Hope in Rebirth

 Genesis 28:10-19, Romans 8:18-25

 In our Genesis account Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau. What must be going on in his mind? Will the promises made by God to his father and grandfather, Abraham still come true if he is murdered by his brother? But in his dream, not only does he see a ladder to heaven, but God is revealed. God restates the promise – the unseen hope that has kept Abraham, Issac, and himself going. One wonderful promise is that God is with him and will keep him until the promise is fulfilled. God will keep him safe from Esau’s vengeance – God will bring him home safely. I love Jacob’s response to this, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

Years later Paul in Romans talks about this hope. This is the hope that we will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. He talks about waiting for the adoption as children of God and the redemption of our bodies from physical death. We wait in hope, the hope by which we were saved.

Hoping for the unseen is something that the Old Testament fathers and mothers did. We too hope for the unseen – the glory that will be revealed to us. For this unseen hope, we wait with patience. Even if we have sufferings in this present time, we have the hope that Paul had that they do not compare with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Paul looks forward to the new birth of creation grounded in the belief in Christ’s resurrection. He uses the metaphor of childbirth saying that all of creation is groaning in labor pains. Not only creation but ourselves groan inwardly while we wait for adoption.

With the hope of a newborn child women endure labor and patiently go through the nine months of pregnancy. The new birth of creation along with the new birth of ourselves as children of God experiencing the glory that is to come in our eternal lives makes all the suffering worthwhile. This is what we patiently hope for even during the rough times. As God promised Jacob, God will bring us to the glory of God’s heavenly home, fulfilling all God’s promises.

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