Where there is no vision the people
perish (dwell carelessly)
Prov 29.18 .
Hope is an indispensable ingredient of life. Not in this life only but in eternity, along with faith and love (1Cor 13.13).
The need for hope never ceases, for without it, we lack the incentive to pursue the future with confidence. By contrast, the right hope spurs us on to reach our full potential rather than settle for mediocrity and the less demanding. In other words, lacking a hope makes it much easier for a believer to ‘lose it’
or ‘give up’ when difficulties arise. Only to see habits like self-sacrifice, persistence, and faithfulness lose out to carnal, baser instincts. As the text heading indicates, without a future hope, believers ‘dwell carelessly’, even ‘perish’.
Not having a ‘living hope’ (1Pet 1.3) in the heart may not prove too costly when all is going well, but it can be disastrous with a change in good fortune. For as nothing else can, trials and suffering allow weeds of apathy and indifference to spring up. Choking enthusiasm for the things of God, and if this is not to be the norm, a robust hope giving the determination to overcome every obstacle is mandatory. As it did for the boy about to give up on tasting the apples in the tree on the other side of the high wall. No matter how many times he ran and launched himself to reach the top of the wall, he couldn’t. If he was to taste those apples, he realized there was only one thing to do. And though reluctant, he threw his prized baseball cap over the wall. With fresh incentive and determination, his next leap reached the top of the wall and those delicious apples.
THESE JEWISH BELIEVERS
The hope these first-century Christians already had was obviously not robust enough to keep them faithful. In a ‘race’
turning out to be much longer than first imagined—more of a marathon rather than a quick dash. Any ‘hope of gain’ they had from it was not sufficient to take them through the ‘pain barrier’. If this wavering in faith was to be overcome, they needed a much better hope. Hence, in this letter, the author details the hope able to boost their flagging spirits, focus their energies, settle their confused hearts, calm any fears, and supply them with fresh fortitude. A hope he refers to five times and each time so these disconsolate believers see it as the
‘anchor for the soul’ (6.19) they need. The author is adamant: all can finish the race who ‘lay hold on’ (6.18) the ‘better hope’
of the new covenant.
EXAMPLES OF HOPE
To see the danger of not having a ‘living hope’, all these Hebrew believers had to do was look at how their forebears (Israel) failed to grasp hold of the hope given them. Most obvious in the number of times they asked Moses, ‘ why have you brought us into this wilderness to die?’ (Ex 14.11, 17.3; Num 14.3, 21.5). Their reference point was the past, so in the face of the hardships of the wilderness, God’s power in delivering them from Egypt meant nothing. All the miracles of the ‘exodus’ could not stop them murmuring, rebelling, and hankering after the ‘ leeks, onions and garlic’ (Num 11.5) of Egypt—the ‘spices’ making life there bearable. This lack of foresight coupled with the trials in the wilderness inevitably had Israel wanting to turn back.
But in delivering the nation from Egypt, Heaven had the goal of possessing a Promised Land. Yet, instead of looking forward to this glorious inheritance, they looked backward—to a life of slavery. Rather than the hardships of the wilderness
working the divine purposes in them, their hearts became embittered, followed soon after by unbelief and then stubborn rebellion against what God was saying.
By way of contrast, in chapter eleven we have a ‘hall of fame’ listing Israel’s heroes of faith. The ones who refused to
‘ cast away their confidence’ (10.35) when faced with hardships and opposition because each had a God-given hope. Such a hope saw Noah ‘prepare an ark ‘(11.7), Abraham hoped to see
‘ a city whose builder and maker was God’ (11.10), and rather than the ‘fleeting pleasures of sin’, Moses hoped for an ‘ eternal reward’ (11.26). Even when the hope was not realized in their lifetime, these heroes persevered despite severe deprivation and temptation. Even as Jesus could do because of ‘the ‘ joy set before him’. He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’
(12.2); a hope about ‘ joy’, no doubt, due to the glorious bride His death on the Cross purchased. The hope robust enough to allow Christ to resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem, face the agony of an ignominious death, and the separation from His Father. Hope enabled Him to overcome; the right hope will get anyone through.
A TESTIMONY
Not long after my conversion, I had over several months impressed on my mind with unusual force the words, ‘ without a vision the people perish’ (Prov 29.18). In effect, I was being shown the need to have the right hope to survive the testing years ahead. Praise God, the hope shown has kept me faithful for over 60 years, enabling me to leave secure employment as a pharmacist to enter full-time Christian ministry. And to emigrate from the land of my birth with my wife and family to serve the body of Christ in Australia. I discovered this ‘living hope’ only after being led to a fellowship of believers with deep insight into what the scriptures reveal concerning the
endtimes and the ‘ blessed hope’ (Tit 2.13). I trust you also will catch the glory of this hope.
THE RIGHT HOPE
Believers often face the future—the endtimes especially—
with the wrong hope, one leading to despair when proven false.
Sad really, as the wrong hope can be worse than not having a hope. Now, the ungodly embrace many false hopes to buoy their flagging spirits, but believers also hold on to baseless expectations. The most widespread of these being the hope of escaping all suffering and tribulation in a ‘silent Rapture’. It will prove devastating to all holding the notion. Now, the idea of escaping the ‘Great Tribulation’ is biblical, but this hope is only for those ‘ found worthy’ (Lk 21.36) and its fulfillment doesn’t require a ‘pre-tribulation rapture’.
I ask, then, will the hope you have keep you faithful during the intense pressure (stress) of the ‘last of the last days’? No one can be sure how far off these are, but with the recent threats from terrorism, breakdown in law and order, and the GFC and ‘pandemics’ (e.g. Ebola, Covid-19), the indication is they are imminent. With any future international conflict bound to be ‘dirty’—employing chemical, biological, or even atomic weapons—we fool ourselves, therefore, in thinking tribulation and suffering will not be a feature of our time.
Add to this the prospect of ‘man’s inhumanity to humanity’
escalating to see acts of genocide greater than in Bosnia and Rwanda and it all indicates the need to prepare for an increase in the corruption of human decency. What Jesus warned of by saying the days of Noah and Lot will be repeated (Lk 17.26-30).
Genesis records the depths, ‘degenerate, debased and vicious’
(Gen 6.12 AMB) humans sank to in those days and it portends similar if not worse behavior. Yet, despite this dire prospect, Hebrews lays out a glorious future for the endtimes giving the courage to remain faithful in what will be the ‘worst of times’.