Hope Deferred and Hope Assured
Over recent months, most if not all people in the UK have been living with deferred hope. Like children in the backseat of a car we have found ourselves wondering “Are we there yet?” Covid-19 and its variants has kept us hoping it will soon be over, while at the same time living with deferred government deadlines as various predictions have been found false occasionally.
Many still long to be reunited with family members and to enjoy a warm embrace. Some feel desperate for a good holiday, but are frustrated by travel restrictions. Some wonder whether they will have a job once their furlough ends. When this all began in March 2020 I thought that perhaps restrictions might last a few months, but month after month has passed and there is still some uncertainty whether the light at the end of the tunnel is the way out or another train hurtling towards us!
Proverbs 13:12 describes it in this way: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”. While some people are able to accept the inevitability of having to live with restrictions a little longer, many others find it a struggle. Only a few days ago I heard someone say, “I am sick of all this waiting”.
Early Christians, anticipating the imminent return of Christ, also found the waiting a problem. Peter, writing to scattered Christians, addressed this in his second letter, writing, ”The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”. (2Peter 3:9). They could not have imagined that 2,000 years later we would still be eagerly waiting for his return. But unlike our hope that we will be completely free from the virus this year, our hope in Christ is certain.
One of my favourite passages about this hope is found in Hebrews 6:19,20, where we read, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.” The imagery is largely lost in these days of motorised shipping, as sailing ships were more familiar to the writer. The master of a large sailing ship desiring to anchor at a specific point in a harbour would furl his sails to slow the ship as it came into the harbour. He would then lower a boat from the ship, and lower the anchor into the boat. The boat then rowed to the desired destination where the anchor would then be dropped. Back on board the ship, men would start turning the capstan so that each turn of the capstan would bring the ship to the anchor.
Since Jesus has already entered heaven and our hope is in him, it is this hope that draws us ever closer to the Lord and to heaven. In 1882 when Priscilla Jane Owens wrote “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life” she must have been unfamiliar with the way of the seas. An anchor “fastened to the rock” in a storm would inevitably capsize the ship as waves rose 20 feet causing the anchor to drag it under the water! It's great to sing but, sadly, the wrong image. The more appropriate hymn is “With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm”. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptruPe5AuBU).
John Newton, a man who knew a thing or two about surviving storms at sea, wrote the following.
Begone unbelief, my Savior is near,
And for my relief will surely appear:
By prayer let me wrestle, and He wilt perform,
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.
Though dark be my way, since He is my Guide,
’Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,
The Word He has spoken shall surely prevail.
His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.
Hope, in this sense, is a confident expectation - hope assured of fulfilment..
