Unseen Hope

October 20

The patriarchs, the heroes of the faith who inhabit the Old Testament lived with an unseen hope. Unlike us, who have Christ to look upon for our eternal salvation and our present help, they had only a promise. The people of God were accustomed to waiting for the fulfillment of the hope that had been extended to them.

They had endured 400 years of slavery in Egypt (see Genesis 39-Exodus 15) while awaiting the deliverance that had been promised to them and subsequent to that, they waited so long for their expected Messiah, that when He came, they did not recognize Him! (See the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.)

But through all their waiting, they were encouraged by prophets and kings to hope. In Lamentations 3:21-23, the prophet Jeremiah stated, “This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.”

If these precious faithful ones could maintain a hopeful expectancy in spite of slavery, in spite of an unseen answer to a glorious promise, cannot we who have seen Jesus, who have read the eyewitness accounts to His glory, hold fast to the hope He has given to us in spite of man’s abysmal condition! Can we not believe that our redemption draws near! (Luke 21:28)