Unshakeable hope rests on the promises of God fulfilled in Christ.
Today, I want to talk about prophetic scriptures of the Old Testament that speak of hope. Probably the most dramatic proof the Bible is actually the word of God is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies about Jesus the Messiah. Prophets of old described in amazing detail the life of Jesus, and all small and great prophesies ever spoken about him were fulfilled.
In Genesis 18:18, God appears to Abraham with a prophetic word. It’s one of the first prophetic words in the scripture. God says to Abraham, “And by your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed.” God gave Abraham a vision of a savior, Jesus Christ, who would one day come to earth with a message from God to the world. This prophetic vision gave birth to hope in Abraham.
Many scriptures that appear in the Bible point us to the wonderful subject of hope. For example, Psalm 22:16 written by King David is a prophetic picture of things that actually happened to Jesus. “For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots.” Those things didn’t happen to David, they happened to Jesus in fulfillment of scripture.
Another Old Testament prophecy is Psalm 69:21. The Gospel of Matthew references this prophetic word when speaking of Christ: “Reproach has broken my heart. I am sick and I look for sympathy, but there was none and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me gall for my food and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.” David, under the inspiration of God, wrote those words foretelling the life of the Messiah so witnesses would recognize Jesus when he came.
Isaiah 50:6 says, “I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.” Again, this is an Old Testament prophecy written hundreds of years before Jesus the Messiah arrived on earth.
Skeptics today ask for proof Jesus actually walked on the earth, and they demand even further proof he was, in fact, the promised Messiah. The greatest proof we have is scripture itself. Every single word uttered prophetically about the coming Messiah–his life, death and resurrection–came to pass in Jesus. This is further reason we have hope.
Ultimately, our hope rests on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Psalm 16:10 says, “because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” Did God, the Father, abandon Jesus in the realm of the dead? Did Jesus’ body ever see decay? The answer to these questions is where our hope begins and ends. The answer is no. No, death could not keep Jesus in its grips; and no, his body never saw decay. He broke free from the power of death, and walked out of the tomb with a resurrected, eternal, perfect new body. This is the foundation of our hope.
I Peter 1:13 says, “Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” I love that. Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is will come to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes back, he’s going to bring us grace. Grace is on its way. This is yet, again, another reason we have unshakeable hope.