The Days of Unleavened Bread Offer Hope

Probably a decade ago, I read one particular book titled Follow the River, and the book was written by James Alexander Tom. It's T-H-O-M. I suppose it's pronounced Tom.

And it was based upon the story of a 1755 raid in what was in the Virginia Territory. Shawnee Indians came from on over in the area today we call Ohio, and they came down, well came up the Ohio, and then up the, I believe it's, I'm not sure how it's pronounced, but something like the Canawa River, and then left some canoes somewhere along the line, made their way up the New River, and went into some of the frontier areas. And they made a raid, and this book was around, was told around about the story of basically Mary Draper Ingalls, and a number of other women and children were taken captives from that frontier settlement, and they were transported to the Shawnee encampment, which is pretty close to modern-day Cincinnati.

And it told what what life was like. They were captives, and there were times when they would be taken. They would cross the Ohio and go downstream to that area of Big Bone Lake State Park, salt flats there to collect salt. Other times they would go upriver to one side or the other of the river, and they would collect and gather foodstuffs. As the book progressed, it followed a number of the individuals who just simply gave up.

They lost hope. They saw no reason to continue, and so in some cases they just stopped and they wasted away until they died. In other situations, the abuse was such that they just decided to end it all, and at a certain point just would turn and run and of course catch two or three arrows in the back, and it would end it. But there were a few, like Mary Draper Ingalls. There was also a German immigrant lady named Gerthal. And Mary and Gerthal were the two that the book followed as they made it all the way out because they resolved that we'll never give up hope.

It doesn't matter how long they would submit. They would assimilate into the Shawnee Society the best they could, but they would wait. They would be patient, and the time would come when the situation would present itself and they would leave. And sure enough, one time the party was taken across the river over onto the Kentucky side, and there was something that happened. I don't remember what, but down at one end, and the attention of the guards were upon the other end of the group, and so Mary just stepped off into the brush and disappeared.

And the title of the book, Follow the River, is based upon the fact that all she knew to do was follow the Ohio, and then she came to the Canawa, and she followed the Canawa, and then she came to the New River, and she followed it up through what today is West Virginia and back to the area of the settlement.

Somewhere along the line, she saw movement and realized that the German lady Gerthal had escaped at the same time, and they were traveling somewhat together. The two that made it out resolved to never give in, to never give up, and they had that hope that with the right circumstances they would get back to their families. And in their cases, it worked that way. Hope. Hope is defined in my websters, at least the copy I have, New World Dictionary I have at the house.

Hope is defined as a feeling that what is wanted will happen, desire accompanied by anticipation or expectations. Now, six thousand years, there are so many examples we could turn to or relate of individuals who have completely lost hope. We could go back a number of decades to the day and age of World War II, and whether it was a prisoner of war camp or a concentration camp, there were those who just simply gave up and wasted away.

Meanwhile, there were others who set their resolve. Never. They would never give up hope. They expected any time the Allied forces to come and release them. The years Denise and I spent at Ambassador College, one of the highlights was a student forum. Dr. Lynn Torrance only did this every four years so that you'd have a completely new group. He didn't want to tell the story every year. But Dr. Torrance was a registrar of Ambassador College Big Sandy.

And Dr. Torrance was in the U.S. Army Station on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines in 1941 when the war began for our country. And, of course, Corregidor Island was under assault and the Japanese moved in and just great forces and in time overwhelmed the allies who were there, the American and the Filipino defenders.

And Dr. Torrance was a participant in the Bataan death march. He would tell stories of what it was like, of the abuse, the manner in which they were marched, what was expected of them, the swift and heavy punishment if you didn't toe the line. And once in a while someone would just simply get enough and they would turn and run or turn and just walk away and two or three bullets would end it for them.

But Dr. Torrance was one of many who set his resolve that I'll never give up. I'm going to hold on to hope.

We had the same in Europe. We had those who were in POW camps or what about the millions who were in concentration camps? Again, some just wasted away. You have examples if you've ever read the diary of Anne Frank, you know, the Jewish family in Amsterdam who hit out in kind of the third level up above that business and other people as well and how quiet they'd have to be during business hours. But finally, into that last year of the war, somehow the day came, you know, and once in a while someone would almost lose hope, start panicking, and they'd have to calm the person.

But sure enough, the day came when the Nazis found out and they came and took them away. And they were all sent to different concentration camps, and most of the individuals died in those camps. Anne herself died in a camp. I was surprised to be reminded that her father, her father survived. Everyone else died. But her father lived through 1980.

So, anyhow, there were those in those camps who held on to hope. There were those who gave up.

Hope. Hope is, to me, a topic for the spring of the year. We have been watching the world come alive in the last weeks. We come through the dead of winter. Everything is yellow and brown and gray.

And we bide our time, and then we begin to see those beginning signs, little buds beginning to form, and then blossoms popping out. And then the whole world turns green. And it's a wonderful time. But in the spring of the year, so long ago, God told Moses, this month will be the beginning of months for you. And I think it was for a reason. The spring of the year, the promise, the hope of a new life, promise of production, of a crop, of life continuing on.

There's a proverb that simply says, in fact, why don't we just turn there? Proverbs 13, verse 12. Proverbs 13, verse 12. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

Can you imagine? Of course, we can't imagine. But we can try to envision what it may have been like for those in camps through the rest of World War II and the Philippine Islands and in Japan, and in various places in Europe. Who hope against hope, thought, maybe today, maybe today, and then they'd face another winter and somehow get through it. Another spring, another summer, maybe this time. And then finally, start getting word that yes, the Russian, the American, the British forces, Canadian, they are coming. They're on their way. Can we hold out long enough?

The Apostle Paul was on a trip. Let's look at Acts 27. He was being transported, as he had appealed to Caesar. He was being transported across the Mediterranean. He tried to warn them, this is not the right time, that if we sail, it's going to be a disaster. Acts 27 verse 10.

Paul advises them, verse 10. Then I perceive this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of cargo and ship, but also our lives. We can follow the storm on. They continued on, and sure enough, came across quite a storm. Verse 14, but not long after, tempetuous headwind arose, and they began lightening the load. Verse 18, because we were exceedingly tempest tossed, the next day we lighten the load.

19. On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands. 20. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. The rest of the story is that an angel appeared to Paul that night and let them know not one life will be lost. You're going to shipwreck. You're going to lose your ship. You're going to lose everything, but your lives will be spared.

They could hold on to that hope. We live in a world where the vast majority have no reason to get up and go on. They don't have the same hope burning deep within them that God has given to His people. They don't have a reason to get out of bed from one morning to the next. They don't have a reason to hope that they'll have the strength from somewhere to throw off the shackles of lifetime. and to come out of sin. Maybe they don't even worry about sin. They probably don't.

We have a booklet. The United Church of God has a booklet on the Holy Days. Who can tell me what the title is? It's a bad sign. Holidays are holy days, more so about the pagan holiday side of it, but God's Holy Day plan. But that's not the full title because there's a colon. God's Holy Day plan.

The promise of hope for all mankind. The promise of hope.

We kept the first festival the other night right here, and that was the Passover. We're into the second festival now.

And the entire seven festival year lays out hope for all humanity. We kept the first Holy Day the other day. Monday we keep the second Holy Day of the year. And step by step we focus ever forward toward the plan that God has. And God begins... it's been a long time since we kept the fall feast.

But as we go through the winter, go through the months, the time comes when we begin gathering together. Because on the 14th of the first month there's something we're told to do, and on the 15th all the way through the 21st there's something else we're told to do. And then there's another festival. But God begins to tell us, come, gather, assemble, appear before me at the place where I set my name. And He begins to lay out a message of hope to remind us. You see, we're to be different than those we rub shoulders with. We're to be different. We're to be living life with hope.

1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. And beginning in verse 12, or rather the story begins in verse 12, we have a story of how some in Corinth were saying that there is no resurrection. And Paul, as only Paul could do, was addressing that in unmistakable terms. How ludicrous that argument was. And then he leads to a statement in verse 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If this three score and ten, four score, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, if that's all we have, why get up out of bed the next morning? Why do what we do?

Well, we do it because we see across the stages of God's plan where it's going to all lead.

The promise of hope for all mankind, because it is a part of that plan that God wants all people who live or have ever lived or will yet live to become a part of His eternal family. Every so often, it seems that Satan the Devil tries his dead level best to attack the hope of God's people. We've seen that over the course of decades.

Every so often, he attacks our hope. And he attacks our hope basically by attacking the Sabbath and the Holy Days. That has happened over and over.

The Sabbath day, as we gather, like today, we are reminded week in and week out that there is a time of rest, a time of refreshing that is yet ahead. Only it's a one thousand year rest. From one Holy Day to the next, we go from the floor to the first rung of that ladder to the second to the third and through the year. We are strengthened in hope because we see where it ends at the other end, all the way to the end of the Word of God in Revelation 21, a time when there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more crying, no more death. All things will become new.

I don't know of a Christian church that teaches, that has that understanding.

Now, if we roll back the clock 20 years in the body of Christ, we were in the midst of an all-out assault upon our hope. Doctrine was being attacked. I was trying to remember when when did the old Good News magazine cease publication? It was published through 1989. And then I remember, and you remember, many of you. We were told it was we were duplicating our efforts. We had the one magazine, we don't need the other one. And then we were told, well, this Bible correspondence course that you and I cut our teeth on, 58 lessons worth.

We were told we don't need that. And then there was one booklet after another, after another, that, well, this is redundant. We don't need that. We're going to save money and combine this. And in the process, a watering down procedure began. And an apostasy began. And kind of like Mary Ingalls, there were some in our party who just got so disheartened, so heartsick, they just simply walked away from it all. And yet, the fact that, as Jesus said, the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church of God. There were others of us who set our resolve that we're going to hold on. We're going to hang on to that hope that God has given to us.

And we come to the days of Unleavened Bread. Boy, just to think back how many times in the spring of the year, God has appeared and worked among His people. And He's worked among them in such a way to strengthen that hope. Easton's Bible dictionary, the word Hope. Hope is one of the three main elements of Christian character joined to faith and love. In it, the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centered. Christ is the actual object of the believer's hope, because it is in His second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled. It is spoken of as a lively if you have the old King James and what Peter and First Peter. A lively that is a living hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life. There's a patriarch. We are introduced to him when he was a spring chicken of 75. And God said to Abraham, as he was known later by Abraham, said, I want you to get up and leave home. And you know, it was no small move that he made. Probably most of us have moved in our lives. I moved when I wasn't quite 18. But something told me, you have to go. But four years later, I went back home. And a year after that, I married this cute brunette I'd met about 58. I mean, 38 years ago almost. And we had several years there in Oklahoma. And situations with work took us to Birmingham, which was good because Denise was fluent in the language. We went home for her. And I forget, two or three years later, we were there. And then it tended to be where the phone rang one day. And the voice said, your name's one of eight, Mr. Armstrong approved to hire into the ministry. And we want to know if you'll go.

Well, I didn't know how to say no at that time. And we had talked about it as a possibility. I wasn't looking for a job. I was enjoying pulling cable into conduit and making things work. But at any rate, we moved to Memphis. Three years later, the phone rang. We moved to Lubbock, Texas, which is good. I was fluent in the language there. And seven years later, to Lancaster, California.

And three years after that phone rang, we went to Kingsport, Tennessee. And then 13 years later, to Athens, Alabama. So in one sense, I like to think I can relate to what happened to Abraham, but I really can't because, you know, he's way off over in Mesopotamia. Get up. And, you know, when he said goodbye, he would never, ever see his family and friends again. And go to this place, God said, I'll show you, and I'm going to make this great people out of you.

And so he moves. And Genesis tells us, you know, he and Lot, they prospered, and the numbers became such they separated from each other. And the battle of the kings there in Genesis 14. Let's go to Genesis 15. Because we don't know how many years it passed, but God again appeared to Abram, and He again told him, you're going to have all these heirs. Abraham's thinking, I don't have heir one yet. Genesis 15 verse one in the middle, in this vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. You know, in His own way, God appears to us.

And He tells us the same thing. I think when we open this chapter and read it, and when we gather together on the Sabbath, and when we gather together on the annual Sabbath, Abram said, Lord God, what were You giving me? See, I go childless. The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Well, let's skip down to verse five. God brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you're able to number them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And he, Abram, believed in the Lord. And he, God, accounted to him for righteousness.

It didn't happen that day. A little more time passes. Abraham and Sarah decide, you know, enough time has gone by, we're going to have to help God out. We're a curious bunch, we human beings. God tells us there's the way something's going to be. And then if a little too much time goes by, we think, Well, I've got to help him out.

So that's where the store of Hagar and Ishmael came along.

And God appears to him again in chapter 17, verse one, when Abram was 99 years old. So we've had 24 years transpire. And he's not so much a spring chicken anymore. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless, and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. The end of verse four, you shall be a father of many nations. Verse five, his name has changed from Abram to Abraham, the Hebrew, the Abb, or Abb, his father. You're gonna be the father of many peoples. And I'll establish my covenant. And a little bit later in the chapter, we have circumcision, we have that sign of the covenant.

I think it's interesting, tucked away here, if we look at verse 21. Verse 21, but my covenant, I will establish with Isaac. You see, Isaac was named because Sarah laughed.

With Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. I wonder when this was.

Jewish tradition, and that's all it is, Jewish tradition says it was the Passover. Makes sense when we consider a few more pieces of the puzzle. And also, set time comes from the Hebrew word Moedim. You've heard us talk about Moed or Moedim. Now, it appears all through the Old Testament. A lot of times, it just means the assembly or the congregation of Israel. But then there are those times, like in Leviticus 23 and the early verses, where it is the special appointed times of a year.

And it harkens back to Genesis 1, verse 14, where these two great lights were in the sky. And it was essentially for the reckoning of time, for the marking of time. And that there are annual occasions set times appointed assemblies. And you don't want to force an interpretation here, but it's just curious that that word is chosen. That this time, this set time next year, you'll have that child. Verse 23, they went about the business of circumcising.

The latter part of verse 23, circumcised the flesh of their foreskin, that very same day, as God had said to him. I like the way the old King James reads, the self same day. Somehow, it just resonates with me. The self same day. And we see that once in a while. Verse 26, that very same day, Abraham was circumcised and his son Ishmael, all the men of his house.

We have the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's go over to chapter 21.

Chapter 21, we come to that set time the next year. And Isaac is born. Chapter 21, verse 1, and the Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah, as he had spoken. Who knows how long it had been since an egg had moved down a fallopian tube of Sarah, but it had been probably decades. Many, perhaps. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time, Moedim, the set time of which God had spoken to him.

We skip over some years. We come to the story of Genesis 22.

A beautiful story of the near offering of Isaac, that son of promise. We aren't told how many years transpire, but I do suspect it was at the same set time of the year. Although, again, it doesn't just come out and spit it out. But we have a beautiful analogy here of Abraham playing the part of what God the Father would go through years and years later. And Isaac, as the obedient son, willingly going along with the plan his father explained to him.

And traveling three days to the land of Moriah and Abraham being stopped. When God knew that he would not withhold even that son of promise, and then caught in the bushes, the brush, a ram, Yahweh, Rofika, God will provide. God provided a substitute. And we have that that concept continued of a substitution, a life for a life. Romans 4, Romans 4, verse 17.

As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations, all here speaking of Abraham, quoting from what we just read back in Genesis 17. In the presence of him whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

God's not limited like we are time and space. He inhabits eternity.

Our limited minds just go tilt in no time. But I wonder if God looks down at all of these seven billion people crawling around this earth like little ants. And he sees, not limited by time, he sees his plan as though it already had come to full realization. Who, contrary to hope, Abraham. He was 99 and Sarah was 89 when they got the resources together, shall we say, and events that led to a child. In hope believed so that he became the father of many nations.

According to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. Which hearkens back to how God said, look and count the stars if you can. So shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100. And the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being convinced that what he, God had promised, he was also able to perform.

And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness.

One part we skipped over in Genesis 15. It talked about how Abraham would have that seed. He would have great numbers. And they would live, they would dwell in the land that was not theirs for 400 years. Now, first of all, it was in the land of Canaan, which was a land that was not theirs yet. And in due time, Abraham and Sarah had that son of promise. And Isaac and Rebecca, they had a couple of sons, but one was the son with the birthright.

And then Jacob, things began to mushroom. Twelve sons. But you know, when they went down the days of Joseph, when they actually moved down into Egypt, there were only 75 people.

A lot of time had passed not many numbers yet. But when they get down to Egypt, as we've probably reread the story there in the early chapters of Exodus, the Egyptians began to be concerned. The Egyptian women had greater difficulty in childbearing. The Hebrew women had less difficulty, and they began multiplying. And the numbers became such that the Egyptians, that led to speaking of the Hebrew midwives and the things that were attempted at that time, and the killing of the male children. Think of Israel. After those years, that 400 years, living in a land not theirs, the last 100 or so, probably the worst part of the captivity, the servitude. How many Israelites had lost hope? I suspect probably quite a few. But God began preparing the seedbed. Events forced Moses up into Midian, and he was a shepherd.

His life falls in three 40-year periods of time. And he was prepared for the role God would use him in to be the deliverer. And God began sending Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, and began to give hope for those who would look and see. And it was at this same season of the year, the 14th of the first month, the twilight, that killed the Passover lambs, that captured the blood, placed it on the doorposts. And then God began leading them out. And that year, during Unleavened Bread, as they plundered the Egyptians, or had plundered the Egyptians, they began moving out. And they were led out from that which pictured sin.

We have so many places in Exodus we could turn to, but again, it was a time of a new beginning, a time of hope, a time of moving somewhere, wherever God was leading them. But it was also a time to carve and gripe and complain and murmur. But we can cast no stones today, can we? Forty years past, it wouldn't have taken that many weeks, even with that mass of a people. It wouldn't have taken that long to actually move across from the Holy Land. And yet, the sin of unbelief, believing the ten, disbelieving the report of Joshua and Caleb, and that cost them another 40 years, where the older generation died in the wilderness.

And then those under 20 grew up, and they had their own families. And they're totally different people. Forty years later, you go back to those early chapters of Joshua.

There were too many examples that turned to all of these, but in Joshua, those early chapters sanctify yourselves. And of all things, on the tenth day of the first month, once again, just like they were told 40 years earlier in Egypt, set aside that lamb on the tenth of the first month. And then God held back the waters, and they walked through. They set up camp around Gilgal. And then they kept the Passover there. And then there would have had to have been a wave-sheaf, because the next day they began eating some of the new produce of the land. And in the next days, circumnavigating around the city of Jericho during the days of Unleavened Bread, culminating with seven times the last day and the angelic hosts pushing the walls down.

We pick up the people of God here and there at different times. You know, we follow the story of Israel. We oftentimes don't know when different events took place. But in due time, we had rebellion that led to a separation of the nation and the northern tribes. Of course, they went into idolatry and hence captivity much earlier. But you had the House of Judah. You had some holding on.

Once in a while, you'd have a king like a Hezekiah or a Jehoshaphat. And it would be a time of new beginning. Like you could make a note of 2 Chronicles 30 and 31. 2 Chronicles 30 and 31, again, another new beginning for Israel. Or I should say the House of Judah, to be more exact. And there you have Hezekiah as a young man becoming king. And you have the people getting excited about cleaning up, clean up the temple, set things in order, sanctify the priesthood. But they ran out of time. And so they decided, we're going to keep the Passover in the 14th of the second month. And then the 7 days of Unleavened Bread, and they liked it so much, they kept it 7 more days. But again, Passover, Unleavened Bread, same spring season, and God let them know that He's still there. That He's still there working in their lives. That He has a plan that they can anticipate beyond anything they can imagine if they'll just follow Him. Well, centuries transpire. Let's go to Luke 2. The House of Judah went into captivity.

They came back out, and so many were restored back to the Holy Land. And you have the story of Ezra and Nehemiah, the rebuilding, the reconstruction temple, and all of that. But if there's anything they learned, it was that we're not going to deviate from God's law. And that led to the strictest bunch of lawkeepers the world has ever seen.

And when it's time for Jesus Christ to come, you have the Pharisees, you have the Sadducees, the Essenes, you have these various sects within Judaism. And yet, you had people. Surely there were some. We have the examples of a couple of them here in Luke 2, who had waited for this hope of Israel to come, waited for the time. Again, we don't have enough pieces to say exactly when it was, but if Christ was born in the fall, and so many weeks later, we're probably sometime in the winter, but they were looking for the Messiah. We have a couple of older people listed here, Simeon and then Anna. Sometimes we have seniors among us who wonder, well, what can I contribute? Well, you can contribute what these two did. Your example, maybe you can't go and help somebody dig a ditch or build fence or move tables like you once did, but set an example of looking to the full realization. Live that hope that God has given to all of us. Luke 2, verse 25, Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout. What can any of us do? Live a just and devout example for others. Waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. Joseph and his mother, Christ's mother, Mary, marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against. And yes, the sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And there was one, Anna, a prophetess, a daughter of Fanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. So even if she got an early start and then was married seven years, then it says this woman was a widow of about 84 years. We're looking at someone who has to be past page 100 easily, a number of years past, who did not depart from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Any of us want to know what we can do for the work of God and for each other, fastings and prayer night and day. It's a pretty good thing to remember.

And coming in at that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. The time came when Christ began His ministry. He was about 30. John chapter 2. A few more pieces of the puzzle chronologically I'd like to have.

He had a three and a half year ministry and it ended in the spring. He probably started his ministry in the fall. In John 2 verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, oftentimes in New Testament Passover or Days of Unleavened Bread, it's kind of used generically for the whole season. So it was the Passover, but it was during the feast, which would seem to denote Unleavened Bread. Many believed in His name when they saw the signs, which He did. Then we go on into chapter 3 and we have the story of Nicodemus. I think it's good to note this took place in the Passover season. This discourse, this dialogue of being born again or born from above, as some translations will have it. Verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It was a message of hope, a message of anticipation of what God has in store for the human family.

John chapter 6. We read portions of this the other night in the Passover service, but in John 6, verse 4, we again note that now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. The feast of the Jews was near, and this is probably His third, the one the year before the events led to His death. But if we skip on over, verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and who believes in me shall never thirst. Verse 48, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna and the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

Now in verse 58, this is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, he who eats this bread will live forever. You see, the message of the annual holy days is that God holds out hope of a better world, hope for a future, hope for eternal life.

And as we partake of, as he said, let's see, a few verses earlier, verse 56, he who eats my flesh and who drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him.

And so, the people of God around the world the other night took a little bit of that unleavened bread that was asked to represent Christ's broken body and took a little wine represent Christ's lifeblood that was shed, and it becomes a part of us. Christ lives his life in us. We become more like him as we ingest him.

Vine's expository dictionary of New Testament words on the on the word, the Greek word that translates to hope so often in the New Testament says hope is favorable and confident expectation.

I did a search to look and see how many times the the word hope was used in a phrase, specifically statements the apostle Paul would make. Let's go to Acts chapter 23. Acts 23. We'll read verse 6. Paul has been taken captive and is being called in the question. He's standing there before the council. Verse 2, the high priest is Ananias.

Verse 6, and when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and one part Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead. I am being judged. And of course, that divided the assembly and gave them somewhere else to focus their attention.

The hope and resurrection of the dead. In chapter 24, similar thoughts, chapter 24 verses 14 and 15. But this I confess to you that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. So here we are, what, 25, more than 25 years down the line, Paul and the church, still observing the Sabbath, still observing the annual festivals.

I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust, the resurrection of the dead. And let us remember, let us remember that it was during the days of Unleavened Bread when Jesus Christ was resurrected back to life as the first of the first fruits. The very first one came back to life, the hope of the resurrection. Christ was the one who blazed the trail, the first of the first, the one who will lead us down that path toward eternal life. If we'll just follow the steps that the annual holy days provide for us. Acts 26, another phrase here, this hope of the promise made to the fathers.

Acts 26, verses 6 and 7, And now I stand, and am judged, for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise our twelve tribes earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.

The hope made to the fathers. If we go back all the way to Genesis 12, God began appearing to the Patriarch Abraham. I'll make a great people of you. He expanded it a step at a time.

I'll make you the father of many nations. We follow it through to Romans. He'll be heir of the world because if you're Christ's, you're Abraham's seed, and heirs to the promise.

Heir of the world that spiritually all become Israel regardless of race, or status, or gender, or anything else. Chapter 28, Acts 28, verse 20. Verse 20, For this reason therefore I have called for you to see you and speak to you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this shame, the hope of Israel, the expectation of the return of Jesus Christ as King of all kings.

You see, in Matthew 2, the wise men were searching for the King of the Jews, but he's far more than that. Not only the Jews, but all of Israel, and ultimately, all humanity, King over all kings, and Lord over all lords. And he was speaking of this hope of Israel.

Romans 15. Romans 15. We just follow through a number of places where we have Paul's statements using the word hope. Romans 15, verse 13. Verse 13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope is something. The ability, like our story at the beginning, the ability that Mary Ingalls had and that her friend, Gerthal, had. The ability to anticipate, to hope, to set the resolve, to never give up, in knowing that in due time, their deliverance will come.

Hope, the power of the Holy Spirit. God is the author of hope. Galatians 5, verse 5. Galatians 5, verse 5.

Galatians 5, verse 5, For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

The hope of righteousness. We all have our stories of how, you know, you find something you didn't see during, you know, in your preparation for Unleavened Bread, and you find, yes, this product had leavening in it, there you find. You know, we don't have kids running around the house. It's a whole lot easier.

It's still there, and we find, and we're reminded, more importantly, of Unleavened Sin.

And how long we live and how hard we may work, it'll still be there. But we have that hope. One day, we can walk the path of righteousness with God's help. Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1, verse 18. Verse 18, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, the hope of his calling. Chapter 2, verse 12. Similar statement.

Chapter 2, verse 12. That at that time you were without Christ. And that's true of all of us. There was a time before we had a relationship with God. Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world.

We live in the midst of a people who have very little to anticipate.

It's a bleak experience every day to check the news. To hear the latest of this madman in North Korea and what he's going to do. I pray to God he can't do any of it. We read of diseases.

Human beings have no idea how to combat them. We read of, well, can't improve on what Christ said. Wars and rumors of wars and false Christs and famine and pestilence and earthquakes, volcanic activity, meteors hitting the earth or nearly missing the earth.

We live in a world that has very little hope. Very little to anticipate. Very little reason to get out of bed each morning. Certainly no hope in ever recovering from the sins that enslave them.

And certainly no hope in salvation and the path to eternal life. The path of repentance and faith and reconciliation.

Chapter 4, Ephesians 4, verse 4. There's one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all.

One hope of your calling.

God began a good work in us, as Philippians 1, verse 6 says.

And we have that assurance that God will continue what He has begun.

He's not a butterfingers. He's not going to let us slip out of His hands.

He's not going to leave us or forsake us.

Christ said He has all power in heaven and in earth.

He's given us a calling. He extended an invitation to each one of us, or we frankly wouldn't be here.

An invitation that leads ultimately to the kingdom of God.

An invitation to take steps down a way of life, a path that would be, we could say, living the unleavened life. Colossians 1.

Colossians 1, verse 23.

Verse 23, If indeed you continue in the faith, yes, we go back to times. We all probably have a lengthy list of individuals we've been in the body of Christ with. Individuals we would have said this person gets it.

And then we watch them lose hope and walk away.

If you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

The hope of the gospel.

Gospel. A churchy sounding word that just means good news. The good news of the coming kingdom of God. The message that Jesus began preaching.

Repent you and believe in the gospel.

Colossians 1, verse 27.

Verse 27, To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Yes, we took a little bread the other night, a little bit of wine. We ingested those representing Christ's living His life in us.

It's not the same life we had before. It's like Paul wrote there in Galatians 2, verse 20. The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave Himself for me.

The hope of glory.

1 Thessalonians 5 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8 Chapter 5, verse 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, light and darkness so often used as a metaphor for those who are called and in the vast majority who are in chains and enslaved. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation and as we follow this year, we follow through the annual Holy Days.

We have the last couple of days of Unleavened Bread and then we'll come to the time when we celebrate and remember the pouring out of God's Spirit and the life we must live that is a spirit-led life. But in the fall, we start looking forward, onward, the things that haven't quite happened yet. 2 God's Holy Day plan, the promise of hope for all mankind, we look to a time when on trumpets as it pictures the return of Jesus Christ, the hope of salvation for the saints and the dead in Christ. That's when that happens. And the others, of course, are pictured in the last two festivals, Tabernacles and Last Day.

Titus 1 1 and 2 Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. There is that Scripture tucked away in Revelation. It's talking about something else, really, but Revelation 13, verse 8.

Just in passing, it refers to the Lamb of God slain, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That long ago, God foresaw the way human beings would probably go. And God Himself decided, we have to die. One of us will have to die so that all can have eternal life, the hope of eternal life.

Chapter 3. Chapter 3, verse 7, a similar thought that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Yes, we live in the midst of a world that has very little hope. From a human point of view, there have to be so many out there, so very frustrated as they see the country they grew up in disappearing. We see one step after another the country is being dismantled. And I fear it won't end in this life. And we just will get used to it. We're to be different. Let's go over to 1 Peter 1. God has called us, as we read here, to have a living hope.

And when Christ died, remember how the veil, that thick veil from the top to the bottom, was torn, signifying that our access now is directly to the Father. And we look to the Father for forgiveness. And we look to our God to lead us down the path, the unleavened life, and to lead us toward, ultimately, the resurrection and the receipt of the promises. 1 Peter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

Yes, we begin the spring of the year, but God's holy days always look forward. It always looks toward the next phase, the next step, and toward the culmination. In the meantime, we sigh and we cry for the sins we see in the world around us, but we go on because we have a hope burning within us that the world doesn't have. Let's close in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8, beginning in verse 18, Romans verse 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time Denise and I were also talking. She had noticed in Mr. Weber's article, I believe in this last Good News magazine, he essentially had the thought that pain is inevitable, misery is optional.

But you think about that. People in misery generally have chosen to be miserable. Pain and suffering is just something we're all going to face.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

And we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Further, the spring of the year is a season of hope. And we must hold fast to hang on to hope with all of our strength. So we have a couple more days remaining. Have a wonderful remainder of the days of Unleavened Bread. And as you do, cherish the hope that God has once again given us in the spring of the year.