An interesting and helpful illustration of the use of the word “hope” in the Old Testament is the way in which this particular Hebrew idiom has carried over to the New Testament also, even though the normal Greek word for “hope” does not normally have any suggestion of the specialized connotation which the Old Testament seems to insist on.
The moving story of Naomi and her two daughters-in-law makes a suitable introduction to this study. “Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also tonight, and should bear sons; would ye tarry for them till they were grown?” (Ruth 1:12, 13).
It is immediately evident that the word “hope” is used here with the specialized sense: “hope of having children”. Can it be that here is a key to unlock the meaning of other passages where this word “hope” is used? Further investigation confirms the impression.
Paul picks up the expression for use in the same sense when writing about Abraham’s belief of the promise: “Who against hope (of a son being born) believed in hope” (Rom 4:18).
Peter speaks of“being begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled” (1Pet 1:3).
The Apostle had surely the identical idea in mind in his Pentecost Speech. He quoted David’s prophecy of Christ’s death and resurrection, including the words: “My flesh also shall rest in hope”, the hope of children — with which compare: “he shall see his seed . . . he shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied” (Isa 53:10-11). Appropriately, then, Peter adds: “God raised him up, having loosed the pains (literally: birth-pangs) of death . . .” (Acts 2:24,26).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One