By Alex Murashko

Have you ever been tied down to a hope in something that you want so badly that you feel like nothing else matters? You might even feel imprisoned by that hope. That tied-down feeling could be either detrimental or life-giving, but either way, it’s as if you are a prisoner of hope.

However, there is another hope… one that gives us freedom from despair.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. (Zechariah 9:9-12)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines prisoner as: 

1: a person deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody especially : one on trial or in prison. 2: someone restrained as if in prison: A prisoner of his own conscience.

What does it mean to be a prisoner of hope? Is there an imprisonment that delivers freedom?

“Zechariah calls the people to face the fact their hopes had been dashed, because their hope had been misplaced,” retired pastor Jo Anne Taylor states in her blog post, Prisoners of Hope – Sermon on Zechariah 9:9-12. “It was a false hope that, once the messiah showed up on his war horse, everything could go back to the way it was. But the way it was meant idolatry, turning away from God, rejecting God’s prophets and God’s promises. Did they really want to go back to that?”

Sounds like a false hope, right? But what about a true hope? It’s hard to imagine that being a prisoner of anything could be a good thing. After all, remember the dictionary definition of prisoner (above)?

Zechariah talked to those who were imprisoned in a pit with no water: As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit (Zechariah 9:11). Then, he addresses those who are imprisoned by hope – a different kind of hope.

We discover that being a prisoner of hope in Jesus Christ is life-giving. He is the path to ultimate freedom.

“For the believer, we are clutched, or ‘imprisoned,’ by the hope of the coming of the Messiah,” Calvary Chapel movement pastor Chuck Smith wrote in his Wisdom for Today devotional. “We can’t escape it. We don’t want to escape it. It is what we long for, what we wait for. We know that when Jesus comes again, humanity’s sufferings will finally end. Wars will end. Heartache will cease. He will rule and reign in peace and righteousness. And He will free us from that pit in which we may find ourselves today.”

Later in the devotional: “The Lord promises those who are the prisoners of hope that He will restore double to them. He tells in the latter portion of the chapter how He will subdue their enemies, how He will glorify His people, and how He will make them like gemstones in a crown, ‘lifted like a banner over His land’” (Zechariah 9:16).

“Oh, how necessary hope is! How we need it to sustain us. In a world that is falling apart, a world in which men’s hearts fail them for fear, how wonderful it is to have that hope in Jesus Christ.” – Chuck Smith, Wisdom For Today

Do you want freedom from that pit you might be in? Do you want to be free of despair? Pray that you become a prisoner of hope. Surrender to Jesus.

Alex Murashko is a journalist and writing team leader for Think Eternity, a site for powerful faith content to help you live the fulfilled life in Jesus. Murashko is also founder of Media on Mission.

Connect on X (formerly Twitter): @AlexMurashko.