HE IS A COMMANDER
We cannot say of this office, as we did of the last, that it belongs to peace, for it is one peculiar to war. The commander is for the battle-field, and still more for the well-arranged campaign. Thus our Lord is presented to us as a Commander in the book of Revelation. [47c] He then appears in His royal character, and at the same time heading His army. He encounters all the powers of the world, but he is surrounded by a little company of faithful followers, and He leads them on to victory.
The Church of God must be prepared for conflict. Till the Lord comes sin will give the Church no peace. Till Satan is trampled down under His feet, he will never rest in his deadly warfare against the Lord Jesus and His little flock. The soldier of Christ must be a man of war.
The great Commander will have His own chosen and faithful followers—“they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” [48a] They are marked from the world by a clear line of separation. They bear His name; they wear His uniform; they rally round His banner; they are not ashamed of His reproach; and wheresoever He goeth there it is their joy to follow Him. There is no service like His, no commander so perfect, no struggle so noble, no victory so certain and so glorious.
If we really be amongst the chosen band of faithful followers, our one standard in life must be the will of our great Commander. We must be watching each signal from Him, and owning no authority but His. From first to last our spirit must be that of Saul of Tarsus, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” [48b] This may sometimes imply a painful surrender, a surrender of ease, and inclination, and, hardest of all, of pride. But the soldier in the earthly army yields at once to his commanding officer, and how much more should we, when He has chosen us to be His people, blotted out our sins by His blood, called us into His own fellowship, sealed us with His seal, and made us heirs of His Kingdom?
FAITH AND EFFORT
“Our God shall fight for us.”—Neh. iv. 20.
I can imagine nothing better calculated to make a people calm, peaceful, and courageous, than to be able to say in faith, “Our God shall fight for us.” If we can say this, we may think on our country and rest assured that, whatever happens, all is safe. If we can say this, we may look upon God’s people struggling for His truth, sometimes sorely pressed and sometimes quite disheartened; but when we look on Him whom God has given to be a Leader and Commander of the people, we may take courage that all will be well, for He is our God, and He will fight for us. Or, we may look at our own personal difficulties, at the temptation without by which we are surrounded, and the proneness to yield within, which renders us perpetually liable to its power; and sometimes we may be ready to ask the question, Can such as we are ever gain the victory? But, if we can but say in faith, “Our God shall fight for us,” then, weak as we are, we may look forward to a triumph, and say even beforehand, “Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory.”
But there are few cases in which this language of faith was more appropriate than when originally spoken by Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the most beautiful characters to be met with in all history. I know of no one in whom there was a greater combination of practical, business-like habits, with true, simple-minded, childlike faith. When acting as cup-bearer to the King of Babylon, he heard of the desolation of Jerusalem, and obtained permission to return thither in order to rebuild the walls and restore the city. The Jews at the time were so exceedingly feeble, that the onlookers laughed them to scorn. But, when once the work was begun, contempt was exchanged for indignation, and Sanballat with others “conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.” Then it was that Nehemiah used these words for the great encouragement of all who were working with him, and said, “Our God shall fight for us.”
But while he thus spoke with the full assurance of confiding faith, he was not led by that faith to negligence. True faith never leads to negligence. It always stimulates exertion and rouses men to hopeful energy. So it did in the case of Nehemiah, for the same verse which contains the assurance contains also the spirit of active preparation. We will study the conduct of Nehemiah as furnishing an illustration of the union of faith and effort, examining first his effort, then his faith.