What’s Under Your Tent? Preparing for New Things – Lesson 3b (Deferred Hope: Delayed or Unfulfilled Dreams)

Isaiah 43:16, 18-19 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty 

waters. Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 

 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) 

Today we will look at the lives of Noah, Joseph, and David. Let us begin with Noah. Genesis 6 begins with an eye-opening account of the sin of mankind. Every thought and intent of man’s heart was evil. Sound familiar? From all outward appearances we are reliving the days of Noah. 

Genesis 6:8-9 (NLT), “But Noah found favor with the Lord. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.” Imagine being the only righteous person left on the earth. How did Noah maintain his righteousness? He did so by walking in close fellowship with God.  

Genesis 6:11-14 (NLT), Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth! Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out." 

According to Answers in Genesis, the time between God’s announcement to Noah with the instructions to build the ark and the ark’s completion was between 55-75 years.i Now in Noah’s case this promise from God might not have been a “blessing” per say, like the promises we might be waiting for. However, Noah was faithful and continued day in and day out to build the ark in the face of potentially great persecution and ridicule. He never gave up even after so many long grueling days/years of hard work.  

His promise was deferred, yet he was faithful and persevered! The reward for his faithful perseverance was the salvation of his family and the animals on the ark. Through his faithfulness, his sons became the fathers of all mankind today.  

Next, we will look at Joseph. Genesis 37 tells us that Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, which put him at odds with his 10 older brothers. God gave Joseph two dreams that implied that his brothers would one day bow down to him. Being young and naive, Joseph chose to share his dreams with his family. As one might imagine this did not sit well with the brothers, who wanted to kill him. However, rather than killing him, they stripped him of his beautiful robe (a gift from his father), threw him into a pit, and then sold him to traders who took him to Egypt.  

Arriving in Egypt, Joseph continues through another series of unfortunate events. He is first raised to an elevated position in Potiphar’s house because it was obvious that God blessed everything Joseph did. However, things quickly turned, from a human perspective, from bad (slavery) to worse (imprisonment).

Being accused of abusing his master’s wife he is once again thrown into a pit, this time however, it is the pit of prison. God was faithful to Joseph and there is no record of Joseph giving up or becoming angry with God, to the contrary, God used him to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, thus raising him into the position of second in command of all Egypt. It is in this position that Joseph’s dreams become reality.  

We know from Genesis 41-42 that during that time the entire area surrounding Egypt faced a severe famine. Jacob sent his 10 older sons to Egypt to buy grain to sustain their families. Joseph recognized his brothers right away; however, they did not recognize him. It was during their second visit to Egypt that the dreams were realized. His brothers bowed down before him to beg for mercy. They were still unaware that it was Joseph. Upon revealing his identity to them we see how Joseph viewed his deferred dreams.  

Genesis 45:5-7 (NLT) “But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.”  

Instead of being angry and looking to repay his brothers for their abuse, Joseph identified the reality the God used for good what his brothers intended for evil. Like Noah, we see that Joseph held onto the promise and trusted God until he saw its fulfillment.  

Our final lesson comes from the life of King David. When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, the king summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!” Nathan replied to the king, “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” 2 Samuel 7:1-3 (NLT) 

 

However, that night God spoke to Nathan and told him that David would not be the one to build a temple for Him. “‘Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. 2 Samuel 7: 11-13 (NLT) 

 

Even though David dreamed of building a grand temple to honor the Lord, he died many years before the temple was completed. We know that even though he was not going to even see the temple of his dreams, throughout the remaining years of his reign, he gathered, collected, and dedicated many treasures for the temple. David never gave up on his dream being fulfilled. He believed that the God who had promised was faithful to keep His Word.  

1 Kings 7:51 (NLT) So King Solomon finished all his work on the Temple of the Lord. Then he brought all the gifts his father, David, had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the various articles—and he stored them in the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple. 

Praise God! Today God is preparing the greatest outpouring of Holy Spirit mankind has ever experienced! Friends, this is exciting! God has allowed us to be alive in the generation that will see this mighty move. We are alive for such a time as this! However, as we have discussed for the past few weeks, we need to purify our hearts and lives to be prepared for the influx of souls into the Kingdom! If we allow deferred hope to take our focus off the promises of the Lord and to hold us hostage to doubt and fear, we will not be able to help those who are coming into the kingdom.  

Matthew 15:14b tells us, “... if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” We cannot minister healing and deliverance to the hurting and bound if we are hurting and bound ourselves. We must remove and be cleansed from anything that would hinder the Holy Spirit from flowing through our lives! Deferred hope is just that, deferred. God is faithful to fulfill His promises! Even if we, Scott, and I, never see Freedom Farm with our earthly eyes, we know that God is going to fulfill His promise. Perhaps we, like David, are laying the groundwork for our children.  

Works Cited:

i https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/how-long-did-it-take-for-noah-to-build-the-ark/