BibleProject - Hope: Waiting, Stretching, and Trusting

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Advent E1 — Over the next four weeks, we’ll be exploring the four key words associated with the Advent season: hope, peace, joy, and love, starting with hope. The Hebrew words often translated as “hope,” yakhal and qavah, are rooted in images of waiting and being stretched, like a cord pulled tight. From Noah waiting for the flood waters to recede, to Israel longing for God’s loyal love, to Jesus followers ultimate hope in the new creation, the Bible presents hope as an active trust in God’s character. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore how the biblical story reframes hope as active waiting, a practice that keeps us moving toward God’s promises.FULL SHOW NOTESFor chapter-by-chapter notes including summaries, referenced Scriptures, biblical words, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode.CHAPTERSYakhal, a Waiting Hope (0:00–11:26)Qavah, a Stretching Hope (11:26–24:10)Biblical Hope vs. Optimism (24:10–27:47)Reflections on Hope With Dylan (27:47-32:50)OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTView this episode’s official transcript.REFERENCED RESOURCESThe Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Ludwig Koehler and Walter BaumgartnerThe Life of Moses and Homilies on the Song of Songs by Gregory of NyssaThe Last Battle by C.S. LewisYakhal / Hope: Though not referenced directly in the episode, this 2017 video explores the same biblical words, yakhal and qavah.Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.SHOW MUSIC“Home For Christmas” by Lofi Sunday & Cassidy Godwin“That Gospel ft. Bobcat” by Lofi Sunday“Snowflakes” by AvesBibleProject theme song by TENTS SHOW CREDITSProduction of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who also edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. Special thanks to our guest Dylan Menges. Powered and distributed by Simplecast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, Tim. Hello, John. Today we're going to do something new. We're going to spend four weeks in the words related to the Advent season. Exactly. The four words are hope, peace, joy, and love. Advent, it's typically four weeks leading up until Christmas. marked by four Sunday worship gatherings, and those are the four Sundays of Advent.

And the whole theme is about waiting, developing the virtue of patience and waiting for the fulfillment of God's promise and sending the Messiah. Okay. And for us, it's just a chance to dive into four really profound, meaningful, biblical. I guess I won't say words because many of these words actually have multiple Hebrew or Greek words underneath them. So they're kind of like idea, topic studies. Okay. Hope, peace, joy, and love.

And we're going to first look at hope. Cool. Okay. It's been a while since I've begun with a Bible trivia question, John. If I were to ask you, who's the first person in the story of the Bible who has to wait? Like they're waiting for something, and that's like a focus of stories. They're waiting. first character waiting waiting for something for some for god to do something or just waiting okay well let's start with adam then okay right see waiting for anything i mean god wants to give him a helper he's got to go into a little sleep needs that delivering ally yeah but he's not sitting around waiting no well he's anesthetized yeah so that time went fast yeah can enable there's no waiting uh all right

So when we get to Noah, he's got to build the ark, he's got to wait for the rain. That's right. So there is some, like, the rain's not here. We got the boat. So it's Noah. That's right. It is Noah. Okay.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And you're right in that God says, in 40 days, I'm going to bring rain on the land. But that 40 days isn't really drawn out in the narrative. It's just sort of like, then he builds a boat and then the rain starts. Okay. But the opposite moment, where the period of waiting for the waters to recede, to go away. That's also a 40, right? Mm-hmm, yes.

And it's marked by a series of moments in the story where Noah sent out a dove to see whether the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. The dove couldn't find a resting place for her foot. so she returned to him in the ark for the waters were still all over he stretched out his hand brought her back into the ark and he waited for seven days and then he sent out the dove again and it came back with the little olive leaf tree leaf in the mouth and then he waited for seven more days he sent out the dove and it just never came back and then he gets off the boat noah's the first person to wait Okay. So the word here is yachal. You got to clear your throat in the middle. Yachal. This is one of the main Hebrew words that gets translated as hope.

Hmm. But the first time it appears, it very clearly... Just means wait. Yes, yeah. It would be weird to say, and he hoped for another seven days and then sent out the dove for the art. It does sound weird. He hoped for seven days. Yeah.

So I'm just going to say yachal. Okay. let's look at some more examples here. Okay. So there's a story in First Samuel, where King Saul is supposed to Yachal for the prophet Samuel for seven days, and then Samuel's going to show up and offer sacrifice and a whole bunch of stuff supposed to happen.

And then during those seven days, the Philistines surround him, and he's freaking out, and he doesn't y'ahal. He, like, moves too quickly before Samuel shows up. So it's another example just of Y'u'al. It means weight. Yeah, and it's also seven days, which is interesting. Okay, but then here are other examples of yachal or the nouns that come from it. So Tochelet is a noun that derives from Yajal.

I don't see that at all, how they are similar. Yacal and tokelet? Yeah. Well, the y'a of Yachal gets morphed into O when you put that T on the front. And then you can see the of y'chal and tochellet. You see the ch, and then the t on the end is a little suffix on the end.

So it's in there. Y'allal is in tochelet. It's just a little historical linguistics. Anyway, so there's a noun, and the verb and the noun are used in ways where waiting would be a weird translation. Maybe. So here's a rad little riddle of a proverb.

Proverbs chapter 13 Tochellet That is deferred Makes the heart Sick But a desire That is fulfilled That's a tree of life

This is such a cool Little riddle hyperlink Back to the Garden of Eden story With the tree of life Mm-hmm Yeah Desire fulfilled is a tree of life The point of the tree of life

Is as you've said many times to participate in God's life. God's own life. The never ends. Yeah. So the tree of life is like the representation of God meeting us with his own personal life, presence, power. It's like the ultimate fulfillment of every human aspiration and desire. Okay.

That's the second half. That's the second half. So the first half is... The opposite of that. The opposite. So you get Tochelet matches desire. Mm-hmm. You get deferred, meaning constantly delayed.

is the opposite of fulfilled. And then a sick heart is the opposite of the tree of life. Isn't that an interesting contrast? Yeah. In biblical thought, heart is the center of thinking and desiring and purpose. So you constantly want something or planning to get it, strategizing, desiring it. and when the thing that is your Tochelot is constantly delayed

It just makes humans fall apart, man Yeah, makes you feel sick Tochelet is like a driver, it's a motivator I see, so here it's not strictly the act of waiting No, it's more, isn't it? It's the thing that you're waiting for It's what you're waiting for When you're waiting for a thing

and that is constantly forever put off, it just makes the heart sick. So it seems like this word you call is like a type of waiting attached to a hope. Attached to a, yeah, particular object. Yes, yes, exactly. Isn't it interesting? So it can refer to enduring the passage of time,

but also included in the meaning of the word is the thing that you are waiting for, and we would call that like your hope, your object of hope. I see. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, let's go to Psalm 33. All right. There's three appearances of this idea here, starting in verse 16.

A king is not saved by the greatness of an army. A warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor can it save by the greatness of its power. Typically, we think the bigger army and the bigger tank that is the war horse gives you victory. And that might be true in a relative sense, but it's not always true, and you can't count on it all of the time. Okay. So, verse 18, look, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, on those who yachal for his loyal love, to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in a famine. Okay, so what really does save? ultimately what has the power to save and deliver and bring hope it's Yahweh his loyal love

and his ability to deliver from death from death and famine which is interesting examples both really important in Genesis as images of the fragile nature of life that we didn't create for ourselves and we don't really sustain for ourselves yeah lack of life breath and lack of food like we could be there in a heartbeat. So, truly, what's most powerful is waiting for Yahweh to fulfill his promises out of loyal love. Verse 20, our soul waits for Yahweh. And this is a different Hebrew word, it's a Hebrew word chikha, which does seem to refer

particularly to the passage of time, sitting through a passage of time. Oh, okay. A more neutral word for wait. Okay. So our soul waits for Yahweh. He is our, ooh, our Azer, this is what God provides for Adam in the woman. The delivering ally. Yahweh is for us as we wait for him.

He is our help and our shield. In him, our heart rejoices. In his holy name, we trust. Let your loyal love, notice the repetition, be on us, O Yahweh, even as we yachal in you. so we have our soul waits for Yahweh but these two uses of Yachal I mean we are waiting because you're waiting for Yahweh to do something

rescue you but there's more here we're waiting for Yahweh's loyal love we're waiting on you Yahweh yeah you could also translate it on those who hope for his loyal love and it's hard to tell the difference

so maybe it's just the invitation for us is to see that in certain acts of waiting, where I am really emotionally invested in the outcome, we use the word hope, y'achal. Yeah. So this is one major word for hope, but it's not the only one. Okay. So that was part one.

Part one. Yeah. This next one's super interesting. The next word that's used a lot in Biblical Hebrew is kava, kava. So here's a poem that uses. So here's a poem that uses it multiple times. it'll tell the story. So he says, let me, that is Isaiah the prophet, sing a song for my beloved,

that's God, about his vineyard. And as we're going to find out, the vineyard is the people. So my beloved had a vineyard on a nice fertile hill. He dug it, cleared it of all the stones,

planted it with choice vines, even built a watchtower. Right in the middle, he, like, got a pickax and hewed out like a wine vat in it, you know, to stomp on the grape. And then he cavad for the garden to yield grapes. But it yielded stinky wild grapes.

Stinky wild grapes? Yeah, beushim. It's the, so it's so rad. So you put in all this effort. Yeah. And then he cavaz. Yeah. And what he cavaz is for...

The harvest. Yeah. Like what he expects is going to happen. and then it yields unusable grapes. Prophet steps in. Okay. Inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, why are you judge between me and my vineyard? So now the beloved is talking.

The beloved just start talking. What more could I have done for my vineyard that I didn't do? Why, when I cavod for it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So God basically says, I'm going to destroy the vineyard, like just full on, going to remove the hedge, break down its wall, animals are going to trample it, and thorns and briars are going to come up, and no more rain on that vineyard. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. The men of Judah are the plant that he's supposed to delight in. so he cavad for mishpat but what he got was mispach bloodshed it's a little wordplay in hebrew he cavad for cedacca

but what really comes up out of jerusalem is tsehaka oh well the innocent crying and distress because of their oppression okay so here's what's so interesting this is one of those moments where you just look things up in the hebrew lexicon you're just like, whoa, serious, that's like so cool. Mm-hmm. I'm looking at the Kohlerbaum-Gartner, Hebrew Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, and here we are, this is Kava. Okay.

And it's a denominative verb. What this means is it's a verb that's derived from a noun. So a noun is like the base meaning, and then a verb developed out of it. But the noun's the primary meaning. All right. So here's what a kav is. that this is now looking at the noun. In Isaiah 44, this is describing a guy making an idol statue,

and it says, let's say you have a woodworker. How's he going to start the process of making an idol? Making an idol. Well, the first thing he's going to do is stretch out a cove and then make an outline of it with a marker. Then he gets a knife, and he'll make an outline of it with another tool and make into the image of a human.

So a cove is something you stretch. out, and then you use it as this kind of measure to cut or shape something. Okay. So it's like a ruler? Ezekiel 473. There was this man who went out to the east with a cove in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits. Yeah. It's an ancient ruler.

This ancient ruler, but it was a cord. Have you ever seen those super long distance measuring, like on a soccer field? and it's like a hundred yards and it's all in a roll, that's a kav. Okay. So it's like a cord, a measuring cord. That's what a kav is. So in the Hebrew lexicon, says denominative, that is a verb derived from a noun from kav with the basic meaning of to be taught. Oh, okay.

It's fully extended. Yeah. So the case that they're making is that kava refers to the moment when a kaw, cord is being pulled tight and then there's some tension yeah the tension is our english word and tension refers to when all of the energy of motion yeah it can't move yeah but there's energy and so all that energy gets focused in on like one spot on the cord and then usually at the weakest spot it breaks yeah but it's referring to the energy focused on that spot in the moment of the tension that's what the verb refers to that's what they're saying

the verb. So wait, the noun is the chord itself. The noun's the court itself. But then the verb is when it's completely extended. Yeah. It's a figure of speech. It doesn't make literal sense. Okay, the point of the cord is the pull it tight.

Yeah, because if it's all loose, then you don't get a correct measure. I see. If you want to measure it correctly, you've got to pull it tight. That's the purpose of the cove is to be coved. That's right. I see. And so then what does it mean for myself to be coved? To cav-a.

To cav-a. To cav-a. Kavah. So I... I'm stretched tight. Yeah. Yeah. I pull tight the cord. Mm. And that's this word. And that's an idea of anticipating. Yeah. Yeah. So you kava, you cord.

Yawai corded for good grapes. I mean, when I learned that, I thought that's the coolest way to imagine expectation or hope. Yeah, it is. It's a state of tension. To anticipate is to be a chord. hold tight. Yes. Isn't that rad?

That is rad. Okay. So here, let's just look at examples now. So Psalm 25, to you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul. My God, I trust you. Don't let me be put to shame. Don't let my enemies exalt over me. Indeed, none who kava for you should be put to shame.

Those who betray without cause, they should be put to shame. Make me know your ways, Yahweh. teach me your paths, cause me to walk and your truth. Teach me, you are the God of my salvation. I cava you or for you. I'm stretched tight for you. Yeah. I mean, so what's interesting is when I hear the word tension,

we have this English word to describe that tightness of all the energy focused in, but not yet to the breaking point. Right. that's not a sustainable or desirable place to find yourself in

it's not pleasant but it's generative it's creative it's not pleasant but it does have energy and you could use that energy for a good purpose yeah so these are the two

primary words that get translated as hope in the Hebrew Bible waiting and yeah being stretched tense stretching like a cord it's interesting the cord has a purpose

and the purpose cannot be achieved until it's stretched so embedded in this metaphor is the idea of in order to live into your purpose you need to be stretched yeah there was an early church bishop

and a scholar in the fourth century he lived in the region of Capadoquia. His name was Gregory of Nissa. I just discovered his writings a couple years ago. I can't get enough this guy. He talks about the experience of new creation as being this paradox where it's both the fulfillment of every hope

that I've ever had of being in a resurrection body in the direct presence of God or with all like the redeemed creation. And you're like, wow, that's a pretty sweet setup. Surely that would fulfill all of my hopes. But for God to be God, God is always above and beyond what any creature could ever fully comprehend. Like the very essence of who God is as someone to know, like we'll never know the full depth and beauty and complexity of God's being.

Yet every step forward that we take to grow in our knowledge and union with God will simultaneously satisfy us but then make us realize there's another horizon in knowing God beyond it and he thinks of the new creation as just an infinite in infinity this is a brand new thought for me yeah he calls it the epictasis the internal stretching out of the human soul so this idea of actually being fulfilled yeah it's like a past tense I've been fulfilled you're saying like every moment where you're like I've been that you just realize oh there's there's more there's more there's more there's more there's more So he's not saying it's a paradox, because it's both being every desire fulfilled in the new creation, but simultaneously realizing my appetite for desire fulfilled is infinite and can only be matched by an infinite God,

which means it's just an eternity of growing into our desires and meeting them only to see that there's like the next horizon. Huh. So it's like an infinite stretching. Yeah, he calls it the epictosis. Anyway, this was his kind of unique take. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think it's a really beautiful way to think about that our capacity for union with God is infinite in a way that corresponds to the infinite fountain of God's life to meet our needs and desires and keep drawing us into himself.

And that's one way to think about hope. It's a generative, creative tension that keeps us exploring and desiring. And finding the thing that we want and then realizing it goes much deeper than we thought and there's more. Yeah. To be a creature is to kava, to exist in a state of tension of desiring. Because I've thought about this a lot. Like when you get to eternal life, are we going to be bored? Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we've attained it all. This is Gregory of Nees's way. He was bothered by that question too. And so the more he thought about the biblical imagery of God's infinity, God's. God's eternity, God is the source of infinite goodness and beauty, that to be a creature will always be to desire more.

So this virtue of hope is not just something that we have to put up with until one day things are all fulfilled. Yeah, it's like it's, what do you say, a feature not a bug? Because that tension that desire creates in us, that hope drives us onward, looking for more. And then when you find the one who is infinite moreness, then dude you've got a sweet existence because God's just like hey

come over here I got more I got this thing for you C.S. Lewis ends the final book of the Narnia series the last battle with that image of the new creation is them running

with Aslan in over the next hill and then over the next hill and it's just further up and further in and then he says you know really the story just finally reach its beginning the whole story you might think it's ending but actually it's just an infinitely new story

and he says in which each chapter is better than the last I wonder if there's something about Kava especially Kava the state of tension that's just built into our nature as creatures it's a beautiful idea that is yeah Thank you.

I think this plays into a conversation you and I've had many times over the years about this difference that I like to make between optimism and hope. Oh, yeah. And we're kind of in the same ballpark here where you can have a hope built up because you look at a set of circumstances and you're like, yeah, I think we're trending in a certain direction here and it's the one that I like. So I'm hoping for that outcome. Okay. You would call that optimism? Yeah. in my mind optimism is about looking at the current trajectory of events and seeing like I think all the data is pointing it's pointing that way yeah versus hope which I think is something the biblical authors want us to sustain regardless of the circumstances or actually in the face of like yeah the opposite the giant army yeah with Goliath standing in front of you yeah and in that case you're not hoping in the circumstances to go a certain direction

and what you're actually hoping for is God. This is why these words, y'all and kava, especially when you go to the Psalms, they most consistently just have God as their object, as the thing for which you were longing or waiting that you kawah and that you y'hal for. And back to Psalm 33, you have a big army and you have like the biggest ancient horse tanks

and of anybody, don't hope in that. It's a false, ooh, false hope for victory. I forgot to look up. 17. Oh, shecker. Oh, it's a shecker. This is false. Shecker means a false representation.

Yeah. Of something. It's not really what it is. It's a trick. So then that then raises the question, if there's something good about anticipating a thing you desire. Yeah. Totally.

Then is the wisdom in, let's learn to anticipate the right thing and to actually enjoy that. Yeah. It's teaching us to separate our real hopes from any of the objects or experiences that we tend to put our hope in, to fulfill our desires. And like this proverb 1312, it's telling us that the only thing that can really fulfill our ultimate desires is this gift of participation. in the very life presence of God, which whatever that means, that's the goal of getting back into Eden is just unity, union with God.

I mean, we just have all these biblical images to talk about it. Yeah. So Advent's about being in that season of feeling stretched. But let's find meaning in that, and let's enjoy... Sitting in the tension. There's a purpose for that.

Yeah, there's a purpose in that waiting. Yeah. in that anticipation. So the first week of Advent is about anticipating, waiting. Being stretched. Yeah, being stretched as we wait for the arrival of God with us. God and human united as one in the true human, the true king and Messiah, and he's the one in whom we can place our hope.

Yeah. Very cool. Hope. Hope. Deferred makes the heart safe. but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. There's much to meditate on there. Hey, this is Tyler and I edit the podcast.

We're going to do something special for the end of these Advent series episodes. We're going to have some of our own staff members tell us their thoughts on each of these words, hope, peace, joy, and love. And so today, we have someone with us very special coming in from Ohio. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi, I'm Dylan. I'm from Columbus, Ohio, and I'm a designer for a Bible project. Dylan, thanks so much for joining today, and I'm excited to talk to you. Yeah, likewise. So hope, isn't just optimism. To be hopeful is actually to choose to live in the tension of this reality that we live in and the reality that we ultimately hope in, which is the restoration of all things. Do you have any reflections on that idea?

I think the hope for something that's tough, you long for. for it, you hope for it, but you know it's just going to be a struggle. I think about the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years. There was a percentage of those people who started their life in that place, and they ended their life in that 40-year span, and to try to imagine how easy it would be to be hopeless for that person, and being given provision, but also grumbling, and, you know, the whole dynamic of that. And so it helps me take a breath and calm my head sometimes and go, you're going to be okay. Yeah.

I think that's a great example of people living in the tension of hope, waiting for their hopes to be realized, but that there are these little things that remind us of God's goodness along the way. What are some things, Dylan, that give you hope along the way? One of the things that is really helpful for me, especially when I have tension or anxiety, is reminding myself what is true. and God's past faithfulness motivates this for the future.

I have all these distractions, all these reasons why I have anxiety and I want to move faster and take on more stuff and somehow that will be the magic answer and I realize the opposite is actually true. But I slow down long enough to go, okay, why am I putting energy into all that stuff versus just resting in a God who wants the best for me and has a much longer term plan than I can't even begin to fathom?

But I think about when I'm walking, the immensity of birds that are just in the central Ohio area. If we're willing to slow down and just pay attention to those little things, we get these little glimpses of a maker that delights in what he makes. That's great, Dylan. And I can't help but think of Jesus teaching on the sermon on the Mount about the birds and that they have what they need. And it also reminds me of God providing for the Israelites' needs in the desert

and that they had to share with each other and constantly remind each other. other of God's promise to them. And so for one final thought, how significant is it that we should share hope with one another? Yeah, sharing hope is critical to hope continuing. And the word about tension. Yeah, Kavah. Yeah, there's an energy in that. If we attribute that energy to a maker who loves us, then sharing hope propagates hope because it's fueled by an energy of the one who gave us hope in the first place. Dylan, thank you so much for talking with us today. I had such a good time.

And that's it for today's episode. There is a whole team of us here at the Bible Project that helped make the podcast happen every week. For a full list of everyone involved, check out the show credits at the end of the episode where ever you stream your podcast and on our app. See you later, Dylan. Bye, Tyler.

Bible Project is a crowdfunded nonprofit, and we exist to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything we make is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Hi, my name is Ben, and I'm from Terro, Indiana. Hi, my name is Christiana, and I'm from Houston, Texas. I first heard about the Bible project from my husband, and I used the Bible project for interpreting the Bible

and for diving in deeper into scripture. I first heard about the Bible project when I was wanting to learn about the book of Job and search for videos on YouTube, and the overview video popped up. I use Bible Project to learn about scripture and help students I serve with learn more about the story of Jesus. My favorite thing about the Bible Project is the animation and how you just feel like you're literally inside the characters. My favorite thing about Bible project is classroom and getting to learn about the Bible

from a seminary level. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. Bible Project is a nonprofit funded by people like me. Find free videos, articles, podcasts, classes, and more on the Bible Project app and at Bibleproject.com.