Hope - the Thing that is Anchored

Read Jeremiah 29:1-19

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, of all Christmas Carols. Matt Maher’s singing of O Come, O Come Emmanuel is my favorite rendition. It’s my favorite because it captures the meaning of Christmas so well. The Israeli people - captive physically and spiritually, waiting for freedom. Imagine it with me. 

 

You’re living in limbo. It’s fault of the entire nation, which includes you. Everyone is being punished. War is everywhere. Your city has burned to the ground. You were told this was coming, there were so many warnings. Years of warnings. But you didn’t really believe it. You thought you safe because after all – you’re God’s chosen people. Surely, He wouldn’t slay you all to the ground and remove you from existence. He promised. Right?

But now the enemy soldiers have come, and everything is laid waste. You’ve been forced to a new country, a new home, new food, a new language, new customs, nothing is familiar. Fear and uncertainty are the new normal. You’ve been forced into your own hard, perilous, miserable adventure. What do you do next? You have no idea how to fix all the devastation, all that has changed, and all that has gone wrong.

 

The sin of Israelites had reached a point that it was just as bad or worse than their enemies around them and time for punishment had come. God had given the Israelites everything and they left Him to follow their own hearts. These warnings weren’t new. Moses laid the warnings and the consequences out clear as day in Deuteronomy 28 – 29. What is laid out in those chapters seems unimaginable. But as those prophecies are coming true in broad daylight, false prophets in Jeremiah’s day try to laugh it off saying “sure ok – God has to punish sin, but the exile won’t be long.”  God immediately discredits their prophecies by telling them the exile would be seventy years. 

 

Seventy years is a lifetime. Can you imagine being forced to live seventy years in an enemy country? Just imagining that takes the wind out of my sails.

 

But did you know – it was the exile that saved them? I know, that sounds backwards. But Jeremiah told them if they were not part of the Israelites that were sent into exile, they would be destroyed.  (Jer. 29:15 – 19) 

 

It was the exile that was the pathway of hope for the remnant God spared.

 

Hope often doesn’t look like what we think.

 

Exile didn’t look like hope. 

It looked like the complete opposite – total despair.

Yet strangely, exile offered the hope of salvation. 

 

Has it been a harsh year? Are you feeling exiled? Or excited about what is to come? Is hope looking like what you think it should? Or has hope knocked at your door with an opportunity to find out how God’s thoughts are different than yours? 

 

Don’t miss this – at the same time that Jeremiah is delivering harsh words to Israel, he is also shouting God’s words of restoration! God had barely finished with stating the consequences for their sin before He says, and I paraphrase, “but wait – there’s more!” More to come! God is intent on making His restoration known. That’s what Hope is shouting from behind your door, 

“I’m NOT done with you! You aren’t finished. There’s more to come!" 

 

The hope for the Israelites was in the promise of redemption for their sins and restoration of their nation from God. They knew it was coming. It would be a long, hard wait, but God had been faithful before and He would be faithful in the middle of the waiting. And in the waiting – He would turn their hearts back to Him.

 

We have all been there in the long, hard wait. This waiting doesn’t look or feel like hope at all. It’s feels like abandonment. But just as God did not abandon the Israelites when He sent them into exile, He has not once thought of abandoning you. 

 

God promised His people that they would find Him if they sought Him in the exile. Are you seeking Him in your “exile” or season of waiting? He is right there with you. Emmanuel. 

 

Think about it this way, hope attaches itself to the deeply rooted belief of faith. You can’t really have one without the other. Faith, like a beat-up flagpole, is anchored deep in the rock overlooking ocean. The ocean winds and waves beat against it constantly. It might be covered in nicks and scratches, but that flagpole cannot be moved. Hope is the white flag of surrender anchored to the flagpole. Tattered and ripped, but still visible and still waving in the wind. 

 

I got so sad/mad while writing these thoughts that I had to stop. I had to deal with my own thoughts of hope. I erased a bunch of sentences and started this Advent thought over again at least ten times. A situation in my life doesn’t seem very hopeful. I’d like to know where the hope is because it feels a little like abandonment. Instead, hope has knocked on my door and taught me a new prayer to pray. 

I usually pray,

“God please provide…..” 

Hope knocked at the door and showed me I needed to pray, 

“God, You promised You would meet these needs and You promised to be faithful.

I know You have provided, please help me to see it.

Please show me where You HAVE already provided."

 

God provided for Israel for the entire 70 years of exile. He has been providing in this situation, but it doesn’t look like I thought it would, and it doesn’t look like I want it to. But in the future, I’m pretty sure I’ll look back and see how His way was better than mine. 

 

I don’t know where you are this Advent season. You could be dancing though an exciting adventure, singing all the carols, and soaking up every second of the season. Use “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” as your prayer of praise this season, rejoicing in that God has come and redeemed. 

 

You could feel forced into a place of exile and your adventure as become hard, perilous, and miserable. Take “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” as your prayer of hope this season. Your exile can be your pathway to hope because God is there with you.  You can believe deeply through your tears and tatters that redemption is coming, even if you must wait long and hard for it. 

 

No matter which adventure your heart is experiencing this year, ask God to help you see how He has brought hope to your life. Look for it and remember the pathway to hope may not look like what we think it should, but it will always be the way to redemption.