Life Walk Bible Lesson 42 — Hope
Ephesians 3:17-19
“May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints how wide, and long, and high, and deep, is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge."
Hope for the Oppressed
First, a Little History Lesson on the Times and Circumstances of the Day
The Ancient Book of Jasher — From the Introduction, on Pages 11-12
“This book gives a particular account of the instruction received by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from Shem and Eber, through which they became so excellent in piety and wisdom, their tutors in learning having lived to so great an age; and Shem particularly, who, being acquainted with all that was known before the flood, could therefore strengthen his precepts of virtue, the true worship of God, and the necessary dependance upon Him alone, by recording the awful events which he had seen.
The history of Joseph has always been considered one of the most admirable and interesting on record. It is composed in a style of simple and artless eloquence, which touches every feeling heart. A judicious critic has observed that he considers it a perfect composition. This history, in Jasher, enters more into detail concerning the affairs of Potiphar's wife, Zelicah; Joseph's magnificent procession through the cities of Egypt on coming into power; the pomp with which he was attended by Pharaoh's chariots, officers, and people, when he went up to meet his father; affecting scene which then took place, together with other remarkable incidents.
This beautiful narrative might justly be entitled, the triumph of virtue and piety; and it is presumed that few can peruse it, unmoved by sentiments of the highest admiration, mixed with the deepest feelings of sympathy. The history of the Israelites during their sojourning in Egypt, contains an account of many interesting particulars not noticed in the Bible. Toward the latter end of this period, Balaam, Job, Jannes, and Jambres, appear to have acted their respective parts in some memorable transactions.”
The Ancient Book of Jasher 29:17-19
17. “And in those days Adah the wife of Esau conceived and bare him a son, and Esau called the name of the son that was born unto him Eliphaz, and Esau was sixty five years old when she bare him. 18. And Ishmael the son of Abraham died in those days, in the sixty fourth year of the life of Jacob, and at his death all the days that Ishmael lived were one hundred and thirty seven years. 19. And when Isaac heard that Ishmael was dead he mourned for him, and Isaac lamented over him many days.”
Verses 31-42 goes on to describe what happened when Eliphaz, sent by his father Esau to kill Jacob, met Jacob on his way to Laban’s house, and took everything from Jacob that he had, in exchange for his life, which Eliphaz wanted to spare.
Chapter 31 records the events which took place after that, where Esau took everyone he had with him to kill Jacob himself.
The synopsis of Chapter 66:
“The successor of Hadad, king of Edom, wants to make war on Zepho, because of the smiting of Angeas king of Africa. The people of Esau prevent him from doing so, because Zepho is their brother. When Pharaoh hears about the plans, he is afraid they will also come to make war on Egypt and that then the people of Israel will join them. So he afflicts them even more. But upon the increase of labor, so did the people of Israel increase and multiply even more. Job, from Mesopotamia in the land of Uz, advices to kill all newborn boys, which task is given to the Hebrew midwifes. Yet, they do not lis- ten. When summoned in the presence of Pharaoh, they answer that the people of Israel are so healthy that they do not need midwifes, and Pharaoh believes them.”
{Zepho was the son of Eliphaz}
Chapter 66:15-22
15. “And an officer, one of the king's counsellors, whose name was Job, from Mesopotamia in the land of Uz, answered the king, saying : 16. If it please the king, let him hear the counsel of his servant. And the king said unto him, speak ! 17. And Job spoke before the king, the princes, and before all the elders of Egypt, saying : 18. Behold, the counsel of the king which he advised formerly in respect to the labor of the children of Israel is very good, and you must not remove from them that labor forever. 19. But this is the advice counseled by which you may lessen them, if it seems good to the king to afflict them. 20. Behold, we have feared war for a long time, and we said, when Israel becomes fruitful in the land, they will drive us from the land if a war should take place. 21. If it please the king, let a royal decree go forth, and let it be written in the laws of Egypt which shall not be revoked, that every male child born to the Israelites, his blood shall be spilled upon the ground. 22. And by you doing this, when all the male children of Israel shall have died, the evil of their wars will cease. Let the king do so and send for all the Hebrew midwives and order them in this matter to execute it. So the thing pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Job."
Chapter 67:11-61
11. And in the hundred and thirtieth year of Israel going down to Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his kingly throne and that he lifted up his eyes and saw an old man standing before him, and there were scales in the hands of the old man, such scales as are used by merchants. 12. And the old man took the scales and hung them before Pharaoh. 13. And the old man took all the elders of Egypt and all its nobles and great men, and he tied them together and put them on one scale. 14. And he took a milk kid and put it on the other scale, and the kid preponderated over all. 15. And Pharaoh was astonished at this dreadful vision, why the kid should preponderate over all, and Pharaoh woke up and behold it was a dream.
16. And Pharaoh rose up early in the morning and called all his servants and related to them the dream, and the men were much frightened. 17. And the king said to all his wise men, interpret I pray you the dream which I dreamed, that I may know its interpretation. 18. And Balaam, the son of Beor, answered the king and said unto him : This means nothing else but a great evil that will spring up against Egypt in the latter days. 19. For a son will be born to Israel, who will destroy all Egypt and its inhabitants, and bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand. 20. Now therefore, King, take counsel upon this matter, that you may destroy the hope of the children of Israel and their expectation before this evil arises against Egypt. 21. And the king said unto Balaam : What shall we do unto Israel ? Surely after a certain manner did we at first counsel against them and could not prevail over them. 22. Now therefore give you also advice against them by which we may prevail over them.
23. And Balaam answered the king, saying, send now and call thy two counsellors, and we will see what their advice is upon this matter and afterward thy servant will speak. 24. And the king sent and called his two counsellors Reuel the Midianite and Job the Uzite, and they came and sat before the king. 25. And the king said to them, behold you have both heard the dream which I dreamed, and the interpretation thereof ; now therefore, give counsel and know and see what is to be done against the children of Israel, whereby we may prevail over them before their evil shall spring up against us.
26. And Reuel the Midianite answered the king and said : May the King live, may the King live forever. 27. If it seem good to the King, let him desist from the Hebrews and leave them, and let him not stretch forth his hand against them. 28. For these are they whom the Lord chose in days of old, and took as the lot of his inheritance from amongst all the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth ; and who is there to stretch his hand against them with impunity, of whom their God was not avenged ? 29. Surely thou knowest that when Abraham went down to Egypt, Pharaoh, the former king of Egypt, saw Sarah his wife, and took her for a wife, because Abraham said, she is my sister, for he was afraid, lest the men of Egypt should slay him on account of his wife. 30. And when the king of Egypt had taken Sarah then God smote him and his household with heavy plagues, until he restored unto Abraham his wife Sarah, then was he healed.
31. And Abimelech the Gerarite, king of the Philistines, God punished on account of Sarah wife of Abraham, in stopping up every womb from man to beast. 32. When their God came to Abimelech in the dream of night and terrified him, in order that he might restore to Abraham Sarah whom he had taken. And afterward all the people of Gerar were punished on account of Sarah, and Abraham prayed to his God for them, and he was intreated by him, and He healed them. 33. And Abimelech feared all this evil that came upon him and his people, and he returned to Abraham his wife Sarah, and sent her with many gifts to be given to him. 34. He did so also to Isaac when he had driven him from Gerar. God had done wonderful things to him, that all the water courses of Gerar were dried up, and their productive trees did not bring forth. 35. This kept on until Abimelech of Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Pichol the captain of his host, went to him and bent and bowed down before him to the ground. 36. And they requested of him to supplicate for them, and he prayed the Lord for them, and the Lord was intreated of him and He healed them.
37. Jacob also, the plain man, was delivered through his integrity from the hand of his brother Esau, and the hand of Laban the Syrian, his mother's brother, who had sought his life ; likewise from the hand of all the kings of Canaan who had come together against him and his children to destroy them. And the Lord delivered them out of their hands, that they turned upon them and smote them, for who had ever stretched forth his hand against them with impunity ? 38. Surely, Pharaoh the former, thy father's father, raised Joseph the son of Jacob above all the princes of the land of Egypt, when he saw his wisdom, for through his wisdom he rescued all the inhabitants of the land from the famine. 39. After which he ordered Jacob and his children to come down to Egypt, in order that through their virtue, the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen might be delivered from the famine. 40. Now, therefore, if it seem good in thine eyes, cease from destroying the children of Israel, but if it be not thy will that they shall dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan, the land where their ancestors sojourned.
41. And when Pharaoh heard the words of Jethro he was very angry with him, so that he rose with shame from the king's presence and went to Midian, his land, and took Joseph's stick with him. 42. And the king said to Job the Uzite, what sayest thou Job, and what is thy advice respecting the Hebrews ? 43. So Job said to the king, behold all the inhabitants of the land are in thy power, let the king do as it seems good in his eyes.
44. And the king said unto Balaam, what dost thou say, Balaam, speak thy word that we may hear it. 45. And Balaam said to the king : Of all that the King has counseled against the Hebrews they shall be delivered, and the King will not be able to prevail over them with any counsel. 46. For if thou thinkest to lessen them by the flaming fire, thou canst not prevail over them, for surely their God delivered Abraham their father from Ur Casdim [The Hebrew 'ur' – aleph, waw, resh – translates as 'fire', which refers to the blazing oven in which Abram was thrown – see chapter 12, from which God delivered him. ] ; and if thou thinkest to destroy them by the sword, surely Isaac their father was delivered from it, and a ram was placed in his stead.
47. And if by hard and rigorous labor thou thinkest to lessen them, thou wilt not prevail even in this, for their father Jacob served Laban in all manner of hard work, and prospered. 48. Now therefore, O King, hear my words, for this is the counsel which is counseled against them, by which thou wilt prevail over them, and from which thou shouldst not depart. 49. If it please the King, let him order all their children that shall be born from this day forward, to be thrown into the water, for by this canst thou wipe out their name, for none of them, nor of their fathers, were tried in this manner. [They did not have any escape from water yet — but during the Exodus from Egypt, at the time of crossing the Red Sea, God saved them miraculously.]
50. And the king heard the words of Balaam, and the thing pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Balaam. 51. And the king ordered a proclamation to be issued and a law to be made throughout the land of Egypt, saying, every male child born to the Hebrews from this day forward shall be thrown into the water. 52. And Pharaoh called unto all his servants, saying, go now and seek throughout the land of Goshen where the children of Israel are, and see that every son born to the Hebrews shall be cast into the river, but every daughter you shall let live. 53. And when the children of Israel heard this thing which Pharaoh commanded, to cast their male children into the river, some of the people separated from their wives and others adhered to them. 54. And from that day forward, when the time of delivery arrived to those women of Israel who had remained with their husbands, they went to the field to bring forth there, and they brought forth in the field, and left their children upon the field and returned home.
55. And the Lord who had sworn to their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of his ministering angels which are in heaven to wash each child in water, to anoint and swathe it and to put into its hands two smooth stones from one of which it sucked milk and from the other honey. And through his compassion for it [the child], He caused its hair to grow to its knees by which it might cover itself, and He caused it to be comforted by the angel and to cleave to it [the angel]. [Just like John the Baptist, who was brought up by an angel after the death of Elisabeth, in order to escape Herodes' fury. ]
56. And when God had compassion over them and desired to multiply them upon the face of the land, he ordered his earth to receive them to be preserved therein till the time of their growing up, after which the earth opened its mouth and vomited them forth and they sprouted forth from the city like the herb of the earth and the grass of the forest, and they returned each to his family and to his father's house, and they remained with them. 57. And the babes of the children of Israel were upon the earth like the herb of the field, through God's grace to them. 58. And when all the Egyptians saw this thing, they went forth, each to his field with his yoke of oxen and his ploughshare, and they ploughed it up as one ploughs the earth at seed time. 59. And when they ploughed they were unable to hurt the infants of the children of Israel. So the people increased and waxed exceedingly.
60. And Pharaoh ordered his officers daily to go to Goshen to seek for the babes of the children of Israel. 61. And when they sought and found one, they took it from its mother's bosom by force, and threw it into the river ; but the female child they left with its mother. Thus did the Egyptians to the Israelites all those days.”
It is clear, then, from this record of events, that time and circumstances change people, but so does God. God saw Job as a righteous man, above any others in all the land of the East, according to the Book of Job, chapter 1. Now let’s look at Eliphaz’s words to Job in chapters 4 and 5 [Job 4-5].
Job had been through some life challenges already by this time. He quite naturally feared that something bad would happen to him, or his family, because of all the things he had done in the past. But God still saw him as he was now — a righteous man, who felt hopeless.
Look what God did:
Job 42:7-17
7 "It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job. 10 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. 11 Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. 12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man and full of days.”
Extra Reading: The Testament of Job
Hope of Restoration
Zechariah 9:12
“Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; this very day I am declaring I will restore double to you.”
Ezekiel 39:25
"Therefore thus says the Lord God 'Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.'"
Hope for the Mountains of Israel
Ezekiel 37-38
The Book of Judith 4 [The Book of Judith]
Hope of Reward
Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Psalm 37:4
John 15:1-17
Revelation 22:12
Matthew 5:1-12 (NASB)
1 “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.
2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Love Always Hopes
1Corinthians 13:7
1Corinthians 13 (Message Translation)
Savior of the Hopeless
Judith 9:11 (NRSVCE)
"For Your strength does not depend on numbers, nor Your might on the powerful. But You are the God of the lowly, Helper of the oppressed, Upholder of the weak, Protector of the forsaken, Savior of those without hope."
The Hope of God’s Grace
Romans 5:1-5
1 "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through Whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that our tribulation brings about perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.”
Hope for a Future
Proverbs 13:12
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
Proverbs 23:18
"There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."
Proverbs 24:14
"Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is s future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."
Proverbs 24:19-20
19 "Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked,
20 for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out."
Scripture Reading: Matthew 25
