As I was thinking about that list of defeated kings in Joshua Chapter 12 yesterday, I remembered a phrase I hear sometimes, and actually say sometimes. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
American baseball legend Yogi Berra first uttered that phrase about baseball’s 1973 National League pennant race. His team was a long way behind when he said it and they did eventually rally to win the division title. After reading about the defeated kings yesterday in Joshua, I began to think about life and about the battles we face in this life.
We do face battles. That’s a given. We may go years breezing along with nary a problem and then sudden it is as if the walls of our security are tumbling down around us, the roof’s caving in, and the wolf is at the door puffing away.
We do fight, as I noted yesterday, from a position of victory. Jesus claimed our victory on the cross when he shouted, “It is finished!” The verb tense is such that it means, “It is finished and will forever remain finished!” That victory was sealed when He rose from the grave carrying the keys to death and hell.
But … it ain’t over till it’s over. It may be finished forever but it’s still not over. It will be over when we get to the end of the Book of Revelation, when the Lord Jesus casts death and hell and the enemy of our soul into the abyss. It will be over when we are seated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when all tears are wiped away, and pain is forever banished. Then it will be over.
Until then, we live and battle knowing “It is finished!” but “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
