by Leon

We call this blog Hopeful Flower. Hope is a powerful word; the word hope can bring so much power and emphasis to an otherwise empty paragraph.

“My situation is a mess; life is overcoming me. I’m stressed, tired and upset. Nevertheless – I will hold fast to a steady hope. I may not be able to see the light, but my hope will carry me until I do. Without this hope, I would be broken. ”

When you read that paragraph what do you take from it? Probably that whoever wrote that has a strong conviction of hope. You read it and you know that their situation is bad. Yet, what do you think of most? A perspective of hope in a dire circumstance. If we took that hope away it would read vastly different.      

“My situation is a mess; life is overcoming me. I’m stressed, tired and upset. I am not able to see any light, and I am broken.”

Hope is powerful, it can turn a depressing paragraph into one that inspires you. Hope can do a lot more than that. Hope can turn an otherwise dreadful circumstance into one with hopeful confidence that enriches your spirits. Hope is the true game-changer, and I am here to tell you that Hope lives.

Today is the first day of Passover. If we look back on the first Passover, the Israelis were enslaved in Egypt. God had been unleashing plague after plague upon the land of Egypt in order to free them from bondage. In spite of this, the Pharaoh of Egypt made the Israelis labor much harder.

The people of Israel were commanded to eat the Passover feast fully dressed and prepared to leave the land of Egypt.

“In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.”- Exodus 12:11

What caused them to believe that Pharaoh would not just punish them again? After all, he had done it before. The simple answer is hope, a hope that God would keep His word and deliver them from Egypt. Despite their situation, they had hope. Why? Because they trusted God and His promise. They knew from their first arrival into Egypt that their residency would only be temporary. For their forefather told them so.

“And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’”– Genesis 50:24

And so, the plague came upon Egypt. We go on to read that all the firstborn sons of Egypt were afflicted and that they died. Pharaoh let the people of Israel go free, and the hope they had did not return to them void. They were all prepared to leave as soon as they received word from Moses. What would have happened if the people did not have hope? They would have been caught unprepared and not been able to leave for freedom.

When we turn on the news today – We see little reason to find hope. In fact, much like with the Israelis, things seem to be getting worse. I ask you to take a moment and look at this Passover story with another perspective.

The world we live in today is only a temporary residence. We’ve been told this countless times by the forefathers of our faith, and by God himself. The current world is our Egypt.

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” – John 17:16 

We were told that there would come a time when God would pass over the Earth with judgment. He told us to be ready for the call to freedom. Judgment may fall on the Earth, but we can have a hope that God will keep His promise to us, just as he did with the Israeli people. 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelations 21:1-4

During the Passover, God told Israel not only to be ready, nor just to eat a certain meal. He commanded them to slay a lamb and post its blood on their door as a symbol. Death would see this symbol and pass over them.

Many are not aware of this, but Jesus died on Passover. He died the very same hour that the Passover lamb was slain in the ancient Israeli temple. Jesus was truly our Passover Lamb, slain for the sins of the world. His blood is a symbol that death must pass over us. We may perish physically, but those that truly believe will escape the second death and will live forever.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

The world, our Egypt, right now is a mess. Quite literally a plague is ravaging the land, but even in all this distress, there yet remains hope. That hope is found in our God and in His Christ.

“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”- Romans 14:8