Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #50 - The Messianic Hope (Part V)

This will be our final segment on the Messianic Hope.  There is one last reference to the Jewish hope in a coming Messiah we wish to consider.  It is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 21:  "But we trusted  (Greek elpizo - hoped) that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done".  These words were spoken by the two disciples of Jesus who were walking along on the road to Emmaus after the death of the Savior.  It is the only place I know of in the New Testament where the Messianic Hope is spoken of in the past tense.  In the Greek text the verb elpizo is in the Imperfect tense indicating a continual action in the past.  The idea expressed is something like this:  "We were hoping all along up until his death that this Jesus was in fact the Promised Messiah who was supposed to redeem our people Israel."  The irony of this incident is that they were in fact unknowingly saying these words to the Risen Lord!  It is important to note that their hope in a Personal Messiah included the hope of redemption just like that of Anna and those she conversed with in the Temple (see Luke 2:36-38 and previous studies). However, like many of the followers of Jesus, including the Apostles, they had not yet come to know that the death of Jesus was the appointed means of that promised redemption and that it would be put into effect by the Resurrection of their crucified and buried Redeemer!  And so their previously confident hope that Jesus would be that Promised One had been temporarily dashed by the fact of His death.  They simply could not reconcile the fact that the Lord Jesus had come as "a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" and yet "the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him" (verses 19,20).  G. Campbell Morgan wrote:  "Thus we see their attitude, and in it a wonderful revelation of what the Cross had done for the disciples of Jesus.  It had not destroyed their love for Him, nor their belief in Him, and His intention, but it had slain their hope.  In the Cross they saw failure" (emphasis mine).  They had heard the report of the women who had heard the angels declare that Jesus was alive, and they had heard the reports of an empty tomb, but they had not yet come to believe for themselves that these things were so (verses 22-24).  Morgan strikingly commented:  "That is where the whole Christian movement would have ended, had there been no resurrection"!  Likewise, William Hendriksen wrote:  "When the Master died, the disciples, too, died.  Their hopes, their aspirations, their deepest affections and fondest anticipations were buried with their Lord .... Never was there a more dejected, disappointed, crushed group of men and women!"  But then came the Resurrection and the Revelation of the Risen Lord to His disciples!  It was the Lord Jesus Himself, risen from the dead, who came along side them that day.  First He rebuked their slowness of heart, then He reminded them of the Scriptures that prophesied of the fact and necessity of the Messiah's death and resurrection, and then at last He revealed Himself to them (verses 25-31).  And so with their eyes opened and their hearts burning their hope was revived!  The Resurrection of Jesus was unmistakeable and irrefutable proof that He was indeed the promised Messiah:  He who has provided a ransom from the bondage and penalty of sin for all who will accept His death, burial and resurrection as the purchase price of their redemption.  That hope that was at one time all but dead has now become a living hope because of  the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Peter 1:3). 

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #49 - The Messianic Hope (Part IV)

This is our fourth study on the Messianic Hope as found in the New Testament Scriptures.  Last time we considered that hope as expressed in the Greek word prosdekomai (to look, wait for, expect) and we noted the three people recorded in the Gospel of Luke whose hope in the coming Messiah was expressed by this word.  Simeon was "waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25);  Anna spoke of the infant Jesus to all who "looked for redemption in Israel" (Luke 2:38); and Joseph of Arimathea "waited for the kingdom of God" (Luke 23:51).  We wanted to expand somewhat upon these three aspects of the Messianic hope in this study.  First, consolation or comfort (Greek - paraklasis).  This consolation was clearly associated by the devout Simeon with the coming of "the Lord's Christ", that is, the Lord's Messiah or Anointed One (vs.26), who was indeed God's means of salvation (vs.30).  The particular Messianic prophecy involved was probably Isaiah 40:1-5 where the coming of the Messiah was announced in a message of Divine Comfort:  "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."  This message of consolation was the message of a double pardon to be provided for the people of God:  "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins."  The Lord Jesus is indeed the Consolation of Israel, and the only One who can provide for the pardon of our sins and then comfort us with the assurance of His abundant forgiveness!  In fact, Jesus referred to Himself as the Comforter of His people when He spoke of the Holy Spirit as "another Comforter", that is, One like Himself (John 14:6).  Second, redemption or ransom (Greek - lutrosis).  G. Campbell Morgan commented, "In that city of Jerusalem there was a company, however large or small we have no means of knowing; - perhaps a very small company, - of devout souls who were looking for the redemption of Israel; and it is evident that they were accustomed to foregather in the Temple courts to pray, and perhaps sing songs of hope, and talk to one another."  The widow Anna was just such a person and she was quick to speak of the baby Jesus among this company as the One through whom this redemption would come.  The word "redemption" speaks of a purchase made through the payment of a ransom.  It was a term well known to the Jews who were as a nation redeemed from the bondage of Egypt through the purchase price of the blood of the Passover Lamb.  Every sacrifice was an emblem of the redemption of the sinner from the bondage and penalty of sin through the purchase price of the blood of a slain sacrifice.  All of this pointed forward to the coming Messiah who would Himself be the Redeemer of His people through the ransom price of His own blood shed sacrificially upon the cross of Calvary!  Isaiah had declared, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD" (Isaiah 59:20).  The Lord Jesus said of Himself, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).  And the Apostle Paul wrote of Him, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7).  Yes, the Lord Jesus as the Christ of God is indeed that Promised Redeemer!  And third, the kingdom of God.  The most prevalent concept of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament was that of a Coming King.  In Psalm 2 the LORD'S Anointed (Hebrew - Messiah) is the King set upon the hill of Zion; the Sovereign before whom all the kings and rulers of the earth must bow.  In Daniel 9:25 He is called "the Messiah the Prince" and in Daniel 7:13,14 He is the Son of man who is given "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

The Old Testament prophecies are too numerous to list here and the New Testament application of these prophecies to the Lord Jesus as the Christ are abundantly clear.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus was conceived as our King (Luke 1:30-33); born as our King (Matthew 2:2); came as our King (Matthew 21:4-9); tried as our King (Mark 15:12,13); and died as our King (Matthew 27:37).  And so today He reigns as our King (I Corinthians 15:24,25) and will one day return as our King (Revelation 19:11-16).  All aspects of the Messianic hope have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.  He alone comforts us with His pardon because He alone has redeemed us from our sins.  And He alone is worthy to reign over us as our sovereign Lord and King!

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #48 - The Messianic Hope (Part III)

As we continue our study of the Messianic Hope that existed among the Jewish people prior to the birth of the Lord Jesus we must acknowledge that not every Jew had a proper understanding of the true nature or purpose of the Messiah's coming.  Even among those who held to the hope of a personal Messiah sent from God, there were many who envisioned the Messiah in a political context rather than a spiritual one.  It was their "hope" that the Messiah would overthrow the dominion of Rome and exalt the nation of Israel as chief among the nations of the world.  Such were the Zealots who were ready to take up arms against Rome, and such were many of the common people who sought to make Jesus their king "by force".  But thankfully there were others who realized that the greatest bondage and enslavement the people faced was not the dominion of a foreign power, but the dominion of sin!  It was just such righteous believers who longed for a Messiah who would "save His people from their sins" that recognized the Lord Jesus as the LORD'S CHRIST (the Anointed One or Messiah).  Thus Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, exclaimed: "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ ... and he brought him to Jesus" (John 1:41,42).  Likewise, even the Samaritan woman confessed: "I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ". To which words Jesus replied, "I that speak unto thee am he" (John 4:25,26).  With her new found faith in the Messiah, this woman quickly brought others to Jesus who also confessed Him as the Christ:  "Now we believe ... and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (John 4:42).  For many such persons their former hope in a coming Messiah became saving faith and trust in the Messiah who had indeed come!  The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, addresses such persons and includes himself among them as those "who first trusted in Christ" (Ephesians 1:12).  Here the word translated in the King James Version as "first trusted" is the Greek word "proelpizo" meaning "to hope before" and is a compound form of the verb elpizo (to hope) with the prefix pro (before).   Marvin Vincent, in his Word Studies in the New Testament explains the meaning:  "We refers to Jewish Christians, and the verb describes their messianic hope before (pro) the advent of Christ....In Christ should be 'in the Christ,' as the subject of messianic expectation ... It is equivalent to in the Messiah" (original emphasis by Vincent).  Likewise the Pulpit Commentary states that this is "applicable to the Jewish Christians, who, through the promises given to the fathers, had seen Christ's day afar off, and had thus hoped in him" (emphasis mine).  This true Messianic hope that led to saving faith in the Lord Jesus as the promised Christ was also expressed in other terms by those that longed for the coming of the Messiah.  In our study of the Old Testament synonyms for the word "hope" we found that the concept of "hope" was often associated and expressed by the words "waiting" (yahal) and "watching" (sabar).  And so in the New Testament there were those who expressed their Messianic "hope" by the Greek word prosdekomai which is variously translated as "waiting" or "looking".  This word literally meant "to receive to one's self, to embrace, or to welcome," and thus came to be used to express personal expectation or longing.  It expresses a hope that consists of an eager anticipation!  Three such persons may be found in the Gospel of Luke:

1.  Simeon - the just and devout man who was assured by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.  He was described as one who was "waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25).  He recognized the baby Jesus as the promised Messiah.

2.  Anna - the widow prophetess who served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  She witnessed Simeon's declaration concerning the infant Jesus and "spake of him (Jesus) to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38).

3.  Joseph of Arimathea - The "secret" disciple of Jesus who came forward to claim the Lord's body for burial in his own unused tomb.  He was described as a good man and just "who also himself waited for the kingdom of God" (Luke 23:51).  

In these three individuals we find at least three aspects of the true Messianic hope:  The Messiah's comfort, The Messiah's redemption, and the Messiah's kingdom.  All three expectations were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He came to redeem the sinner from the guilt, bondage and penalty of sin; to announce comfort  to those He has redeemed by the ransom payment of His own blood; and to reign as King in the hearts of those brought into His eternal Kingdom! 

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us, Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's strength and consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child, and yet a king;

Born to reign in us forever, Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

                                                                   (Charles Wesley)