Where is your hope? Do you put your hope into inanimate objects? Do you put your hope into other people? Does your hope more closely resemble wishing? Or does your hope include a belief what you desire will come to fruition? Is your hope in Jesus Christ?
Hope is a word that gets thrown around a lot and often rather frivolously. If we are listening closely, we will hear people say hope when they mean wish. Their hope is so far-fetched, they have no belief it will ever happen. That is not the hope that is spoken of in Scripture.
Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42 when he speaks of the gentiles putting their hope in Jesus. God had promised that all nations, meaning the people living in them, would be blessed through Abraham. The prophet Isaiah is reiterating God’s promise with a little more detail. Matthew then uses Isaiah’s prophecy to make the point that Jesus is fulfilling God’s promise to bless and bring hope to all people around the world.
God’s plan played out over centuries. Abraham lived about two-thousand years before Jesus was born. Isaiah lived about eight-hundred years before Jesus was born. That does not diminish the fact that Jesus fulfilled God’s promises, and He is the hope of the world. We may not see the fulfillment of God’s promises any more than Abraham or Isaiah. Yet, we can be assured that God will fulfill them. That is the reason for our hope.
Jesus promised victory to us. He promised salvation. He promised we would be blessed if we obey His commands. These are not idle promises but promises He will fulfill. So, whether we are facing struggles or everything is working out well, we can continue to put our hope in Jesus.
I pray we all see God’s promises. I pray we see how God has fulfilled many of his promises. I pray each one of us will put our hope in Jesus and trust that He will continue to fulfill God’s promises. See God’s promises. Trust God has and will fulfill his promises. Put your hope in Jesus.
Matthew 12:21 And in his name the gentiles will hope.
Marty Pressey 