The Season of Hope

This is the season of hope.

Once again this month, believers everywhere will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s ultimate expression of love for the human race. Yes, Jesus is God’s love given to us in flesh and bone; Jesus is God in human form.

But more than anything else, the Christmas season is about hope. It’s a festive time of year, full of tinsel and lights, celebration and giving. People who don’t usually attend church show up for special services or musical dramas about the Christmas story. Many families repeat holiday traditions they have observed for years, sometimes for generations.

But the Christmas story can be summed up in one simple word -- hope.

The writer of Hebrews calls hope an “anchor” of the soul: God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:18-20)

In everyday parlance, people use the word “hope” when they really mean they are wishing for something. “I hope my team wins” or “I hope everything works out for you” really mean the speaker is wishing for the best, quite often in spite of the circumstances.

Your team may be playing another team that’s 10 times better, and you know full well that it will probably lose. But you use the word “hope” in the sense of “hoping against hope,” almost as an expression of calm desperation. The person you are literally expressing your “best wishes” to may be in an impossible situation, and your “hope” is merely a word of encouragement, nothing more.


When we turn to God’s Word, let’s throw out this watered down corruption of the word “hope.” As used in the Bible, hope is a power word. It means earnest expectation, an inner conviction that the thing hoped for is already a reality in the spiritual realm and will certainly be manifested at some point in the physical world. There is no wavering or wishing in this sort of hope, the hope that people of faith carry inside of them.

Of course, any mention of the “spiritual realm” puts us right in the middle of today’s culture wars. We live in a decadent, secularized society, led by a cultural elite that worships pleasure, power and possessions. Its only god is the self, and its only good is what pleases or benefits the self. People who live on that side of the fence believe that it is a “proven scientific fact” that we descended from apelike creatures whose distant ancestors were walking fish that somehow evolved in the oceans from a prehistoric primordial ooze.

Therefore, these “enlightened” secularists believe there is no spiritual realm. They believe we are merely an accidental collection of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms, mixed with a blend of various minerals, and that we cease to exist when we die. The C, O and H atoms, along with the minerals, merely leach back into the earth when life leaves our bodies.

If this is one’s worldview, then it’s logical to conclude there is no true right and wrong, no transcendent basis for morality. What’s “good” is what pleases or benefits the individual, and things that do the opposite are “bad.”

Of course, the great irony here is that it takes more blind faith to believe all this than it does to believe in the God of the Bible. The origins of the universe, and of man, required such precise conditions that it’s illogical to assume it all happened by accident. Evolution is not a “proven scientific fact.” It is still a theory, an unproven hypothesis, in the scientific world.

I choose to believe in a Creator who designed the universe as it is, bringing it into existence under just the right conditions during what even most scientists agree was a “big bang” at the beginning. Even a minor variation in temperature at this point in time would have resulted in no universe, no planet earth, no life and no human beings.

I find it impossible to believe that man became what he is today through a series of imaginary cosmic accidents. All art, all human achievement, all technology -- everything we are and everything we do -- are the result of chance occurrences over millions of years, according to the secular evolutionists.

Believers are ridiculed for claiming that all people descended from an original couple who committed the original sin. Yet, I find it ridiculous to believe that my ultimate ancestor was a fish that somehow grew legs and walked out of the sea one day.

Sadly, the courts and most educational institutions fall on the side of the latter theory. Most won’t even teach the intelligent design theory alongside evolutionary theory in our schools. When such an attempt is made, a lawsuit is inevitably filed, with evolutionary theory declared by the courts to be “proven scientific fact.” They say the intelligent design theory is a backhanded way to introduce religion into our schools. To secular humanists, this is the ultimate sin.

I’m still waiting for the primates in our zoos to transform into human beings one day. Or maybe the ones left in the wild will do it sooner, since they have more challenges to adapt? When that happens, I may take this evolution stuff a little more seriously.

Of course, believers are portrayed as bumbling idiots because we are wrongly accused of not accepting the scientific evidence of species adaptation. This occurs when animals change colors or behavior over a period of generations to survive more successfully in their environments. This is, in fact, “proven scientific fact” and is sometimes called microevolution. Any believer with half a brain accepts this.

What we don’t buy into is “macroevolution,” the theory that one species can morph into another or that a random collection of proteins can somehow whirl together into a new creature. If you believe this, you probably believe that a hurricane can pass over a steel mill and create a new city.

The Bible is sometimes attacked for its so-called factual errors. God didn’t part the Red Sea, we are told. One “scientific” explanation is there was some sort of drought that dried it up, followed by a flash flood that drowned the Egyptians after the Israelites crossed the dry sea bed. I even heard a theory to explain that Jesus didn’t really walk on water. The proponent of this idea said that a sudden frosty front hit the Sea of Galilee, causing cakes of ice to form on its surface, and Jesus stepped from one to the other as on stepping stones.

I guess Peter didn’t see the ice cakes when he stepped out of the boat. Did he accidentally land on one, then miss the others?

Wait a minute. I have a better explanation. Jesus is who He said He is, and He really did walk on water because He is God. Peter, overflowing with faith upon seeing his Lord, was actually able to repeat the feat until fear overcame him, causing him to sink.

Here’s another idea. God really did use Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea so they could escape the approaching army. God then allowed nature to take its course after His chosen people had reached safety.

So, what does all this have to do with Christmas, the season of hope?

Christmas represents the fulfillment of God’s first promise to fallen man. When man disobeyed God, God taught a terrible lesson -- sin has consequences. A perfectly just God must issue a penalty for sin, and the penalty for sin is death.

There was no death or decay in the perfect world God created. These were introduced into creation, and into human nature, through man’s rebellion.

God, however, is perfectly merciful as well as perfectly just. He promised to give man an escape from the consequences of his sin. Mankind’s Redeemer would be born of woman, and He would defeat that great tempter, Satan. Just as Satan brought man down from his high estate before God, God would use a man to set things right again, giving the devil a dose of his own medicine.

But the infection of sin spread throughout the human race. Brother murdered brother, and people eventually became so degenerate and so evil that God planned to destroy humanity and start all over again.

That brings us to Noah, a righteous man who heard the voice of God in the midst of a decadent, secularized culture very similar to our own today. Noah was ridiculed for building a ship in the desert, for waking up every day to waste his life on a fool’s project. As the secularists look upon believers today, the people of Noah’s time considered him a bumbling idiot and a madman.

Everyone knows the rest of the story. God sent a flood that destroyed mankind except for the human and animal life Noah preserved on his lifelong project, his famous ark. Some people say this is an ancient myth, that there was no worldwide flood that destroyed everyone. Yet, nearly every culture in the world has a story of a catastrophic flood in its ancient past. And there is geological evidence of this event, such as sea fossils found atop mountains, that lends validity to the story of the flood.

What’s important in the story of Noah is the continuity of lineage from Adam, for God promised that a descendant of Adam would one day turn the tables on Satan and lead mankind away from the jaws of death. One of Noah’s sons would become an ancestor of Abraham, whose great-grandson Judah would become an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

This process, of course, took many centuries to complete. Why so long? I believe primitive man had to be taught a lot of lessons to prepare the human race for the coming of Jesus and for being able to comprehend the meaning of His life, death and resurrection.

The importance of the blood covenant had to be taught. When two men, or two tribes, entered into a blood covenant, it meant they became as one. Everything that belonged to one party became the property of the other, and vice versa. It meant their lives were permanently intertwined, and that one would gladly give one’s life to save the other.

Also related to blood, considered by the ancients to contain the life force of the body, was the concept of sacrifice. Sin required payment, and the ultimate payment was life itself. So God instituted a system of sacrifices in the Old Testament, a series of daily, monthly and annual animal bloodlettings designed to “cover up” the sins of men.

But these sacrifices were imperfect, conducted by the hands of sinful men. They had to be repeated over and over again. Man could never quite wash his hands clean by offering the blood of bulls and goats.

Another key concept drilled into the minds of our ancestors was the idea of a kinsman-redeemer, a wealthy and powerful member of the family who would buy his people out of slavery. The story of Ruth in the Bible is about a kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, who eventually takes Ruth in as his wife. Also, this continues the bloodline from Adam to Jesus through the tribe of Judah.

An integral part of the Jewish system of sacrifices was the scapegoat, which would be led out of town each year during the great annual sacrifice. The high priest would lay his hands on the scapegoat, signifying the transfer of all the sins of the people during the past year to this animal. The scapegoat would then be led into the wilderness, far from town, thereby “taking away” the sins of men.

All the prophets of the Old Testament were given hints and visions about the coming of God’s Anointed One, the Mashiyach (Messiah) in Hebrew, Christos in Greek. He was envisioned as a suffering servant, an innocent lamb being led to the slaughter and a kinsman-redeemer who would give his life for us.

Other details of Messiah were offered through the years, including the place of his birth, the manner of his birth and even the way he would enter Jerusalem on his way to making his sacrifice.

These prophecies, several dozen of them, were all fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ. There are others about Him yet to be fulfilled, those which pictured Him as a conquering general, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. These will be realized when Jesus comes again, an event that may not be in the distant future.

No matter how much persecution God’s people suffered before Jesus, no matter how dismal their circumstances, they kept their hope alive. They knew that God would fulfill His promise to save mankind because God always keeps His promises. God does not change; He will never fail nor forsake us.

The promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and His life and teachings reveal that God is as much a God of surprises as He is a God of promise. Some of the people recognized the Messiah, son of David, when He came; others didn’t.

Jesus came, not just another man, but as a very unique Man. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin girl by the power of the Holy Spirit, born into this world as God-in-flesh and at the same time, flesh-in-God. Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. He is the perfect juncture between God and man, because He is both. He is the Word made flesh who knows us better than ourselves, for He experienced all the temptations we do. Unlike us, though, Jesus never succumbed to them, showing us in a very practical way how we all should deal with them.

The bridge between God and man, destroyed by man’s sin, was rebuilt with the coming of Jesus Christ. The great gulf was no longer unnavigable, the great separation now fixable.

Is it no wonder, then, that believers rejoice every Christmas? This is a very special time of year. We celebrate that God is a loving God, a Father who always keeps His promises. His greatest promise was Jesus, and Jesus is, after all, the “reason for the season.”

All the symbols and traditions of Christmas, even among those who don’t believe, really arise from a cultural memory of the first Christmas. The lights represent the Light of the World, while the giving of gifts represent God’s greatest gift.

The feasting and special culinary treats of Christmas, those once-a-year goodies slightly different among various ethnic groups, are a foreshadowing of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the great, joyous, everlasting feast to come when Christ is finally united with His Church.

The whole temper of the season, leading up to a day when all other activity is put on hold, reminds us of a day when time will be no more, when God’s people will be joined together in perfect, unending fellowship, shouting praises to God in a perfect harmony of being, a perfect blending of body, soul and spirit.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

(Revelation 21:1-14)

That’s what Christmas, the season of hope, is ultimately about. It’s not just a time of looking back, of commemoration, of saying “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

Christmas is basically about looking forward, about that earnest expectation that we will one day see Jesus as He is and be able to thank Him with every fiber of our beings for saving us from our sins and their just penalty, death.

Christmas is an acknowledgement that we not only believe in Jesus, but that we really do believe Jesus and follow Him every step of the way.

Christmas really is about hope, a perfect peace at the core of our beings no matter what circumstances we may be facing at present. Christmas really is a time to remind ourselves that one day our Savior really will wipe every tear from our eyes and “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”

The world may ridicule us, just as it did Noah. The world may persecute us, the way it did the first century church. Some of us may even be killed for our faith, as is happening in parts of the world at this very moment.

Remember, Jesus was killed for the faith, just as He rose from the dead for that very same faith. This is the most important part of the Christmas story. We must envision the empty tomb alongside the humble manger. Christmas isn’t complete unless we anticipate Easter as we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Jesus didn’t come just to teach us a lot of important stuff. He didn’t leave His high estate in heaven just to start a new religious movement. He came as the sinless Lamb of God, whose perfect sacrifice would end the need for any other blood sacrifice, whose perfect covenant would end the need for any further agreements between God and man.

Hope may have been hard to come by for some of us this year. If illness, trouble or financial setbacks have haunted your family, this is an excellent time to re-connect with that Biblical hope we can attain only through faith in Jesus Christ.

If you don’t know Jesus in your heart as your personal Lord and Savior, this is a wonderful time to take that step the Holy Spirit has been tugging at you to make. All you have to do is turn from your sins and welcome Jesus into your life. Ask Him to give you the power to change, to become a new creation in Him at this special time of year.

What a great time to do this. If this is your time, if today is the day of your salvation, just think how much more meaningful every Christmas will be to you from now on.

A very Merry and Blessed Christmas to all!

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© 2008 Moe Pujol Ministries - All rights reserved.
PO Box 815, Geneva, AL 36340
Email: mpmin ( at ) panhandle.rr.com

This column is used with permission.