear) of God that had produced a testimony of righteousness in his ways.  This was in spite of his outward sufferings and troubling circumstances.

Psalm 78:7 - "That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;"  (Here is a prayer for the next generation expressing the responsibility of God's people to leave a legacy of faith to their children; vs. 1-6).  Too many of today's children are being raised to have self-confidence rather than God consciousness!

Proverbs 3:26 - "For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." (We quoted this verse and its context at the end of the previous post).  Here is the crux of the matter.  Here is the difference between a full hope and a foolish hope:  A full hope results from placing our confidence in the Lord; a foolish hope results from placing our confidence in our self!  The one is full of self, the other is full of God.  Is your hope full or foolish?

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #32 - A Full Hope

We now come to one of the most unusual words for "hope" found in the Old Testament. It is the Hebrew word "kesel" and its feminine derivative "kisla" (Strong's #s 3689, 3690 and Theological Word Book #1011a,b).  Two things make this word unusual: 1) It's root meaning, and 2) It's two diverse meanings depending on the context.  The root meaning of kesel and kisla is "to be fat" (from the root "kasal").  Brown, Driver & Briggs in their Hebrew Lexicon  state that its Arabic cognate refers "to that which is thick, plump, or fat".  Gesenius states that "The primary meaning appears to be - to be fleshy, to be fat".  We find this most basic meaning in contexts where the word refers to the "flanks" or "loins" of a man or animal ("the internal muscles of the loins, near the kidneys, to which  the fat adheres" - Gesenius): See for example Leviticus 3:4,10,15; Job 15:27; Psalm 38:7.  This root meaning of "fatness" however finds expression in two very diverse ways - In some contexts this word means "folly" or "foolishness" and in others "hope" or "confidence"!  At first glance this seems to be most unusual or even contradictory, but a quick look at an English Dictionary will reveal that even our English word "fat" holds a wide variety of meanings.  We use this word not only to describe animal tissue that is oily or greasy, or of that which is plump or obese, but also of that which is abundant, rich, productive, or fertile.  Most of us older folks understand what is meant by "the fat of the land" or "a fat year" in business or farming.  On the negative side, the English word "fat" may refer to one who is slothful, stupid, or foolish very much the same as in Hebrew!  And so the very same word may have a negative or a positive connotation depending on the context of its use.  Gesenius refers to "kesel" as "a word of middle signification applied in a good sense to strength, firmness, boldness, whence confidence and in a bad sense  to languor and inertness ... applied to that which is nearly allied to these, folly ..." (emphasis mine).  Likewise Delitzsch remarks that "kisla" is "ambiguous" since the root meaning "to be fat, signifies both the awkwardness of stupidity and the boldness of confidence" (emphasis mine).  So "fatness" can mean something good depending upon what you are fat with!  Consider these Old Testament examples that use "fat" in a positive way (various Hebrew words are translated as "fat" in these verses): 1) When Moses sent out the 12 spies into the land of Canaan they were to find out what type of land it was, whether "good or bad" ... "fat or lean" (Numbers 13:19,20); 2) When Ehud led Israel in battle against Moab the Israelite army killed about 10,000 Moabites "all lusty (Hebrew, "fat"), and all men of valour" (Judges 3:29).  Here other versions translate the word "fat" as "robust" (NASB) or "vigorous" (NIV).  As military men of valor they clearly were not obese or sluggish, but "well filled out" with muscular strength!; 3) Nehemiah encouraged the mourning Israelites to stop crying and to start celebrating, telling them to "Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet ... neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).  Clearly he was not advocating an unhealthy diet here, but was speaking of "richly prepared food" (Gesenius).  See also Genesis 49:10 for this same idea.  We may also think of the "fatted calf" which was set aside for just such festive occasions.; and 4) Nehemiah described the land of promise as "a fat land" ... "full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance" and so the people "did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness" (Neh. 9:25).  See also verse 35.  In all of these places "fatness" is associated with fruitfulness, strength, richness, and fullness.  And so it is with the believer's hope - it is a hope filled with confidence in God, a hope that is abundant, rich and fruitful! We will spend the next study looking at the scripture references to this "fullness of hope", but for now we will close this study with just one:  "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.  Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.  For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken" (Proverbs 3:24,25).  A full hope indeed!