The End Game
Surely there is a latter end; your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:18
Will Not Be Cut Off – It’s all about the end game. The biblical perspective never stops on this side of the earthly horizon; but maintaining that perspective is the most difficult part about living. The Bible implores us to think and act according to a time when God’s justice will reign completely. Now things don’t always look so good, and because we tend to view life within the confines of current existence, we are often discouraged. We give up hope when we are pressed by what looks like the end game. But it’s not! The end game is when the trumpet sounds and the King returns. Until then, we must live by trusting that God’s purposes will one day be a present reality.
This verse is a great comfort to those of us who cry out for justice. It begins with a bold assertion. Surely is a word that expresses a confidence in the truth that God is the Judge of all. Nothing can prevent His plans from becoming real. It is only a matter of time. Of course, if we are trapped in the perspective bound by our lifetime, this will not be much consolation. We want solutions now for present problems. But God doesn’t share that perspective. Of course, my present concerns are important to Him. He loves me. But His purposes are much, much greater than mine. My goal is patience. His is completion. Nevertheless, the final Hebrew phrase is crucial for me. Lo-hikareh (will not be cut off) guarantees that my hopes of fulfillment, my dreams of intimacy with God, my desire to be pleasing to Him, my wishes to see justice done – and much more – will come to pass. I may be like Abraham and have to wait patiently for 400 years, but God guarantees it will happen. My hope will not be in vain, even if I do not see the end of the game while I am in this world.
There are many days when I need to place both feet on this verse. There are days when I need to cling to its truth. Those are the days when this world attempts to deny my confidence in God’s promise. Those are the days when things just don’t seem to get better, when all I can see ahead is sorrow and grief. Those are the days when my brothers throw me down into a well, sell me as a slave or cast me into prison. In the darkest days, I cry out to my God, “I believe in the end game. Your justice will prevail. I will wait.”
The Bible is a book about the future. But it is not a future that I design. It is a future that must be injected into the present evil days by maintaining the hope in a God Who never lies. No plan of His can be thwarted.
Are you willing to wait?
