Years ago, I was reading my ESV Bible in Acts 17 and a verse halted my casual reading and compelled me to go deeper.
In Acts 17, Paul is preaching in Athens atop Areopagus. His sermon speaks of God who created all things, and all people. This same God places people in certain locals and time periods “…that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.”
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What stopped me was the word ‘hope’ as connected with God. God ‘hopes’ humanity would “feel their way toward him and find him.” Does God hope for such a thing?
The young, restless, reformed movement that permeated online Christian culture at the time told me a solid, “No!” God has already chosen his elect. Who hopes for what he sees (Romans 8:24), and God sees everything?
Subsequent versions of the ESV remove the word “hope” from this verse, beginning with the 2011 text (mine being the 2007 text). The ESV now renders this verse: “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”
This is probably a better rendering.
(The Amplified Bible is the only modern translation I have found that still uses the word hope: “So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.”)
The previous rendering still stirred something within that brought me to conclude that God does indeed hope for humanity.
For many, the concept of “God’s hope” is an oxymoron. God sees and has established the future. Saying God hopes is more like Open Theism that the “orthodox” position of God’s sovereignty in all things.
But let’s look at our verse from last week: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Co 13:13; ESV)
The question is, why do these three remain? Do they remain in the heart of humanity in the next age? Or are these three attributes of God?
We have no problem saying God is faithful. We sing the words of Lamentations, “Great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-24) We sing the psalm, “Your faithfulness reaches to the sky.” (Psalm 36:5)
And especially God is love. (1 John 4:8) His love saves us (John 3:16). And nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:39).
But for God to hope? Eh, that gives us pause.
What gives us pause is the way we use the word “hope” in our casual conversation.
“I hope the Cubs win the World Series.”
“I hope the restaurant is open this late at night.”
“I hope it doesn’t rain this Saturday.”
We use the word ‘hope’ almost as a synonym for ‘wish’. As if flipping a coin into a fountain and hoping for your wish to come true.
But genuine hope is something more.
The writer of Hebrews says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for…” (Hebrews 11:1) Our faith assures our hope. If God’s faithfulness is perfect, how much more would be his hope?
Paul writes, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things…” (1 Cor. 13:7). If God is love would he then not “hope all things”?
A formal definition for the verb ‘hope,’ is “to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.”
Does not God “desire” all of humanity to be saved? (1 Tim. 2:4) And doesn’t the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the entire world hint at an expectation of fulfillment? (1 John 2:2).
Indeed, God hopes that humanity, wherever they live, would reach out to him and find him, just as Paul was hinting at atop Areopagus.
God hopes for you.
Do you think God hopes? Do you believe he hopes for you"?
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