"Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." [Zech 9:12]
One reason why Jesus came, who was anointed and chosen of God to be the singular savior for men, was, “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” [Isa 61:1] Jesus has come to set us free from all our enemies, whether that be sin or whether that be the law. Christ has come to usher in freedom for those who believe in Him. Again, as it is written, The Father speaking to Jesus, “I The LORD have called thee in righteousness…to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” [Isa 42:6, 7] And again,
“Thus saith The LORD…[I will] give thee for a covenant of the people…that thou mayest say to the prisoners, ‘go forth;’ to them that are in darkness, ‘shew yourselves.’…” [Isa 49:8, 9]
The Lord has come indeed and set us free; He has heard “the groaning of the prisoner,” and He has come down, humbling Himself to earth, “to loose those that are appointed to death.” [Psa 102:20] And now, for those of us in Christ, we can gloriously rejoice in what Jesus said, “if The Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” [Rom 8:36] It is to us an eternal source of happiness: for we are free; we used to be slaves, but no longer; we used to be bound, but never again – for Jesus our Lord, The Christ, has “by the blood of [His] covenant” freed us from “the pit wherein is no water,” [Zech 9:11] and has given us abundant drink and refreshment, an overflowing source of liberty and life: as Jesus said, “living water;” and, “the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” [Jn 4:10, 14]
We are no longer slaves; that much is certain. Though we are bondslaves of Jesus Christ, servants of God, yet we are free. For, “where The Spirit of The Lord is, there is liberty.” [2 Cor 3:17] Why then does our verse call us “prisoners of hope?” It is here that we shall find our encouragement today.
If a man were a prisoner of a certain country or government, how would he fare? Why, he would be subject to the authority of that government. They could, or should like to, do as they wish. His provisions, his shelter, the rules he must follow: all of it would originate solely from that entity which had imprisoned him. If this is so, then what of the man who is, as Zechariah prophesies, a “prisoner of hope[?]” We are those who are prisoners of hope. A prisoner is, “a person under arrest or in custody of the sheriff…” [Webster] That is, a man who is seized by or kept by one who has authority. For the Christian, we are seized by hope. Hope is that one, that sheriff as it were, who has taken us and who keeps us. We are not prisoners of Rome as it were, nor of any government; nor are we prisoners of satan, sin, nor of any enemy whatsoever. But alas, we are prisoners of hope.
The man who is in Christ must hope. He is bound to hope, tied to hope. He can never stop hoping, for he is a prisoner of hope. The Spirit within him, the promises given to him, the Christ who shepherds him: all of it unalterably leads him to and fills him with hope. He is a prisoner of hope. The salvation that Christ Jesus has wrought for us, and which is secured for us by His blood and our belief therein, fills us with hope – an eternal hope. A singular, blessed hope: Jesus Christ Himself, who is as Peter says, our Living Hope – a hope so profound, so blessed, so powerful, so effectual, so lasting, that those who are saved must always hope and shall always hope. For in Christ Jesus, by God The Father’s will, we have been “given…[an] everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.” [2 Th 2:16] Again, speaking of this hope, Hebrews describes it as an everlasting anchor, founded upon the unchangeable God who cannot lie.
“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” [Heb 6:17-19]
May God therefore fill you afresh with hope today. May you find yourself gladly a prisoner of hope, one who cannot help but hope: because the one upon whom all their hope rests, Jesus Christ, is alive forevermore. Amen.
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