Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #38 - A Shelter of Hope

Last time we introduced the Hebrew words "hasa" and "mahseh" as expressing the idea of "hope" under the image of "seeking for refuge" or "finding shelter" in a time of distress or danger.  This concept of the believer's hope in God as his Refuge is well expressed by the prophet Isaiah:  "For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge (mahseh) from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against a wall" (Isaiah 25:4).  The picture is that of God's protection of His people from the oppression of their enemies.  Several figures are employed in this picture:  The "terrible ones" (oppressive enemies) are portrayed as a sweltering heat and a violent storm raging against the people of God.  God's people are portrayed as "poor" and "needy" and under great "distress".  And God is portrayed as the Strength (literally Stronghold or Fortress), Refuge (Sheltering Hope), and Shadow (Comforting Shade) of His people.  Delitzsch provides a stirring commentary:  "Jehovah had proved Himself a strong castle ... a shelter from storm and a shade from heat ... so that the blast of the tyrants ... was like ... a storm striking against a wall ... sounding against it and bursting upon it without being able to wash it away ... because it was the wall of a strong castle, and this strong castle was Jehovah Himself."  Edward Young carries the thought further:  "... in this crisis God has shown Himself in very truth to be a place in which the poor, namely, God's own afflicted people, might find refuge.  The thought is not merely that the poor find God a place of refuge, but that, when they are afflicted, God is a refuge to them.  It is one thing to utter generalities about a god helping the needy; it is something entirely different when the needy, at the time of crisis, find a true hiding place in their God ... When His people are in need, then He is present with His aid" (emphasis mine).  God is truly our "Shelter in the time of storm"!  As we noted in our last post, there are three passages in the King James Version of the English Bible in which the words "hasa" and "mahseh" are translated by the word "hope".  In keeping with the root idea of these words, all three passages speak of God's people finding shelter and refuge in God during times of distress and possible danger.  There are three crisis times in a believer's life when God alone must become our Shelter of Hope:  1) In the day of distress (evil) - Jeremiah 17:17;  2) In the day of our death - Proverbs 14:32; and 3) In the day of decision (the Day of the LORD) - Joel 3:14.  God is our Shelter of Hope in days of distress.  Jeremiah was a persecuted prophet of the LORD.  He had faithfully proclaimed God's Word as it was revealed unto him.  And yet his own people hated him for it!  He was mocked, ridiculed, accused of lying, and eventually put in a dungeon for his despised message of coming judgment.  It was truly an "evil day" in which Jeremiah lived and preached!  He had prophesied of a "woeful day" that was coming upon the nation of Israel.  He had not chosen that message of his own will, nor did he desire for that terrible time to come upon his nation.  The message was hard but he had not run away from his responsibility of following God as a shepherd to his people, nor had he failed to preach what was right in the sight of God  (Jeremiah 17:15,16).  It is in this context that Jeremiah cries out to God:  "Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope (mahseh) in the day of evil" (Jeremiah 17:17).  Jeremiah had good reason to be afraid, humanly speaking.  He was being terrorized by those who opposed his message.  But in God he would find not a source of terror (fear, dismay, confusion), but a Shelter of Hope!  God would protect him, shield him, hide him and save him not only from the evil day of persecution he was then facing, but from the day of calamity and judgment that was to come.  In that day his persecutors would be confounded and dismayed, but not the man of God.  He would be kept safe in the day of evil and destruction (Jeremiah 17:14,18).  And so may all who trust in the Lord find Him to be a Shelter of Hope in all their days of distress, both present and future.  "The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide, A shelter in the time of storm;  Secure whatever ill betide, A shelter in the time of storm.  A shade by day, defense by night, A shelter in the time of storm; No fears alarm, no foes affright, A shelter in the time of storm.  The raging storms may round us beat, A shelter in the time of storm; We'll never leave our safe retreat, A shelter in the time of storm" (V. J. Charlesworth).