The Hope of Israel

One Last Hope

Who could forget her story! As the London Guardian wryly observed, "Whatever faults Maria D'Antuono may have, wasting time is not among them."

The 98-year-old woman was one of the few survivors to be pulled from the rubble of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy. For thirty dark and interminable hours, she lay trapped beneath the ruins of her home, not far from the L'Aquila epicenter. But they found her! And as the elderly woman was carried to safety amidst the cheers of the onlooking crowd, someone asked her what she had done to pass the hours while waiting and hoping for rescue. "Why, crochet, of course!" Her world comes down around her—but the 98-year-old matriarch survives with a hook, a ball of yarn and a heartful of hope.

Not even an earthquake can bury hope!

The Hopes of Israel

The Old Testament is full with promised ones. People who were chosen by God to do a wonderful work for the people of God. These are the Hopes of Israel. The Hopes of Israel typically appear when God’s people are in the midst of trouble like persecution, famine, slavery, etc.

Promised Messiah

In the Old Testament alone, there are over 12 Hopes of Isreal or Saviors of God’s people. The first was foretold in .

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God made a promise both to humanity and to the serpent on that day. He promised that through the seed of Eve would come a savior, a messiah or a promised one who would redeem God’s people and destroy the evil one. He would be the first and true Hope of not only Israel but of humanity. But before he would come there would be many hopes of God’s people.

Seth

Can you imagine Eve and Adam’s excitement when they had their first children? They had been dreaming of the day that they could return to the garden of Eden. It had been their home and they were exiled from it. Now they didn’t just have one offspring but two! Its a no wonder that Eve’s response is filled with excitement and hope.

Genesis 4:1 ESV

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

Genesis 4:

“I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord!” You can’t help but think that Adam and Eve were overjoyed not just with the joy of a baby boy but with the possibility of entering their long lost home. But their joy would not be fulfilled in Cain or Abel, but through the line of Seth.

Genesis 4:25 ESV

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

Genesis 4:25

Jesus the Messiah, the promised prince would come through the line of Seth and thus fulfill the prophecy.

Noah

Along the course of history God would sent men and women who would bring salvation to His People. One of the firsts of those was Noah. After the fall of humanity to sin, the value and condition of the people had gotten so terrible that God who is full of love, compassion, mercy, and greatness had this to say about the humans he had created.

Genesis 5:5–7 ESV

5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 6:5–7 ESV

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

The Bible describes the condition of humanity as every intention of the mind and heart of just about every human was continually evil. This fact alone hurt God all the way to the heart, so much in fact that God regretted his creation and there was a chance of the destruction of the entire human race. But among the men and women there was one man and one family who found favor in the eyes of God.

Genesis 6:8 ESV

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

God would use Noah as the Hope of humanity to save the human race from a destructive flood.

Abraham and Issac

Abraham was called out of Ur the land of Babylon. God would make a promise to Abraham. The first was that He would make Abraham a great nation and the second was that He would give him a son, a son of promise.

Issac

Jacob

Joseph

As we move quickly down the list of the hopes of humanity we come to Joseph. Joseph was the literal hope and joy of Israel. Joseph’s father, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and his life was occupied with Joseph his beloved son. Because of this, 10 of his 12 brothers grew jealous of Joseph and betrayed their own brother by selling him into slavery.

Though a slave Joseph would rise through the ranks in Egypt and eventually end up bringing hope and salvation to not only his family who had betrayed him, but to the then know world! A famine arose in Canaan and Egypt and only Joseph had enough food for everyone. Egyptians, Canaanites, Hebrews, all were saved by the power of God through the hand of Joseph.

Moses

After Joseph, the children of Israel were enslaved in the land of Egypt, so God rose up Moses, the next Hope of Israel to bring salvation to the people.

Joshua

The List Goes On and On...

Later in the book of Judges, when the Israelites had been living in the promised land for some time, the Israelites were persecuted by the Philistines, so God brings up Sampson who was supposed to deliver the people from the Philistines but was consumed with adulter

There are so many more in this list from Sampson to David to Cyrus and finally to Yeshua Hameshia.

Samuel

After a time God would bring up Samuel to lead the people back to God and away from the idolatrous teachings of the day. Samuel was the prophet and judge of Israel for most of his life.

David

God would use Samuel

Solomon

Esther

Cyrus

Yeshua Hameshia

The Hope of Israel

While the Old Testament has many who give hope to Israel, the New Testament only has one Hope of Israel, the true Hope of Israel. The entire story of the bible is centered around Jesus. Just about everyone in the Old Testament is looking and watching for the soon coming of the Messiah the prince. From Eve down to the very last book of the Old Testament there is a cry for Jesus.

Malachi 3:1 ESV

1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

The New Testament picks up on that cry.

Matthew, Luke, and John introduce us to a need of a savior, a need of a Messiah. Matthew is filled with the fulfilled prophecies of the Messiah through Jesus.

Matthew 1:22–23 ESV

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Matthew 1:

John in the very first chapter presents a world in darkness, but the light is soon to arrive in the form of Jesus.

John 1:9–13 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:9-

Jesus is the fulfillment of the hope of Israel. The people once again are under the rule of a foreign nation, and Jesus has come not to just bring peace from enemy nations but more importantly to bring peace from sin.

This is the beauty of Christmas. A celebration that the Hope of Israel has come. The greatness of Christmas is the beauty of the story of humanity. The one whom Adam and Eve were so excited to see has finally been born.

May we never forget that Jesus is present, alive, and active in our lives.

Not only has he been born, but he has lived, died, and rose again. Jesus completed His mission on earth.

One of the last characters in the bible and in the book of Acts is the Apostle Paul. He ends his ministry in Rome and when he is brought before the authorities he has these beautiful words to say.

Acts 28:20 ESV

20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.”

It is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain. But it was this hope that kept him going on and on. This hope will give you strength as well.

Your Hope As Well

Jesus began as the Hope of Israel but He died and rose again as the Hope of Humanity. Jesus’ life is your hope. Jesus is the hope of _____! As Christians we don’t just celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus but we celebrate His life as well.

Because Jesus was born, we can be born again. Because Jesus tasted death we don’t have to taste death. Because Jesus has risen to the right side of the Father, we have a beautiful hope, our last faithful hope that one day the sky will be opened up and everyone from Adam to the last human born on earth will experience the beautiful sight of Jesus and the entire heavenly host breaking through the sky to reunite us with our Hope!

Where Is Your Hope?

As you look back at the past year you might be without hope. Your life may be crumbling down all around you. You may have debt, family is in shambles, if you can’t find a single things to give you joy and peace. Know that Jesus is alive and active. Your world could be crumbling all around you as with the woman in Italy, but place your hope in Jesus as did Paul, Moses, and Eve and you will be blessed.

Where do you place your hope? My hope is in Jesus, the savior and lover of my soul.

Do you know him?