Job 5:16 - "So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth."
Did you know the Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones (who was also the voice of Darth Vader in "Star Wars") movie, "Field of Dreams" is based on the book titled, "Shoeless Joe"? The movie was originally named "Shoeless Joe" also until the audiences that previewed it said that "Shoeless Joe" made the movie sound like it was a story about a homeless guy that no one would want to see. So in order to draw more people, they changed the movie title to the much more hopeful "Field of Dreams."
This shows us again that, no matter how bad things get for people, in our heart of hearts, we all long for a word of hope. We're all looking for someone or something to fill that hole in our soul with something that actually satisfies it. And today's Bible verse reminds us that the God of hope, who showed us himself in Jesus and dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, is the only one and the hope that God alone gives is the only thing that can rightly fill the hole in the soul of every person.
We don't usually think about the book of Job (pronounced with a long "o" as in "hope") as the place to run to in the Bible when we're looking for hope. But actually, in addition to today's hopeful verse from Job 5:16, "So the poor have hope," there are some other actually quite famous verses of hope in Job. In Job 1:21, we hear, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." And in Job 19:25, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth."
The point is that the Bible is a book of hope from the true God of hope that ministers to every human being's need for a word of hope. So let's not only read and thank God for the Bible and the hope that he alone gives us, which is fulfilled and perfected in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but today let's also be who the God of hope made us in his image to be, namely, the people of hope who not only are more eager to hear about a "Field of Dreams" moreso than "Shoeless Joe," but who also have a word of hope that makes dreams come true for Shoeless Joe and all the people we know and will meet.
I hope you have a great day, and I know that, when your heart's set on Jesus, the fulfillment of all true hope, you will!!! And remember to pass hope on!!!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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