John 7:37-39; Job 19:21-27, There is Hope (2)

Let’s recap from the previous post.  Ponds, places where water is gathered together, are a picture of hope.  Egypt’s waters were turned to blood.  That, of course, was a demonstration of the LORD’s greatness versus the gods of Egypt.  But we also saw that a carcass can damage a pond so it is no longer a hope.  What a picture for believers.  We are an oasis, a gathering of water, the residence of the Holy Spirit who is like a fountain of living water flowing from us.  But what happens when we allow some vestige of the old man, the man that died in Christ, to take up residence in our “pond?”  Not good!

o   The term is used twice each in matching passages, 1 Ki. 10:28 and 2 Chron. 1:16. Solomon bought his horses from a place called “Keveh” according to the NKJV.  Perhaps it was a town with a great pool.  You can’t have a town anywhere without a gathering of water.  A drive across the middle of the United States is marked by small communities whose water towers are visible for miles.  Gesenius, who is the recognized expert in Hebrew, sees the term as applying to the “gathering” of merchants and of horses. 

o   1 Chron. 29:15: David, near the end of his life, said these words: Our days on earth are as a shadow, and without hope.  We have to understand what he is saying.  This is David who confesses, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  He speaks as one who says we are aliens and pilgrims before You.  That is our earthly existence; it is but a shadow.  There is no hope of living forever in this life.  This is David’s way of saying what Job said about the resurrection: how my heart yearns within me (Job 19:27).

o   Here are three powerful uses of the term mikveh in Jeremiah.

§  14:8: Jeremiah asks the LORD, who is the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why He just seems to pass through Israel without stopping to do something about those troubles. 

§  17:13: Again, the LORD is the hope of Israel, and Jeremiah confesses, All who forsake You shall be ashamed.  “Shame” is what you get when your “hope” lets you down.  He alone is the fountain of living waters.

§  50:7: This is part of a judgment on Babylon.  They were the nation that God used to chasten His people.  But the LORD has not ceased to be the hope of their fathers.  God promises to raise up a nation against Babylon and deal with them.  In v8 God speaks of Israel leaving Babylon.  As “hope” refers to the gathering of waters, so the Hope of Israel will gather His people and bring them back.

When we started these meditations on “hope” we said there were three OT terms.  We’ll move on in the next hope after one more passage.