True hope isn’t cultivated with ease. It creeps through the cracks of our missed expectations, and finds us unexpectedly shipwrecked in the raging seas. Hope rises in the tension of waiting when our minds remember the One who quiets the waves and calls storms to cease. Like a cord pulled tight, tension building and bracing for release, we wait with great anticipation. There, we find true hope, the kind that says, there’s something better here if we just hold on a little longer.

This was the ache of Israel – children of the promise, but not yet of the fulfillment. Though today, we’ve seen God’s faithfulness by sending His Son, waiting for God is still our inheritance.

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For generations, Israel searched far and wide for a leader who would restore their kingdom and throne. Through war, foreign occupation, and exile, some of God’s people struggled to believe His plans for them were good. God spoke of blessing and flourishing, but when they looked around, that’s not what they saw. Yet even then, when circumstances were less than ideal, some still chose to believe God’s light would find its way through. When their lives’ conditions didn’t change or improve, they still clung to the Word of God. Here is where they learned: remembering God’s promise leads to hope.

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When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you…and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. – 2 Samuel 7:12-16

The days are coming, declared the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord our Righteous Savior. – Jeremiah 23:5-6

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At the end of 2 Chronicles, the kingdom of Jerusalem falls, and Israel doesn’t have a temple or a king. They, too, find themselves under foreign occupation during the Babylonian exile. At the time, many grew desperate, thinking God this is not how you told us it would be. Where is our king? But this ache whispers us ahead to the kind of Redeemer God would send.

Here, the author calls back the Davidic covenant of the Messiah to come. He will be a king, and his kingdom will have no end. As the story progresses for the temple restoration project led by Nehemiah, Israel stirs with excitement, believing they’d soon receive their king. God’s people called upon the prophecies that promised one who’d reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

All who hoped in the Lord carried strained hearts as they remembered the promise God whispered to David in 2 Samuel of a leader from his line who would establish the throne of God’s kingdom forever. Where is our king, the one who will save us, and help us find safety? Every failed crown grew their heart’s desperation, but hope led their eyes to look beyond their situation. God said it would be, so it will be, the faithful said. Each earthly king brought them closer to the One who would save them, and restore their house to prosperity.

All we must do is wait expectantly.

After Jerusalem falls, Ezra and Nehemiah come along and the temple and Jersualem’s walls are rebuilt, but their search continues for their reigning king. Their hopeful sighs sets the stage for the arrival of Jesus, the true Messiah to lead God’s people to flourishing.

Hide His Word in your Heart

In the closing chapters of the Old Testament, Israel returns from exile, restores God’s temple, and get into an argument with God about when they would see Him be faithful. After all their suffering, patience, and endurance, Israel was ready to “see” God’s blessing. After God’s promise to send a redeemer, and his reminder of the reigning king from David’s line, God goes quiet. For 400 years, there is not a word from Him.

Before Jesus entered the world, his entrance the breaking of God’s silence, God dwelt there in the quiet. He searched for a faithful remnant who chose hope without knowing how or when He would reveal Himself to us. He waited for a few who trusted His word was true.

For that faithful remnant, hope remained steadfast – even when God was silent – because His Word was hidden in their hearts. Even in the tension, faith lingered, because God was their Author and Finisher.

Through war and sickness, exile and rebuilding, silence and the tension of waiting, God’s promise remained the hope of His people. Let it be the same for us. We are not done waiting for God, but we can be sure of His faithfulness because of the ways He’s already been good.

Hide His word in your heart, and watch it bloom. All it takes is a mustard seed. Behold, he will come to make all things new.

Joining the Faithful Remnant

May we remember how far God has taken His people, and the ways He’s been good. Whether we see His promises in the natural yet, trust and believe that we are children of the inheritance.

Let us hope in the Lord, the One who makes ways in the wilderness, and builds rivers in the desert.

Let us join the faithful remnant, trusting the King of the eternal kingdom.

Let us hope in the Lord, for He has been good.

Amen.

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