Hanging on to HOPE!

(Exodus 2:23-25/ KJV) says, “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.”

In order to put these verses into context, I want to take you back one chapter in Exodus and let you see what had taken place to get Israel to this point.

(Exodus 1:8-14/ KJV) says, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. 13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.”

So, Egypt had become intimidated by the children of Israel and realized that not only were there more of them...they were also mightier. So, in order to avoid a problem down the road, Egypt needed to get the children of Israel under control. Therefore, they made the children of Israel their slaves which sets up the scene for chapter 2 which reads...

(Exodus 2:23-25/ KJV) says, “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.”

(The Greek and Hebrew word for “respect” in (verse 25) means “to know” or “to approve.” So, because God “knew” them, had “respect” for and “approved of” them, He was determined to DELIVER them!)

At the point of Israel’s deliverance they had been “Hanging on to HOPE” for over 400 years! You have to realize that in that time, there had been those who had lost hope and become a doubter, giving up on any hope of deliverance. But at the same time there were those who just kept believing; kept praying and held on to their HOPE that God was going to deliver them out of their oppression! I can just imagine conversations that elders had with their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to keep hanging on…in spite of what they heard, or what they had to go through…”HANG ON TO HOPE” because God WILL DELIVER US!

Now we can go to chapter 3 of Exodus and see just how God delivered those who kept "Hanging on to HOPE" in spite of their situation!

(Exodus 3:1-10/ KJV) says, “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

In spite of what the doubters thought and in spite of their message of despair and depression, God knew right where they were. Their cries of affliction and prayers of deliverance had gotten God’s attention. I want to remind someone today whose reading this BLOG that GOD KNOWS RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!

Don’t think for a minute that God has forgotten about you or his promise to NEVER leave you nor forsake you. Don’t think for a minute that GOD hasn’t seen your tears or heard your prayers! God knows right where you are and because you’ve been “Hanging on to HOPE,” He’s about to show up and DELIVER YOU OUT of your situation!

But with that in mind, you have to remember that sometimes God’s deliverance does NOT happen the way we’ve envisioned it! When it came time for God to deliver the Israelites out of bondage, he sent a man. God sent Moses with a “Message of HOPE” to deliver them and God is STILL sending men with “the Message of HOPE” on a weekly basis to DELIVER His people out of oppression and bondage; to set them free from the LIES of the devil!

Yet another reason WHY you NEED to be at CHURCH EVERYTIME the doors are open, because “THAT SERVICE” might just be “THE SERVICE” that God sends a Moses in to bring you a “Message of HOPE” and to DELIVER you!

One more thing I want you to see out of our text; remember our text said, “24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham …”

(Romans 4:18-21/ KJV) says this about Abraham, “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”

(Romans 8:24-25/ KJV) says, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

(Romans 15:4, 13/ KJV) says, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope…13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”


The whole point to this BLOG is to remind you that if you’re NOT careful, you’ll spend all of your time listening to negative reports, and reading articles that paint so much gloom and doom that you’ll go half crazy. Somebody, in the middle of all this mess has got to remember that God has seen your tears, He’s heard your prayers, and regardless of what the doubters say and the skeptics write, KEEP “Hanging on to HOPE” because GOD WILL DELIVER!