Body of Christ: Living God’s Hope

2^nd Kings 19:20-31; Romans 8:14-24; Hebrews 6:11-20

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

25 April 2004

Peter calls on Christians to be ever prepared to present an answer to any who ask about our hope. For people to ask about the hope we hold, it must first become reality in our daily lives. How can we live out the hope that we find in Christ? How can we present the world a clear and true picture of God’s hope that is within us? How do we make this hope a reality that we live?

When Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, Isaiah proclaimed Yahweh’s word of hope. He proclaimed to all the message that Yahweh would not allow Assyria to oppose God’s people in arrogance, proclaiming themselves superior to the will and action of Yahweh. While Sennacherib was a tool in the hands of Yahweh to bring all the nations to recognize the frailty of their own gods, he was still only a tool for Yahweh to wield. He had come to believe himself to be much more than he was. His self-assuming importance was beginning to carry over into how the very people of Yahweh viewed him as well.

They heard the words of Sennacherib through his officials. They heard his threats against the people and against Jerusalem. They saw their city besieged by the Assyrian army. Despair threatened to engulf them as hope began to dissipate. It was much easier for them to look at the army and successes of Assyria than to consider the faithfulness of Yahweh in their past.

We often measure our problems not by their true greatness, nor by the greatness of God, but by their immediacy. Too quickly do we forget the grace and mercy of God. Too easily do we discard what we know of God’s love, power, and concern for our needs. Too readily do we overlook that God is greater than the difficulties of life that assail us. We find ourselves besieged by enemy forces, stress, pressures to perform, anxiety, and conflict. We hear the message of faith in God and the message of a society that decries our need to do for ourselves, leaving God out of the picture of life.

“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul,”^[1] cries the poet. All too readily, we listen. It would seem that the words of the poet have made a stronger impression upon our lives and our society that have the words of God. We have come to believe that “life is what you make it,” with the stress on our own responsibility, actions, and initiative. If we plan for the future, we make our plans based on our personal strength, initiative, and resources. We focus our plans on our personal dreams, desires, and perceptions of what we want out of life. Somewhere along the way, it would seem that it is the word of William Ernest Henley that we seek to guide us—Invictus!—I am invincible!

OUT of the night that covers me,/ Black as the pit from pole to pole,/ I thank whatever gods may be/ For my unconquerable soul./ In the fell clutch of circumstance/ I have not winced nor cried aloud./ Under the bludgeonings of chance/ My head is bloody, but unbow'd./ Beyond this place of wrath and tears/ Looms but the Horror of the shade,/ And yet the menace of the years/ Finds and shall find me unafraid./ It matters not how strait the gate,/ How charged with punishments the scroll,/ I am the master of my fate:/ I am the captain of my soul.

My future is up to me! My life is my own! I can do whatever my heart desires! Whatever gods there may be, only I will steer my path and fashion my future according to my own will!

What a sad state of affairs for a people who claim service to Yahweh, God, Creator of the Universe! What a sad state of affairs for any who would believe that it is up to them to make something out of life! What a sad state of affairs for one who lives as though the individual is alone and cut off from God to fashion life and confront the stresses and uncertainties of life!

Sennacherib’s arrogance was similar in many ways to the individualistic philosophy of Henry’s poem. Yahweh mattered not in the equation from the Assyrian perspective. Assyria would plan the future and make its will happen. Assyria would decide its future and the future of the nations around it. Israel had fallen to Assyrian advances. Jerusalem now lay besieged.

The prophet called the people to look beyond themselves. The prophet called the nation to live in accord with the hope they claimed. They claimed to be the people of Yahweh. They claimed to trust Yahweh for their future. Their claims, however, had not taken hold of the realities of their lives. Their faith claims had not become living realities in their lives.

While they claimed to serve Yahweh, they were not living in accordance with the hope they claimed. While they called themselves the people of Yahweh, they were living in dread of a king, rather than hoping and trusting in the protection of the Creator. They had shifted their focus off of the hope they claimed, living by sight rather than by faith.

As Paul reminds us, we were not freed from slavery to live as slaves. We were freed to live in the confidence and hope of the children of God. We may not always see the realization of our hope, but we may live in the full confidence of God’s provision for a future. We are not alone, cut off from the world to traverse a raging storm on our own resources. We are called to face the storm in a living hope, dependence, and confidence in God’s love, mercy, and protection.

We have been given a gospel of hope. We have been offered a future based on God’s gracious offer of access to the throne of the universe. We do not need to live as though we had no hope. We do not need to live as though God does not care, nor as though we cannot be sure if there is any divine being out there. We have been offered a hope by which to live. Will we allow this hope to take root?

If we do not choose to live the hope we claim, what good is it? If the claims we make for the gospel do not find reality and living example in our lives, what are they worth? We might as well go through live in accord with Henry’s poem, wondering if there is anything out there beyond ourselves, but ignoring the possibility, charting a course for our own disaster. Should we not rather live the hope we have been given? It is in living our hope that we offer the gospel of Christ to the world. Shall we live hope, or shall we live hopelessly?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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¹ William Ernest Henley, Invictus.