Elisha Vision – Commentary

Did you know there are only two kinds of hope? One type is superficial, nothing more than wishful thinking. It is a false hope which includes delusion, fantasy, mistaken belief, and self-deception.  It is believing or imagining something that you desire, but with the very slim probability that it will ever happen. Winning the lottery is the classic example. Millions of people hope to win but the odds are astronomical. The real kicker is that most winners find their lives ruined by the sudden influx that overwhelms and confuses their real priorities of life. This is the wrong hope, completely undependable. It is based on nothing sure. All hope that is not based on something immovable, unchangeable, is just wishful thinking.

But there is a solid hope available to live by. It involves investing your belief, your faith, into the Person who cannot ever let you down. This hope is described as an anchor for the soul.

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Hebrews 6:18-19 NLT

Notice that the anchor is for our soul, not our body or our spirit. Our body will age and die. And our spirit is already in the Presence of God, the inner sanctuary through eternal life granted by the blood of the Lamb, the Messiah Yeshua. It is our soul that waffles and fails and falls into hopelessness. We need to grab the anchor. So what exactly is this hope? Hebrews 6 is a worthwhile read. It explains that eternal hope is not based on any of our desires, but on the faithful God who gave promises that cannot fail.

His promises are sure because His very nature is truth. He literally cannot lie. Therefore His words are true because His character is true. Our hope is based on these two facts of His spoken promises which issue from His true character. There is a saying that has gone out of vogue lately that “a man’s word is his bond.” Yet man lies and breaks his word. Only the living God Yehovah perfectly and perpetually keeps His word. This is the the anchor for our soul.

As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. …Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God! Psalm 42:1, 5 & 11 NLT (also Psalm 43:5)

“But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.” Acts 24:14-16 NLT (Paul before Felix)

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. 1 Peter 1:18-21 NLT

As we embark on this new year, let this hope guide us. 2022 will be blessed whatever happens if we put our hope and trust in God. Shalom! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and than God for the rainy season.

Les Lawrence, a voice of Christian Zionists             (Read more)