There is still Hope
The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Jeremiah 8:20
Admitting the Problem
The problem with Israel, and with all mankind, is that we hate to admit our struggles, our sin, and our failure. As a nation, Israel had abandoned their faith in the Living God and had instead, provoked God to anger with their idolatry, wicked living, and prideful ways. God sent them warning after warning, rebuke after rebuke, and correction after correction but they refused to listen. They refused to turn from their sinful practices. It wasn’t until they had gone too far down that wrong path that they finally realized they were off course with God. It wasn’t until the harvest had past that they recognized they had waited too late to plant the seed of righteousness. It wasn’t until the Summer had ended that they finally admitted they had missed their season. It wasn’t until destruction landed at their door that they were willing to admit they had no salvation. It was a hopeless situation. It was a lament and a cry from those who had lost all expectation of their future. And yet, there was still hope.
How could such a cry provide any consolation of hope? This cry was being penned by a Prophet of God who had been sent to lament the conditions of Israel and to remind them that they had abandoned God. It was Jeremiah the Prophet who would also ask, “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?”
A sign of hope then is found in the admission of the problem and also in the admission of the need of redemption. Jeremiah cried on behalf of his nation that they have missed their season, they had failed to prepare for the harvest, and they had not been saved from their peril. This was a horrible condition, but it was not hopeless. The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and we are not saved. He continued to ask about the Balm in Gilead and the Physician there. This is a reference that he knew there was a Healer and he knew there was divine medication that could remedy the problem.
Hope is also found in genuine repentance before God. As we look further into this admission of guilt, we (you and I) must make sure we are not shedding fake tears just to get out of a bad situation. In the same way that your mother could tell when you were crying and when you were pouting, God Almighty even more so, knows when you are pretending to cry and when you are truly repenting. The hope in repentance is only found where there is genuine and deep prayer for deliverance. When you have honestly and openly said to God, “I messed up and deserve this punishment,” that is when you have expressed true sorrow. It was one thing to be sorry for the outcome. It is one thing to be sorry that you messed things up in your life. It was one thing to see that things looked really, really bad. That type of sorrow points to the situation but not to you. When you are sorry enough to admit that what you believed was wrong, what you did was wrong, and that you no longer want to be in the wrong; that is genuine sorrow. When there is genuine sorrow, this reaches the heart of God. When you reach the heart of God, you find God’s Mercy. The Bible says His Mercy endures forever. As long as God’s Mercy endures forever, there is still hope.
Deliverance From or Deliverance Through
There is a type of deliverance that occurs when God keeps us from the outcome of evil and the presence of evil. Most of us feel secure when God keeps evil from taking place in our lives. This is the plea of most. God keep us from the evil that is approaching. Don’t get me wrong, God grants that we are delivered from the presence of evil. It is a wonderful thing to never have to go through the times of harassment, heartache, and hurt. A lot of the hope that many Saints possess is in the belief that “I will never have to go through something.” Again, I don’t condemn that thought but I cannot conclude with that thought.
First, experience has reminded me that sometimes the harvest does past, the Summer does come to an end. Experience tells me that you are sometimes up and sometimes down. Experience tells me that if you have sunshine days, you will also have rainy days. Experience tells me that trouble will come to you, no matter how good you live. Experience tells me that heartache and death are roaming the earth and they don’t discriminate. But experience also tells me that when bad things happen to good people, there is still hope.
Second, the world is filled with trouble, God never promised we would never face trouble. As a matter of fact, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12, yes, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Even Jesus, our Lord, faced persecution and death. Loving God doesn’t mean “no problems.” Sometimes loving God will bring problems. Yet, in the midst of problems, there is still hope.
Third, the Bible speaks of trouble and trials. Job wrote about it. “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Job 14:1. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abdnego experienced it when they went through the fiery furnace. David praised God in his trouble and said, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalm 34:1. Through all these things, the Bible reminds us that there is still hope.
So, what are we saying? I’m saying that Jeremiah expressed a lament over the situation, but the situation of sin and missed opportunity did not cause him to lose hope. There are times in life when we must admit that through our own faults and failures, The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, the and we are not saved. In the midst of that admission, we still have hope.
Even as the dawn of the new day may bring tears, there is still hope because our hope is in the Living God. God can not only keep you from bad things, God can also keep you in bad things and bad times. There is still hope.
There is still hope because Hope abides forever. 1 Corinthians 13:13, And now abides faith, hope, and charity (love), these three: but the greatest of these is charity. Hope is there. Just when your hope is about to walk off, grab hold of God’s Hope. You have been hoping for the best, hoping it will work out, and hoping it will change. But wishing and hoping in man-made deliverance never worked. My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness. I still have Hope.
There is still hope because there will always be tomorrow. The future does not belong to destruction, it belongs to God. Jeremiah knew that the captivity to Babylon was fast approaching. While he lamented, The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and we are not saved, he also said that God had plans for Israel’s future. Jeremiah 29:11, I know the plans that I have for you, plans of good and not evil and to bring you to an expected end. Yes, they would have a season of suffering and trial, but they also were guaranteed a future through God. There was still hope.
There is still hope because God is Hope. The Bible reminds us that in hopeless times we can maintain our hope in God. In 1 Timothy 1:1, we are told that the Lord Jesus Christ, is our hope… In 1 Peter 1:3, God has begotten us again unto a lively hope. In Titus 2:13, looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearance of the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason that we still have hope.
This hope is stronger than bad times. This hope abides with us forever because it is eternal. This hope will keep us until that day that we stand before our Lord and Savior. There will be times of missed opportunity, but we still have hope. There will be times of trouble, but we still have hope. We still have hope because we will always have our God. Amen.