Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #54 - The Hope of the Promise

We have been tracing the Apostle Paul's defense of the hope of the resurrection as recorded in the Book of Acts.  First, he reminded his Jewish accusers that his message of the Risen Christ was in keeping with the historical faith of the Jewish people.  This was not some novel doctrine of recent origin but was a part of the faith of the fathers and the very hope of Israel which all of the Jewish people believed except for the radical sect of the Sadducees.  Second, he linked his faith in the resurrection with his faith in God since it was God Himself who had made this promise to His people and had confirmed it in His own Word.  To deny the resurrection, therefore, amounts to a denial of God's Promise or a doubting of God's Power to perform what He has promised.  This was the same two-pronged apologetical argument that the Lord Jesus Christ had used against the unbelieving Sadducees when they questioned Him about the nature and feasibility of a resurrection.  Christ's reply to them was, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God ... have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:29-32).  To this statement the account in Mark's Gospel adds, "ye therefore do greatly err" (Mark 12:27).  It was the contention of both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul that the hope of the resurrection was clearly taught in the Old Testament Scriptures!  We may note once again that Paul confessed that his worship of God included "believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets" and that this included having "hope toward God ... that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:14,15).  Thus he viewed the Scriptures that spoke of the resurrection as God's promise to His people:  "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.  For which hope's sake ... I am accused of the Jews" (Acts 26:6,7).  It is clear from Paul's earlier preaching what he considered to be the elements of God's Promise:  1) The coming of the Messiah from the lineage of David:  "Of this man's seed hath God according to His promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus" (Acts 13:23); 2) The Resurrection the Messiah from the dead:  "And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again ... that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption ..." (Acts 13:32-34); and 3) Forgiveness of sins through faith in the Risen Savior:  "But He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.  Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:37-39).  Yes, God has promised these things to us in His Holy Word.  We should note that the Scriptures cited by Paul in this great message included Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 55:3; and Psalm 16:10 among others.  We might also note other Old Testament references to the doctrine of the resurrection (Job 19:25-27; Daniel 12:2; etc).  To these Old Testament verses we should add our Savior's own words of promise concerning His Resurrection as given in the Gospel accounts:  Matthew 16:21; 17:22,23; 20:18,19; 26:32; etc., as well as His words of promise regarding our own resurrection to everlasting life with Him:  John 5:24-29; 6:39,40; 11:25,26; etc.  And yes, what God has promised He has the power to perform:  "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8).  "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power" (I Corinthians 6:14).  God's promise is clear;  God's power is unquestionable;  But the hope of the promise is certain only to those who believe in His Son.  The event of the resurrection will include all men (both just and unjust), but only the believer in Christ can have hope toward God in that day.  There will be a resurrection to everlasting life for the Christian, but a resurrection unto everlasting death (separation from God in hell) for the unbeliever (Daniel 12:2; John 5:28,29).  Are you claiming the hope of the promise through faith in the risen Savior?

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #53 - Hope Toward God

As we work our way through the message of hope in the Book of Acts we are constantly reminded that the believer's hope is the hope of the resurrection.  This was the great Apostolic message:  that the atoning death, burial, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole basis of man's salvation, and that this salvation includes not only the full and free forgiveness of all our sins but the gift of everlasting life through faith in the Person and Saving Work of Christ, and that this gift of everlasting life includes the physical resurrection of the believer's body from the grave so that we may live in a glorified state, perfected in body and soul to live for all eternity in the Presence of our God and Savior.  As the Apostle Paul preached this Gospel of the Risen Christ he began to be persecuted by those who refused to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, largely because they refused to believe that He was indeed the promised Messiah.  This placed Paul in a position to defend his preaching of the Risen Savior before both Jewish and Roman authorities.  And the more he was attacked for proclaiming the Resurrection of Christ the more he defended his message by appealing to the Old Testament Scriptures that prophesied the future resurrection of the dead which even his persecutors claimed to believe.  We may trace his defense of this great doctrine as follows:  First, before the Jewish Sanhedrin he divided his accusers by proclaiming that the doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead was at the very core of his message:  "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren ... of the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question" (Acts 23:6).  This produced an immediate division between the sect of the Pharisees who believed in the doctrine of a resurrection and the sect of the Sadducees who did not (vs. 7-9).  It is clear that Paul was appealing to the historical belief of the more conservative Jews while exposing the radical departure from that belief among the liberal and unbelieving among them.  It is a grave error of modern so-called "scholars" who deny that the Jewish people had any concept of a resurrection or of life beyond death.  So much so that Paul could later declare before the Jewish elders of Rome that the very doctrine of the resurrection was the ancient "hope of Israel" (Acts 28:20).  Secondly, Paul not only appealed to the ancient faith of Israel in his defense of the resurrection, he attached that doctrine to his faith in God:  "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets: and have hope toward God, which they also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:14,15).  In this great defense before the Roman Governor Felix, the Apostle Paul made it clear that to deny the resurrection  would amount to a denial of his faith in the God of the Bible!  This would be so for at least two reasons:  1) To deny the resurrection would be a denial of the Word of God, that is, all that is written in the Old Testament Scriptures (the law and the prophets); and 2) To deny the resurrection would amount to denying the Power of God, that is, that God is able to perform what He had in fact promised!  These two arguments are laid out before King Agrippa by the Apostle Paul in Acts 26 where he first speaks of the resurrection as "the hope of the promise" (vs.6,7) and then challenges Agrippa's unbelief by asking, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" (vs.8).  In other words, to assume that belief in the resurrection of the dead is unreasonable or to dismiss it as an impossibility is paramount to doubting God's veracity on the one hand and denying God's ability on the other!  When our hope is fixed upon God, the hope of the resurrection is not only believable, it is inevitable, for God cannot and will not deny Himself or fail to perform everything He has promised!

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #52 - Resting in Hope

Last time we began looking at the hope of the resurrection as mentioned in five passages in the Book of Acts and ended with a list of Scriptural claims we may glean from them, the first of which is: "The hope of the believer's resurrection is anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of Christ".  There is no doubt that the proclamation of Christ's Resurrection was the central doctrine of the apostolic message: (Acts 2:31,32; 3:14,14; 4:10-12; 5:30,31; etc.).  In fact, it was the central doctrine of their gospel message: (I Cor. 15:1-4; II Timothy 2:8; etc.).  There is no salvation apart from the Resurrection of Christ:  "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (I Cor. 15:17-19).  R. A. Torrey wrote:  "Gospel preachers nowadays preach the gospel of the Crucifixion, the Apostles preached the gospel of the Resurrection as well .... The Crucifixion looses its meaning without the Resurrection.  Without the Resurrection the death of Christ was only the heroic death of a noble martyr; With the Resurrection it is the atoning death of the Son of God.  It shows that death to be of sufficient value to cover our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God."  One of the great Old Testament passages the Apostles loved to quote was Psalm 16:8-11.  Here they found Scriptural proof that the Messiah was indeed to be raised from the dead.  This was the passage the Apostle Peter quoted in his great message on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28) and the passage the Apostle Paul quoted in the synagogue of Antioch in defense of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (Acts 13:34-37).  We looked at this Messianic prophecy briefly in our study of the Hebrew word betah (see study #35, Sept.29, 2013).  Both the Hebrew of Psalm 16 and the Greek quotation by Peter in Acts 2 speak of the believer's flesh (body) resting in hope because of the assurance that God would not abandon his soul to hell (Sheol / Hades) because of the fact that the Holy One (Messiah) would not experience the corruption of His body after death.  And this is interpreted by the Apostles to both predict and require the Messiah's bodily Resurrection from the dead as the basis of hope for the believer's own eternal salvation and future resurrection.  David's soul could rest in hope knowing that His Savior would one day conquer death by the power of His own Resurrection:  "For David speaketh concerning him ... my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption .... He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ ... This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:25-32).  There is a beautiful word picture in the phrase "my soul shall rest in hope."  The Greek word here for "rest" is kataskanao which literally means "to pitch one's tent" (Thayer's Greek Lexicon). Lenski comments:  "The verb means 'to put down a tent,' 'to camp in order to rest,' and thus simply 'to rest awhile.' This verb implies only a transient sojourn; a tent is not a permanent structure .... The temporary tenting comprises both the bodily life of David and the stay of his body in the grave.  In both conditions his flesh makes its tent and camp 'on hope,' on this as the ground .... What that hope contains follows in the next line."

Likewise, Vincent commented:  "It is a beautiful metaphor.  My flesh shall encamp on hope; pitch its tent there to rest through the night of death, until the morning of resurrection" (emphasis his).  Yes, the Savior's Resurrection is the ground of the believer's hope and rest, both in this life and for eternity.  We do not trust in a dead Christ but in the Living Christ who has conquered death, hell and the grave by the power of His own Resurrection.  Because He lives, we also live and  shall live forever with Him in glory!  There is no greater rest than this, no greater assurance, no greater peace!  "Here let me wait with patience, Wait till the night is o'er, Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore ... There, by His love o'er-shaded, Sweetly my soul shall rest" (Crosby).

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #51 - The Hope of the Resurrection

In our last study we found that the Messianic Hope was confirmed by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Our Lord's bodily resurrection was irrefutable evidence that He was indeed the Promised Messiah.  The Apostle Paul wrote that the Lord Jesus was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4).  And so as we pass from the Gospels into the Book of the Acts we find that the word "hope" is almost always associated with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In fact, seven out of ten times the word "hope" occurs in the Acts it is used in connection with the Resurrection of Christ and/or of those who believe in Him as their Savior.  We may list these occurrences as follows:

Acts 2:26,27 - "Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."  (The Messianic prophecy of Psalm 16 foretelling the Resurrection of the Christ.)

Acts 23:6 - "... of the hope and resurrection of the dead  I am called in question."  (The defense of the Apostle Paul before the Sanhedrin.)

Acts 24:14,15 - "... so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."  (Paul's defense before Felix.)

Acts 26:6,7,8 - "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come.  For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?"  (Paul's defense before Agrippa.)

Acts 28:20 - "For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain."  (Paul's defense before the Jewish elders of Rome, the "hope" of which he spake being clearly defined by the previous references to it.)

We want to look at these passages in more detail in future posts, but for now even a casual reading of these verses reveals some very clear Scriptural claims regarding the hope of the resurrection:

1.  The hope of the believer's resurrection is anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of Christ.

2.  The hope of the believer is the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

3.  The hope of the resurrection was clearly taught in the Old Testament Scriptures (Law and Prophets).

4.  The event of the resurrection will include all men (both just and unjust), but only the believer can have hope toward God in that day.

5.  The hope of the resurrection is firmly established upon the promise and power of God and is therefore neither impossible nor unreasonable.

6.  The hope of the resurrection was a part of the ancient faith of Israel (believed by all the Jews except for the liberal sect of the Sadducees).  

It is certain that the central message of the Apostles and of the Early Church was the Hope of the Resurrection and that this hope was anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.  All men will face death one day.  Whether we will approach that day with hope or with no hope all depends upon whether or not we believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the means of our soul's eternal salvation.  "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation ... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:9,10,13).   

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)