Wheel of Fortune
Be of good courage, and let your heart be strong, all you who hope in YHWH. Psalm 31:25
Hope – What is the justification for hope? If your worldview rests on the Greek platform, the answer is obvious. My reason for hope is anchored in the rationality of Man. In other words, I hope that things will get better because I believe that men are rational beings and, as rational beings, they will do what is best. I have hope because I believe that rational men understand what is good and will be drawn to it. This is what Plato taught. Men are drawn by eros toward the Good, the True and the Beautiful. As they are drawn toward these noble virtues, their lives become better and better. Therefore, I have hope in the future. The goodness of Man will prevail.
Of course, history tells a different story. I recall the statement about the Jews in Poland at the rise of the Third Reich. “The pessimists went into exile. The optimists went into the ovens.” Apparently Plato’s hope didn’t turn out as he expected. Frankly, it never will. So, the real answer from a Greek perspective to the question, “What justifies my hope?” is this: not one thing! If my hope rests on human beings, I am surely lost. If I think that things will be better tomorrow because men make promises, I am a fool. I will follow them into the ovens.
What is the justification for hope if I am a follower of YHWH? Amazingly, it is not a claim about the future. Looking ahead to find hope is quite impossible. I don’t know what is going to happen and neither does anyone else. The future is totally obscure to all sentient beings on earth. Followers of the Way do not look toward the future for their hope. They look to the past!
I realize that this seems backwards. We normally think of hope as an expectation about the future. But that’s because we are essentially Greek. The Hebrew view is radically different. If the future is behind me as I sit in my rowboat, then there is little point trying to see it. As I row, I pay attention to where I have been. I set my course based on what I can clearly see – and what I can clearly see is where God has been in His interactions with men and women in the past. I get aligned with the God of history and I just keep rowing.
Keep that image in mind and then consider this. The Greek view of time is linear. Time “moves” from the past to the present into the future. It is a series of unique and unrepeatable events, a causal chain linking what has happened with what is happening with what will happen. All of our efforts at prediction depend on this idea of time. The important thing to notice is that we think of time as continuous in one direction. Perhaps that’s why we are seduced by the prospect of the future. We think that if we understand the causal chain, we can foretell what will happen next.
The Hebrew idea of time is not like this. The Hebrew idea is like a wheel rolling down the road. The wheel is moving forward but it is moving in a circle at the same instant. Even though the wheel progresses, it does so by repeating a pattern. This is the Hebrew view. The past is the present. The present is the future. The circumstances may change (the wheel progresses) but the patterns do not change. So, what is most important is to know what pattern is occurring and where I am in the cycle. The position on the road is inconsequential since only God directs the path of the wheel. But men have a great influence on the repeating pattern. Unless I see where I am on the circle of the wheel, I will be unprepared for what is inevitably coming.
Why does a Hebrew thinker have hope? Because what will happen has already happened. My hope is not wishful thinking based on some possible but unpredictable occurrence in the future. My hope is fixed on what God has already done in the past. I know where I am going because I have already been there in the lives of those who came before me. There is no guesswork here. I clearly see where God has been and what men have done, and I know that God is doing the same thing again. He does not change. Therefore, my hope is not a matter of prophecy. It is a matter of fact!
Here’s the challenge. Do you know where you are? Do you know what God has already done so well that you can see the pattern? Do you know what’s coming because you have already been there? If you don’t know, you’re in for a terrible surprise. Prediction is not about the future. Prediction is insight into the past.
This is no April Fool’s joke. This is as real as it gets.
Topical Index: time, future, past, hope, Psalm 31:25
Well THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE always makes me think of Boethius.
And Boethius makes me think of Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales,
which begin in April…and is full of oo’s
1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour
4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
When April with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
Shalom,
Despite the indisputable record of ELOHIM and despite the indisputable record of The WORD made flesh … why is it that real faith … the kind of faith with hope that changes lives and molds us into obedience seems to be so lacking on a planet where nearly one third of all inhabitants purportedly put their trust in Mashiach?
Hope in “the life eternal” without trust is a dream … a desire … which frankly merits no consideration at all. As such our faith, based upon the Rock Of Salvation, is premised upon the mighty deeds of yesterday and today … the deeds of the ONE TRUE G_D! And as a consequence such a trust needs to be supported by faith which is manifest as walking the way of Yeshua and not walking in the ways of this world.
So if our trust is premised upon the works and wonders delivered by ELOHIM unto the chosen people Israel, then why should our manifestation of hope (trust by faith) discount what ELOHIM declared to be the measure of such faith?
What I mean is this: if the wonders and works performed by ELOHIM are the foundation of the hope of Israel (of which we must be a citizen of to be in the Kingdom) then how is it that believers in Mashiach do not trust in faith by living a life style commanded of the Israelites? If our deliverer is The King Of Israel and our hope is in His faithfulness, what does it mean if we discard the patterns of living that He has prescribed (nay commanded) for us?
Please forgive me my frustration … I have come out of some more debates regarding the relevancy of the Biblical Festivals (notably Pesach/Passover) and what Skip is commenting upon today is quite pertinent. Passover, and the delivery of Israel from bondage in Egypt, is crucial to my hope. As a shadow of how Yeshua would and did deliver Israel from the bondage of sin, there is no doubt that the events are of a G_DLY order … a G_DLY pattern! We can not separate the events … the same unchanging ELOHIM can not be separated! Pesach was Yeshua’s “appointed time”!
The point of this very tactical example? If we purportedly rest our hopes in ELOHIM, then how can we show our trust? By ignoring the commandment to keep the Festival? And if we can’t obey such a simple and clear mandate as a function of faithful trust then in whom is our hope?
I believe the main contingent of the purported “Body of Mashiach” has fallen far, far away from what Yeshua lived as faithful trust in ELOHIM! If purported believers do not look back beyond the works and wonders of 2,000 years ago there can be no connection to the works and wonders of the more distant past … nor any connection to the heritage of Israel and all who would cleave to the Kingdom! There can be no understanding of “what does this mean” if we disconnect events from the obvious ordained pattern!
Yeshua hoped … and trusted in ELOHIM … is not therefore our hope in the same ELOHIM? If so then our hope must result in faithful trust … a faithful trust that can not discard the patterns of life prescribed for all Israel.
I am just wondering … do many of us at TW keep the Festivals … or will the vast majority be celebrating the Greco-Roman replacement festival of Easter? After all these years of Skip’s commentary is there still a large contingent looking at Torah and wondering … “what means this?”
I hope I get a puppy for Christmas. ‘This’ hope is where many hearts lie. This is not Bible hope. -Brother Skip- please include for “hope” the original Hebrew transliteration or we will end up with a false hope. Since today’s word is hope, let us review the pattern laid down before us in the word of G-d. Does YHWH offer us any hope? (-outside of a puppy for Christmas!-)
It is always good to define words. Why?- because this “definition” provides us with clarity and focus. It is very familiar to us who wear spectacles to see. But, when we put these “cheaters” on things snap into clarity and focus.-Let’s ‘put on’ on faith glasses and look again at Bible hope. Our goal here is clarity of vision.
Bible hope is “confident expectation.” If anyone knows a better definition, I’m open to hear it. My “confident expectation” is in YHWH. “Now abideth (remains) faith, hope and love.” I even like the “placement” of hope- right where it belongs between faith and G-d’s covenant love.
Listen to the words of YHWH in Ephesians 2.12: “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” “without hope”– does it get any worse than this? “having no hope”.
Do we have “hope” today? Absolutely. (and Hallelujah!)
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
In 2005, I wrote:
In 2005, I wrote this Today’s Word:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Assurance – From 300 BC until 1500 AD, this word was about something very different than “assurance”. But when Martin Luther accepted this translation of another theologian 500 years ago, the landscape of this word changed and the world of faith became a different place. If you want to recover the older meaning, you’ll have to do a little digging.
Most modern translations follow Luther. By using the word “assurance”, Luther shifted the idea of faith into the realm of inner personal conviction. “Assurance” means self-confidence or personal guarantee. Suddenly faith rests on what I feel. In its current form, faith is now a private religious experience. This view fosters the modern idea of tolerance: that what I believe is my inner conviction and should not be pushed on what others believe. They have their own inner convictions.
But here’s the amazing fact. The Greek word hupostasis never meant inner personal conviction prior to Luther’s translation. This Greek word was a scientific and medical term that meant “the underlying reality behind something”. It has nothing to do with personal conviction. It is a word that says, “this demonstrates the true but hidden reality”.
So what does this mean for Hebrews 11:1? The author of Hebrews tells us that the real world is not this world as it appears but rather the world as it is demonstrated in the future, hidden reality of what is hoped for. This is faith. Not the personal, subjective, inner feelings of private confidence but the outward demonstration of a world that is based on what is to come: the world of God’s kingdom values lived out here and now as a sign of what will be. And how is that outward demonstration revealed? It is revealed in the community of the obedient. It is displayed first and foremost in the life of Jesus and secondarily in those who follow Him. This is not a private, inner experience. This is a tangible, outward expression of living according to a reality that is hidden for the time being but will show itself to be the true reality soon.
This is a heavyweight verse. The impact that its proper translation has on believers is shocking. Faith has nothing to do with my groping in the dark to try to find the right feelings or the proper inner conviction. Faith is walking in obedience to a reality that is not yet obvious. Faith is doing according to God’s truth regardless of what I see.
You go brother Skip! 🙂
Just as Yochanan the Immerser (The Baptist) cried out for repentance to those that “felt” they were in good standing … so too must we hear the cry of the same spirit of Elijah that calls for us to put aside our personal confidence in good standing. My or anyone else’s good standing is useless without Mashiach’s perfect righteousness and my or anyone’s trust/faith in Mashiach is useless without obedience. On this matter Scripture is certain!
We simply can not live to the standards and ways of this world …. say in our minds that Jesus is Lord and savior …. and expect favorable treatment. Sha’ul (Paul) reveals that our seal of promise … that Holy Spirit is what testifies to our inheritance until the redemption of the possession purchased by Lord Yeshua HaMashiach for His glory.
So again …. how can the Holy Spirit of truth and testimony give glory to Yeshua and His Kingdom … and at the same time foster a spirit of disobedience? Skip has been at this for quite some time … he points out time and time again, using the B’rit Chadasha as source materials, that we are still to be Holy (Kadosh) … we are still to be separated!
If believers can not grasp that Torah is a fundamental component of this distinctiveness then there really is no distinction between them and the ways of the world is there? If the only difference in the Kingdom is a mental awareness that Yeshua is Lord and all else remains the same …. well then I don’t want to be part of that Kingdom … because it is a Kingdom filled with unrighteousness, politics, pain, anguish, pride, sin and chaos! And all the feel good intentions of all people combined won’t change what we have today!
As for me … I await the Theocracy where Yeshua is King … Torah is the constitution … and the citizenship is echad (one) …. and by echad I don’t mean united in an abstracted thread of tolerance … but rather united in conformance to the image and glory of The King!
Yes, what a sad state we are in. And this is Passover Week.
All I can “say” in relation to myself is that God has been faithful in the past – in the present & will be in the future – it is the way His wheel turns for sure – He has never failed me yet… ♥
Ms. Jan Carver
“My hope is fixed on what God has already done in the past.” And if it is true what His word says, God is unchanged; He is the same today as He was yesterday. Therefore, “It is a matter of fact!” Thank you Skip for the encouraging word.
Superb, simply superb.
Thank you.
John
“Next year in Jerusalem!” After the Hallel, the fourth glass of wine is drunk, and participants recite a prayer that ends with these words, what are they hoping for?