HOPE OF ALL THE EARTH
Do Not Be Afraid
December 6, 2025
SCRIPTURE
MATTHEW 1:20
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."
MATTHEW 1:20
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of a brutal New England prison, but it is ultimately a story about hope. An inmate named Red tells his friends that hope is a dangerous thing because it can drive you insane. Hope has no place in prison, he says, because you'll wait and wait for something better to arrive, and it never will.
Another prisoner, Andy, disagrees. "Hope is a good thing," he says. "Maybe the best of things."
Andy knows that when everything seems dark and we have every reason to despair, hope becomes most vital, most essential, most life-giving. There will be times when hope seems foolish, crazy, or even dangerous. Like Red, we can be tempted to bury our hope deep down because it seems to be setting us up for inevitable dis-appointment. But God often works in situations that seem the most hopeless, and we can be even more encouraged when God steps in and does the impossible.
God did it with Abraham. The New Testament tells us in two separate places that Abraham was "as good as dead" (Romans 4:19; Hebrews 11:12), yet God promised to make him a father of nations. To give birth to a family line that would bring hope to all creation, the Lord chose a couple who had been infertile for their entire marriage. There were numerous younger couples who were capable of bearing strong children and becoming nation builders, but God chose Abraham and Sarah, assuring them that this foolish hope would come to pass.
God did it with Moses. God used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, with incredible signs and wonders, then brought them right to the shore of the Red Sea. With water before them and Pharaoh's army behind, everything seemed lost. Surely God could have brought them by some other road? Yet he parted the sea and led the people through with a wall of water to their left and their right--the God of foolish hope.
God did it with David. He took a simple shepherd boy--forgotten by his father and despised by his brothers—and had him anointed king of Israel, assuring him he would lead his people to greatness.
And God did it with Joseph. The angel assured this simple carpenter that his young fiancée would conceive and give birth to the Son of God. God promised Joseph that the impossible would happen because God set his heart and mind upon it. As Paul would later say, "Let God be true, and every human being a liar" (Romans 3:4).
What was true for Abraham and Moses, what was true for David and Joseph, remains true for us today. He is still the God of foolish hope, the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, making none of the situations and circumstances of our lives hopeless or helpless.
The advertising for The Shawshank Redemption said, "Fear can hold you prisoner; hope can set you free."
However foolish it may seem.
Another prisoner, Andy, disagrees. "Hope is a good thing," he says. "Maybe the best of things."
Andy knows that when everything seems dark and we have every reason to despair, hope becomes most vital, most essential, most life-giving. There will be times when hope seems foolish, crazy, or even dangerous. Like Red, we can be tempted to bury our hope deep down because it seems to be setting us up for inevitable dis-appointment. But God often works in situations that seem the most hopeless, and we can be even more encouraged when God steps in and does the impossible.
God did it with Abraham. The New Testament tells us in two separate places that Abraham was "as good as dead" (Romans 4:19; Hebrews 11:12), yet God promised to make him a father of nations. To give birth to a family line that would bring hope to all creation, the Lord chose a couple who had been infertile for their entire marriage. There were numerous younger couples who were capable of bearing strong children and becoming nation builders, but God chose Abraham and Sarah, assuring them that this foolish hope would come to pass.
God did it with Moses. God used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, with incredible signs and wonders, then brought them right to the shore of the Red Sea. With water before them and Pharaoh's army behind, everything seemed lost. Surely God could have brought them by some other road? Yet he parted the sea and led the people through with a wall of water to their left and their right--the God of foolish hope.
God did it with David. He took a simple shepherd boy--forgotten by his father and despised by his brothers—and had him anointed king of Israel, assuring him he would lead his people to greatness.
And God did it with Joseph. The angel assured this simple carpenter that his young fiancée would conceive and give birth to the Son of God. God promised Joseph that the impossible would happen because God set his heart and mind upon it. As Paul would later say, "Let God be true, and every human being a liar" (Romans 3:4).
What was true for Abraham and Moses, what was true for David and Joseph, remains true for us today. He is still the God of foolish hope, the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, making none of the situations and circumstances of our lives hopeless or helpless.
The advertising for The Shawshank Redemption said, "Fear can hold you prisoner; hope can set you free."
However foolish it may seem.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION
What do you think about the author's claim that hope becomes the most essential at our darkest, most despairing moments? Why might you agree or disagree?
How can fear become a method of imprisonment, and how would hope work against that?
What do you think about the author's claim that hope becomes the most essential at our darkest, most despairing moments? Why might you agree or disagree?
How can fear become a method of imprisonment, and how would hope work against that?
PRAYER
Write a prayer of hope that entrusts your fears to God.
Write a prayer of hope that entrusts your fears to God.