Prisoners of Hope

<p>PRISONERS OF HOPE  I want to speak today about the hope that can be found during times of uncertainty when many have lost hope and are grieving that loss. I am framing this within the time frame of Israel trying to find their way forward and still floundering after being in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. The prophets at that time knew that God was preparing them for a new hope and were encouraging and challenging them to prepare for that time.  Zechariah 9:11 Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set you prisoners free from the dungeon. Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will doubly restore all to you.  </p> <p>Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi all wrote to Israel before there was a four hundred years of silence during which time there was no king and no prophetic voice until the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations about the hopelessness felt by Israel in bondage in Babylon during their time of standstill as God’s people. They had lost all sense of a future and were grieving their past. They needed to find hope. For almost two generations they had been oppressed by cruel leaders of other nations and many had put their hope inother gods of other nations, and many had felt that God had abandoned them, but he hadn’t. Jeremiah captures their mood in the following Scripture from the book of Lamentations. Lamentations 3:11 He has dragged me into the underbrush and torn me with his claws, leaving me bleeding and desolate. He has bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me, and sent his arrows deep within my heart. He has filled me with bitterness and given me a cup of deepest sorrows to drink. He has made me eat gravel and broken my teeth; he has rolled me in ashes and dirt. O Lord, all peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you have taken them away. I have forgotten what enjoyment is. All hope is gone; my strength has turned to water, for the Lord has left me. Oh, remember the