Chocolate Soldier....Part TWO

God never was a chocolate manufacturer and never will be. God's men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.


NOAH walked with God: he did not only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and did not melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, did not open the door an inch when once God had shut it. A real hero untainted by the fear of man!
Learn to scorn the praise of men,Learn to lose with God;Jesus won the world through shame!And beckons us His road.


ABRAHAM, a simple farmer, at a word from the invisible God, marched with family and stock through the terrible desert to a distant land to live among a people whose language he could neither speak nor understand! Not bad that! But later he did even better, marching hot foot against the combined armies of five kings, flushed with recent victory, to rescue one man! His army? Just 318 odd fellows, armed like a circus crowd. And he won!
"He always wins who sides with God." What pluck! Only a farmer! No war training! Yet what hero has eclipsed his fear? He was the Friend of God - that was his open secret.


MOSES, the man of God, was a species of human chameleon: scholar, general, law-giver, leader, etc., brought up as the emperor's grandson with more than a good chance of coming to the throne. There was only one thing between him and it - Truth. What a choice! What a temptation! A throne for a lie! Ignominy, truth! He played the man! "Refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin and success for a season, accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."
Again I see him. Now an old man and alone, marching stolidly back to Egypt after forty years of exile. He goes to beard the lion in his den, to liberate Pharaoh's slaves right under his very nose, and to lead them across that great and terrible wilderness. A wild-cat affair, if ever there was one! When were God's schemes otherwise? Look at Jordan, Jericho, Gideon, Goliath, and scores of others. Tame tabby-cat schemes are stamped with another hallmark - that of the Chocolate Brigade! How dearly they love their tabbies, yet think themselves wise men! Real Christians revel in desperate ventures for Christ, expecting from God great things and attempting the same with exhilaration. History cannot match this feat of Moses. How was it done? He consulted not with flesh and blood; he obeyed not men but God.
Once again I see the old grey-beard, this time descending Mount Sinai with giant strides and rushing into the camp, his eyes blazing like burning coals. One man against two million dancing dervishes drunk with debauchery! Bravo! Well done, old man! First class! His cheek does not pale, but his mouth moves, and I think I catch his words, "If God is for me, who can be against me? I will not be afraid of ten thousand of the people that have set themselves against me. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." And he didn't. He wins again. Whence this desperate courage? Listen! "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." "My servant Moses", said his Master, "is faithful in all My house; with him I will speak mouth to mouth." Such is the explanation of Moses, the chameleon, the man, the friend of God, and consequently a first class hero.


DAVID, the man after God's own heart, was a man of war and a mighty man of valour. When all Israel was on the run, David faced Goliath - alone ... with God - and he was only a youngster, and well-scolded, too, by his own brother for having come to see the battle. What a splendid fool brother Eliab must have been! As though David would go to see a battle and not stay to fight. They are chocolate soldiers who merely go to see battles and coolly urge others to fight them. They had better save their journey money and use it to send out real fighters instead. Soldiers don't need dry nurses, and if they did the Holy Spirit is always on the spot and ready to undertake any case on simple application.
No! David went to the battle and stayed to fight, and won! Wise beyond his years, he had no use for Saul's armour. It cramped his freedom of action. He tried it on and took it off quick sharp. And besides, it made such a ghastly rattle, even when he walked, that he could not hear the still small voice of God, and would never have heard Him say afterwards. "This is the way to the brook, David. And there are the five smooth stones! Trust only in Me and them. Your own home-made sling will do first class. And there, that's the shortest cut to Goliath." THE CHOCOLATES had run away (they were all chocolates) but David ran upon Goliath. One smooth stone was enough.
David's secret was that he had but one Director, and He, the Infallible One. He directed the stone as He directed the youth. Too many directors spoil the sport, and two many by just one. Thus Christ said to His soldiers, "HE shall teach you all things. HE shall guide you into all truth."
"This is My Beloved Son; HEAR HIM."
"One mediator only, between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."
One Director of Christian men - God the Holy Spirit, whose directions require indeed instant obedience, but not the endorsement of any man.
The Devil needs red-hot shot, fresh from the foundry of the Holy Spirit. He laughs at cold shot or tepid, and as for that made of half iron and half clay, half divine and half human, why you might just as well pelt him with snow balls.
Whence did this raw youth derive his pluck and skill? Not from military camps, nor theological schools, nor religious retreats. "To know the only True God and Jesus Christ" is enough. Paul determined to know only Jesus Christ and look at the great results! Whilst others were learning pretty theories, David, like John the Baptist, had been alone with God in the wilds, practicing on bears and lions. The result? He knew God and did exploits. He knew God only. He trusted God only. That is the secret. God alone gives strength. God adulterated with men entails the weakness of iron and clay - Chocolate - brittleness!
Yet here as he was, even David (alas!) once stayed and played the role of a Chocolate Soldier. He stayed at home when he should have gone to war. His army, far off, in danger, fighting the enemy, won. David, at home, going there, suffered the one great defeat of his life, entailing such a bitter, life-long reaping as might well deter others from the folly of sowing wild oats. David's sin is a terrific sermon (like Lot's preaching in Sodom must have been). Its theme? Don't be a Chocolate Soldier!
In his simple, quick and full confession, David proved himself to be a man again. It takes a real man to make a true confession - a Chocolate Soldier will excuse or cloak his sin. He tumbles in the mud, flounders on, wipes his mouth to try and get the bad taste of his acted lie out of it, and then goes on his way saying, "I have done no wickedness." A self-murdering fool! Killing his conscience to save his face, like Baalam beating the ass who sought to save his master's life. Being a Chocolate Soldier nearly finished David. Beware!


NATHAN was another real Christian Soldier. He went to his king and rebuked him to his face, like Peter's dealing with Ananias (only David embraced his opportunity and confessed), and unlike the Chocolate Soldiers of today who go whispering about and refusing either to judge, rebuke, or put away evil because of the entailed scandal. Forsooth! Veritable Soapy Sams! They say, "It is nothing, nothing at all! A mere misunderstanding!" As though God's cause would suffer more through a bold declaration and defense of the truth and the use of the knife, than by the hiding up of sin, and the certain development of mortification in the member, involving death to the whole body. "He who does what is right is righteous;" and "he who does what is sinful is of the devil" and ought to be told so. He that is a second time led captive by the devil needs neither plaster nor treacle, but the brave rebuke and summons to repentance of a righteous man to effect his salvation. We are badly in need of 'Nathans' today, who fear God and nothing else, no, not even a scandal.


DANIEL was another hero. Of course he was! Was not the man greatly beloved of God, who sent an angel to tell him so?
I love to watch him as he walks, with firm step and radiant face, to the lions' den, stopping but once - like his Master on route to Calvary - to comfort his weeping and agonized emperor. God shut the mouths of the lions against Daniel, but opened them wide against those who had opened their mouths against His servant. A man is known by his works, and the works of Daniel were his three friends who, rather than bow down to men or gold, braved the fiery furnace.
Again, see him going to the banquet hall, and hear his conductor whisper in his ear, "Draw it mild, Daniel. Be statesmanlike. You'll get position and power again if you are tactful and wise, especially tactful." And Daniel's simple reply, "Get behind me, Satan!" There he stands before the king, braving torture or instant death - but it's the king who quails, not Daniel - who tells him to his face the whole truth of God, diminishing not a jot.


And so the tale goes on. Go where you will through the Scriptures or history, you will find that men who really knew God, and did not merely say they did, were invariably paragons of pluck, dare - devil desperadoes for Jesus, gamblers for God. "Fools and madmen!" shout the world and the Chocolates. "Yes, for Christ's sake," add the angels. Nobly they fought to win the prize:
Climbing the steep ascent of heaven,Through peril, toil and pain,O God, to us let grace be given,To follow in their train.