The Struggle is Real + “The Back of the Book”
The Back of the Book.
I rarely, in fact never, write with a title in mind. Really, I never even title anything except to put it on the podcast or in the book. But yesterday, I was talking to Jesus in the car, and talking about different Bible characters, and how they didn’t know the end of their stories, but how GOD KNEW the end of their stories. Somewhere in there I heard a phrase, “back of the book,” and immediately exclaimed, “I’m going to write about that!”
Then I turned a Victor Jackson sermon back on and he said: “I gave you a promise and I’m going to fulfill it in my time…your promise didn’t come from time; it came from eternity, and eternity existed before time…therefore it is impossible for time to nullify what I gave you….WHEN GOD GIVES YOU A PROMISE, HE GIVES IT TO YOU FROM THE END TO THE BEGINNING. HE CONSIDERS the END OF YOUR LIFE BEFORE HE GIVES YOU A PROMISE AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR LIFE.
God works backwards. He gives it to you from the ending. Some people think they are disqualified from their promise, but they don’t understand that God already considered your mistakes from your WHOLE LIFE before He even gave it to you. HE WORKS FROM THE END to the BEGINNING. That’s why the first inspired language (inspired by Scripture) is Hebrews, which is from right to left…God likes working backwards! God speaks backwards. TO READ A HEBREW BOOK, YOU’VE GOT TO TURN IT OVER TO THE END. That’s how it is with your life HE STARTS FROM THE BACK. (Unexpected Beginnings/Jan 28, 2022).
The Back of the Book.
As I just re-wrote that phrase, Hebrews 11 came to mind. It is towards the ‘back of the book’, but more so, it declares the back of the book for a few key Bible characters. The men and women listed there were just people. They were ordinary people, living ordinary lives, but loving and obeying a great God. They were just individuals doing their best to struggle through; to do what they individually had been called to do. They had no idea that one day Hebrews would be written. They were completely unaware that there would be a ‘faith Hall of Fame’. And they certainly would never have assumed that they’d end up there, if they did know it. The heroes of the Bible didn’t know they were heroes of the Bible. They were JUST PEOPLE in the middle of real life and real challenges and real questions, who refused to sit down on the call of God for them, and chose to seek Him IN it all. They were regular folk who hung onto faith when life wasn’t good and when they weren’t good. They outlasted the middle of their lives to get to the end of their lives, even though they didn’t know the back of the book. Their FAITH became what is described in Hebrews 11:1— “Now faith is the REALITY of what is hoped for, the PROOF of what is not seen.”
A few “glimpses” of faith heroes come to mind:
*NOAH* He found “grace” in the eyes of the LORD, (Gen. 6:8) and that grace came with a blueprint to do something that he had never done before. In fact, NO ONE had done before. Shipbuilding was out of his wheelhouse and rain? What was rain? But Noah, ordinary as he was, took that grace of revelation and WORKED and PREACHED (2 Peter 2:5) for 120 years. There were probably moments where the unlikeliness of his task and his lack of ability weighed on his mind. He was an ordinary man called to do an extraordinary task but the end of the story? The back of the book says, “By faith Noah, being warned of God OF THINGS NOT SEEN AS YET, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…and became heir of the righteousness that is by faith.” God had the back of the book all the time Noah was hammering.
*ABRAHAM*. Abraham was a 75-year-old nomad when he had his first encounter with Yahweh/Jehovah. He was just a normal nomad doing what normal nomads do, but when God called him to a radical life change and gave him an impossible promise, we see that he banked everything on it. He left all that was familiar & familial, and, as it says in the back of the book, “he…OBEYED, and he went out not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews. 11:8). Obedience for Abraham came with several high price tags. But obedience, and clinging to his faith, in the middle of his story saw him as the “father of the faithful” at the back of the book.
*SARAH*. Sarah was simply the wife of a normal nomad, but a wife who was willing to go to the strange places prescribed by faith alongside Abraham. Her faith required obedience and submission in the middle. The impossible promise given to Abraham required her to be a key player and a willing vessel to bring an heir into the world. At 100 years old, after a 25 year wait, Sarah overhears a conversation between the LORD and Abraham. “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life, and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:10). And Sarah did what normal, ordinary, hundred-year-old women do when you tell them they’re going to have a baby: she laughed. She struggled to believe the impossible in the middle of her story, but the back of the book says, “through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” Though she struggled to believe in the beginning, she was holding a baby at the end.
*JOSEPH*. Joseph was given dreams at 17, but the dreams gave way to 13 years of betrayal, isolation, loneliness, false accusations, and “forgottenness”. The trials that unfolded, likely made his dreams seem impossible, but the back of the book saw Pharoah put his ring on Joseph’s hand and say, “See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 41:41). The trials of the middle were preparation for the end; they were actually the doorway to his dreams. And his dreams weren’t “for him.” The difficult forgiveness required by Joseph saw these words in the back of the book: “But as for you, you thought evil against me; BUT GOD MEANT IT UNTO GOOD, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” (Genesis 50:20) His forgiveness in the middle found FRUITFULNESS at the back of the book. “…by faith Joseph…” (Hebrews 11:22)
*MOSES* Moses had a miraculous beginning; (Exodus 1:1-2:10) spared from an untimely death and raised in the lap of luxury in an Egyptian palace, Moses was “just” an “average” prince of Egypt, “mighty in words and deeds.” (Acts 7:22) But at 40, he sensed a call to be a deliverer for the children of Israel. (Acts 7:25) In the process of going to “visit his brethren,” he commits murder. (Acts 7:23-29/Exodus 2:11-15) The middle of his story reads: FUGITIVE; it reads Midianite shepherd. But the call he sensed at 40, was still active, bubbling beneath the surface, and undaunted by his failure. I love this little phrase in Acts 7:30: “AND WHEN 40 YEARS WERE EXPIRED!” There was an expiration date on all the mundane of that wilderness preparation, the plot line that took him to purpose. The back of the book says he “refused Egypt” and rather “chose to suffer with God’s people.” (Hebrews 11:24-27). The end could’ve seen him still ruling in Egypt, or still drowned in the despair of failure, but MOSES MADE A CHOICE not to be defined by his beginning or his middle. He chose the people of God. The back of the book does not call him “prince” or “murderer;” but “deliverer,” and “one whom the LORD knew face to face.” (Deut. 34:10)
As the writer of Hebrews said, “And what shall I more say? For THE TIME WOULD FAIL ME TO TELL OF…” an entire Bible full of characters who were just ordinary people; ordinary people, who somewhere along the way, had an encounter with the Divine. I doubt they felt special or capable. I doubt they ever thought we’d be reading about and preaching about their lives thousands of years later. They were just doing their best to walk in obedience, to answer the call of God; to live separate from the world around them, to worship in setbacks and pain, and to hold onto their faith. And that is precisely what the back of the book says they did.
Time would fail me to tell of…
*DAVID,* who kept a right spirit, in spite of hardship and failure, the back of the book says, “man after God’s own heart”.
*JOB,* who, in spite of utter devastation and loss, worshipped and trusted. The tragedy of his story line gave way to a double portion at the back of the book.
*ESTHER,* who was just an orphaned exile who stepped out in boldness and bravery. The back of the book says she had been “brought to the kingdom for such a time as this”.
*SAMPSON,* who in spite of an entire life of failure, chose to give his final moments to God, and the back of the book says “time would fail to tell of….Sampson”. He chose to go out in faith.
*THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD,* who in spite of years of debilitating sickness and spending everything she’d ever had on doctors, made up her mind to touch Jesus. All the sickness of the middle faded when the back of the book says “thy faith hath made thee whole.”
*PAUL,* who was given a revelation in the middle of his story that required him to abandon all of the previous religious customs. Faith in the middle of his story required him to “change lanes” spiritually. For Paul, the middle of his story was full of persecution and peril, but the back of the book says “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH.”
*ABEL*
*GIDEON*
*MARY*
*MATTHEW*
*PETER*
*and on and on.*
Regular people from all walks of life, who battled the same questions and uncertainties of life we do today. Some of them had their prayers answered the way they hoped, and some didn’t. Some obtained promises and some obtained a good report. (Hebrews 11:33-39). The faith in the middle of their stories required difficult decisions, radical obedience, and expensive sacrifice. It required enduring the mundane and the catastrophic. The middle was not glorious many times, but the back of the book was.
And your story? You’re still in the middle it. Ordinary? Yes! Challenges? Yes! Pain and heartbreak? Yes. Seeking out how to pursue the call of God? Yes. Monotony? Yes. Overlooked? Maybe. Lonely? Maybe. But, no matter what the beginning of your story was or what the middle of your story is, I believe the end of your story is going to see you as a hero of the faith. I believe your past is not going to define your future. I believe that the back of the book is going to say,
*by faith she didn’t give up.
*by faith he kept pursuing Me when nothing made sense
*by faith, they obeyed, when doing things “their way” would’ve been far easier.
*by faith, she worshipped in trial & tragedy
*by faith, they held onto trust in spite of devastating loss
*by faith, he rejected every voice of the Accuser and kept on pursuing Me.
* but by faith, they fell, but got back up….they chose to be defined by forgiveness rather than failure.
*by faith, she held onto Me & My Word rather than how things appeared or felt.
All the people listed in Hebrews 11? Hebrews 12 continues and says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and the finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
All those heroes of the faith are cheering you on. I have always seen this as fans in the bleachers watching the “race” of life. Moses and Enoch and Esther and Rahab are cheering you on. YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT! And, maybe, just maybe, while you are looking forward to meeting the great heroes of the faith in heaven, maybe they’re looking forward to meeting YOU!
The Author of your storyline is at the finish line. He is the Goal. Keep your focus on Him. Stay in the race. When you stumble, get back up. Keep going. Refuse to quit. Keep getting others to join you on the racetrack. Keep making the right decisions in the middle of your story, and never forget that God knows the back of the book.
He is “the Author & the finisher of our faith”.
And if we’ll keep on keepin’ on, the back of the book will say, “well done.”
Finis.
Recommended sermon: “Let Us Continue” by Pastor Joseph Hanthorn