"Hope" Series Day 5: What does life look like without hope?
by Jamie Steach
Read Job 17:11-16
Job’s circumstances are pretty drastic. What negative things does he seem to be feeling the weight of in this moment? Did his life go the way he expected it to? How is he dealing with it?
What does Job’s attitude about hope seem to be? Does he think it’s important or worthless? Does his life seem to give him any reason to hope? So why do you think he still clings to hope?
What does Job have to say about what would happen if he gave up his hope, or if he only hoped for death to escape his situation? Imagine you are in his situation, but imagine you do not choose to still hope in God. What feelings come up? What would it look like to endure this kind of suffering without hope?
Read Ezekiel 37:4-14
What does this vision really mean? Is the nation of Israel actually dead, and left as dry bones or buried in graves? Why are bones and graves the imagery God uses with Ezekiel? What is the real situation that Israel is in?
What is happening as the bones are coming back together? Who is doing the work here? How might it be significant that the bodies were reassembled, but “there was no breath in them”? What was the real purpose of this illustration?
When God explains the vision, He says the people of Israel have told Him their hope is gone; what does this statement and the imagery of bones and graves tell us about hope? What does God promise to do for them? What does this tell us about our source of hope? About our need for hope?
Read Psalm 42:5-11 (or the whole thing, if you have time)
What is the tone of this psalm? What emotions come up for you as you ponder these verses? What emotions does it seem that the psalmist is feeling?
What does the psalmist do with these feelings? Imagine for a moment that you are feeling/ experiencing everything that the writer is, except you don’t take it to God, or you don’t place hope in God. What do you feel now? How does this compare to what you felt before?
What does this psalm show us about hope? How does hope serve as a comfort to us? What would it be like to experience deep, emotional turmoil without that comfort?
Wrap up:
Many people we know are living life like this, without hope. Why is hope so important to cling to? What are we without hope? Can we be in relationship with God without hope?
About this series
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
Yachal = hope: to wait, expect; waiting with expectation (OT)
Elpizō = hope: to wait with joy and full confidence, to trust in (NT)
Elpis = hope: expectation of good; the thing hoped for (NT)
Hope is a common topic in the Bible, and while many references speak of placing hope in God, we have a few other examples, as well. But what do all of these various references have in common?
Acts 16:19 - hope of making money=expectation of making money
Luke 24:21 - expectation that Jesus was going to redeem Israel (like David)
Jeremiah 23:16 - false expectations
These 3 examples capture the specific nature of hope that echoes through the Bible: to have hope is to have expectation, and usually it involves waiting on that expectation. So what exactly does expectation have to do with God? As it turns out, a lot.