The Progress of Hope
One of the great problems in our world today is a loss of hope. We cannot live without it. And biblical hope is not a wish or a maybe. It can be defined as: the joyful certainty of future blessing (cf. I Pet. 1:3-5). The word “hope” is found frequently in Lamentations 3:16-33. It translates a couple of Hebrew words whose meaning is similar: to hope, wait for, expect.
Jeremiah had warned the people of coming judgment, and now it had fallen. The Babylonians had destroyed his beloved Jerusalem. The prophet mourned over the devastated city, and hope seemed to waver. But as he meditated on the things of God it was rekindled and refocused. See in this passage…
- Hope Exhausted (vs. 18; see context, vs. 16-18)
- Hope Encouraged (vs. 21. There should be a colon after vs. 21, not a period. It introduces vs. 22-23.)
- Hope Energized (vs. 24)
- Hope Expectant (vs. 25; “wait for, NKJV, = hope)
- Hope Evaluated (vs. 26)
- Hope Enduring (vs. 29)