“No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior
escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite
all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those
who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them
from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help
and our shield.”
Psalm 33:16-20
Did you catch how this Psalm contrasts hope in God
with what it calls ‘vain’ hope?
The Bible clearly tells us that any hope directed to
earthly strength is in vain.
The Philistines had a ‘vain’ hope in Goliath. It
seemed like a very real hope until a young man whose hope was in the Lord
showed up. That changed everything! There
was a vain hope many ship builders around the turn of the last century put in
what they called the Unsinkable Titanic.
Those hopes still lie in the deep waters at the bottom of the sea!
That word ‘vain’ in the Hebrew is interesting for the
picture it paints for us. It literally means an untruth – a sham.
When Seven-Up used to promote itself as the un-cola
what were they trying to say?
They were declaring to us that they were not a cola.
If something is an untruth what is it not?
It is not true Truth.
So it is not unreasonable to say that any vain hope,
any sham hope is hope that is opposed to Truth.
Jesus declared Himself to be the Way, The Truth and
the Life.
When we stand in vain hope we stand in opposition to
true hope found in Jesus Christ!
Which hope will you claim today?
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