THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #7 | JACOB: THE FATHER OF HOPE #4
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3688
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #7
JACOB: THE FATHER OF HOPE #4
Hope keeps us going in hard times. It’s fuel for the future. It is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
Hope is why we have cures for illnesses and ground-breaking technology that changes the world.
One of the biggest challenges I think we face in life is to never lose hope. It’s hard to wait for desires that never seem to come or to keep believing when we face disappointment, pain, and pressure.
Let’s take a look at what we can learn to help us find hope when believing gets hard in our own lives.
1. Abraham's Hope
Abraham’s faith is astounding. He was 100 years old, had been through decades of infertility, and yet held on to the hope that God would give him a child in such unbelievable circumstances. He faced these disheartening facts that it was humanly impossible to have a child.
His decision to choose to “believe anyway” was firmly grounded in the fact that God was able to do the impossible (Matt 19:26).
Abraham believed God was more powerful than any challenge and could do literally anything. When we believe this deeply, we’ll be confident that God has a great plan and wants the best for us even when what we see in front of us looks hopeless.
2. Isaac's Hope
"Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. 22 But the two children struggled with each other in her womb.
So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked. 23 And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other, and your older son will serve your younger son.” Genesis 25:21-23 NLT
Jacob was different from his twin brother. This was God’s plan.
“Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.” Ecclesiastes 6:10 NLT
3. Jacob's Hope
We can be sure that there were many times Jacob didn’t understand God’s way of helping him become who he was meant to be.
“Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.” Romans 12:2 NCV
God shapes us, but the world also desires to add his design.
Are you aware when you are being shaped by God or the world?
“So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until dawn. 25 When the man saw that he could not win against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go; it’s almost dawn.” But Jacob answered, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” 27 So the man asked him, “What’s your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 28 The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel [He Struggles With God], because you have struggled with God and with men — and you have won.” Genesis 32:24-28
Jacob went from “I didn’t know” to “I won’t let you go.”
Have the things in your life that God is using to shape you, leading you to a spot where you can’t let go of God?
Jacob after wrestling with an angel of God was a changed man. He learned the hardest lesson of hope - the pain-filled sacrifice for a greater purpose - the hope others may realise and enjoy even after one's lifetime.
That is why he is called the Father of Hope. Despite the personal inconvenience, He went to Egypt to reconcile with his beloved son Joseph in prophetic fulfilment of God's plan. But he made his sons swear to bury his body in the Promised Land and not in Egypt - to inspire us as well to look forward to our eternal rest which is only found in God.
His hope as such became a reality when the nation of Israel was finally established in 1948 - a nation that bears his new name until today.
