'The Captain of the Lord's host.' He Himself takes part in the fight.
He is not like a general who, on some safe knoll behind the army, sends
his soldiers to death, and keeps his own skin whole. But He _has_
fought, and He _is_ fighting. Do you remember that wonderful picture in
two halves, at the end of one of the Gospels, 'the Lord went up into
Heaven and sat at the right hand of God, ... they went forth everywhere
preaching the Word'? Strange contrast between the repose of the seated
Christ and the toils of His peripatetic servants! Yes, strange
contrast; but the next words harmonise the two halves of it; 'the Lord
also working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.'
The Leader does not so rest as that He does not fight; and the servants
do not need so to fight, as that they cannot rest. Thus the old legends
of many a land and tongue have a glorious truth in them to the eye of
faith, and at the head of all the armies that are charging against any
form of the world's misery and sin, there moves the form of the Son of
Man, whose aid we have to invoke, even from His crowned repose at the
right hand of God. 'Gird thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, and
in Thy majesty ride forth prosperously, and Thy right hand shall teach
Thee terrible things.'
If this, then, be for us, as truly as for Joshua and his host, a
revelation of who is our true leader, surely all of us in our various
degrees, and especially any of us who have any 'Quixotic crusade' for
the world's good on our consciences and on our hands, may take the
lessons and the encouragements that are here. Own your Leader; that is
one plain duty. And recognise this fact, that by no other power than by
His, and with no other weapons than those which He puts into our hands,
in His Cross and meekness, can a world's evils be overcome, and the
victory be won for the right and the truth. I have no faith in crusades
which are not under the Captain of our salvation. And I would that the
earnest men, and there are many of them, the laborious and the
self-sacrificing men in many departments of philanthropy and
benevolence and social reformation--who labour unaware of who is their
Leader, and not dependent upon His help, nor trusting in His
strength--would take to heart this vision of my text, and see beside
them the 'man with the drawn sword in his hand,' the Christ with the
'sharp two-edged sword going out of his mouth,' by whom, and by whom
alone, the world's evil can be overcome and slain.
Own your General; submit to His authority; pick the weapons that He can
bless; trust absolutely in His help. We _may_ have, we _shall_ have, in
all enterprises for God and man that are worth doing, 'need of
patience,' just as the army of Israel had to parade for six weary days
round Jericho blowing their useless trumpets, whilst the impregnable
walls stood firm, and the defenders flouted and jeered their aimless
procession. But the seventh day will come, and at the trumpet blast
down will go the loftiest ramparts of the cities that are 'walled up to
heaven' with a rush and a crash, and through the dust and over the
ruined rubbish Christ's soldiers will march and take possession. So
trust in your Leader, and be sure of the victory, and have patience and
keep on at your work.
Do not make Joshua's mistake. 'Art Thou for us?'--'Nay! Thou art for
_me._' That is a very different thing. We have the right to be sure
that God is on our side, when we have made sure that we are on God's.
So take care of self-will and self-regard, and human passions, and all
the other parasitical insects that creep round philanthropic religious
work, lest they spoil your service. There is a great deal that calls
itself after Jehu's fashion, 'My zeal for the Lord,' which is nothing
better than zeal for my own notions and their preponderance. Therefore
we must strip ourselves of all that, and not fancy that the cause is
ours, and then graciously admit Christ to help us, but recognise that
it is _His_, and lowly submit ourselves to His direction, and what we
do, do, and when we fight, fight, in His name and for His sake.