Man in His Calling
To hide behind dark figures in the background, or, without being called, to stand bravely and heroically in the foreground, are the two extremes between which our natural impulse continuously moves back and forth.
On one side timid fear so much as to hear one’s name mentioned, and on the other side even ardent desire, where it concerns a noble cause, to have a place among “the men which are expressed by name” (2 Chron. 28, 15).
You know what happened in Samaria under Pekah, the son of Remeliah.
God let Pekah loose against Ahaz, the godless descendant of David, who broke the covenant and as king led the already apostatized Judah in the cruel worship of Moloch, which he was the first to introduce into Judah.
In Samaria they bent the knee before Baal, but close by Jerusalem, in the valley of Hinnom, David’s descendant knelt before Moloch, which was far worse.
Therefore God let the king of Samaria loose against the apostate Ahaz, and Pekah, with his well-disciplined army slew Judah’s neglected troops so dreadfully, that of Judah there fell one hundred and twenty thousand in one day.
That was the vengeance of God upon Judah’s apostasy, and Pekah was God’s instrument.
But in his recklessness Pekah spoiled his own cause.
Not enough, that he had humiliated Judah in so bloody a way, his victorious army would enrich itself further at the expense of Judah; not merely by spoils, but also by carrying away into slavery two hundred thousand men, women and children, even in so shameful and heartless a manner, as to drag many of them naked along the way.
And with this shameful spoil the army of Pekah, drunk with victory, returned to Samaria.
THIS was shameful, it was criminal, it was an outrage against the ties of blood, which ever yet bound the men of Samaria to Judah.
Oded, the prophet, at once therefore set out to meet the victorious army, to stop them in their senseless course.
That they had vanquished Judah, was right, so the prophet said. The Lord Himself had delivered Judah, by reason of its apostasy, into Pekah’s hands. But to make slaves of the children of Judah and Jerusalem, was to defy the God of hosts to His face. This they must not do, but at once give these captured Jews and Jewesses leave to return to their own cities and towns. For, unless they would so do, the fierceness of the wrath of the Lord would be terrible upon them.
Yet the army did not let go its spoil. The march went on. Already the boisterous and insolent host, with their degraded train of slaves, was approaching the capital city.
Even of Pekah it is not said, that he gave counter-order.
It seemed, as though Oded’s voice had not been heard.
THEN there formed itself, as we would say, a commission of four brave men.
Their names were Azariah, Berechiah, Jehiskiah and Amasa.
These four came together.
Deeply indignant over what took place, feeling that thus God’s right was trampled under foot, and determined at the risk of death, to foil so wicked a purpose, they agreed, without further delay, and entirely on their own responsibility, to meet the returning host, and to demand the immediate release of the captives.
This action called for dauntless courage, for ten to one, the insolent army would meet them with scorn and contempt, and either push them aside or because of their interference place their heads at their feet.
You well know, in those days not much store was set by a human life more or less.
Yet danger does not scare them. They go out from the gate of Samaria, they go along the highway, by which the army must come, and boldly and bravely meet it face to face. They offer no supplication, but briefly state their demand: “Ye shall not bring the captives hither. It would bring guilt upon us over against the Lord. Our trespass is great already. Would ye commit this trespass also and add yet more to our sins?”
And see, the effect of this heroic address is wondrous.
The whole army gives way to these four men. They halt. They stand as though bewildered. Not only do they release the two hundred thousand captives, but also make immediate surrender to these four men of the priceless spoil, which they had plundered.
God blessed this heroic act.
The spirit of the whole army is changed. It is as though the general and other officers recognize that they have been outdone, and in a moment they all put themselves at the service of Azariah and his three friends, and instead of entering Samaria with shouts of triumph, under the blue skies begins a sacred work of brotherly love.
Read how beautifully and touchingly in Scripture this is narrated: They took the captives by the hand, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them. They arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink. And over and above all this they annointed them. And all the feeble of them they put upon asses, and so, as in arms of love, they carried these two hundred thousand men, women and children to Jericho, the city of palm trees, back to their brethren. And only when that labor of love to the brethren was ended, did the victorious army, with Azariah and his three friends in the lead, and with quieted consciences, return to Samaria, where was the palace of Pekah.
So Azariah, and Berechiah, and Jehiskiah, and Amasa were the first four good Samaritans, and even as the Samaritan in the parable, they were seen in Jericho, the city of palm trees.
YET it is not their compassion, which has assured Azariah and his three friends these many centuries a place among “the men which were expressed by name.”
What distinguishes them, and places them in the full light of history, is their personal courage, their personal initiative, their resolute attitude, their stand when every one trembled, their risk of everything for the sake of their fatherland.
Truly they performed an act of mercy, but presently multitudes have done this with them. You understand, that these four men did not personally clothe the two hundred thousand captives, fed and assisted them. But what distinguished them from all the rest, was their initiative; their daring stand against a menacing wrong; their courage to hold the people back from a dreadful national sin, that would have become a judgment upon the people.
Their act tended to practice compassion, but it was first of all a deed of love of country, in a sacred sense of political tendency. They dreaded the judgment, which, by reason of so great a sin, would come upon people and fatherland, and therefore with heroic courage they resisted the king and his generals and his army.
They believed, they confessed, these men, that their land and their king had an account with the Lord of hosts; that the anger of the Holy One of Israel would inflame against the people; and it is this approaching disaster, that these sturdy men, by their heroic initiative, have diverted from people and native land.
Like as Phinehas did, when he thrust the javelin through the body of the adulterous servant of Baal-Peor (Numb. 25), so, not by killing, but by saving, did Azariah and his three friends, in the name of their God, make personal initiative glisten.
THIS sacred impulse, not to wait for others, not to sit still, and not to shrink back from trouble nor danger, comes of itself from the fear of God, and has therefore always been the earmark of true Christianity, wherever it has struck root.
Of course such action is never justified, except when the Lord calls. But the faithful servant of Jehovah does not wait for visions nor for inspirations, so as to allow himself while waiting by passivity to be unnerved.
Where strong faith operates, that impulse works immediately, and only when faith is weak and timorous, does that impulse remain wanting.
Then one hides himself, then one withdraws himself from everything, and lets God’s flood inundate God’s country.
So doeth not the sturdy Christian. He builds dikes. He constructs sea-walls against the flood and strengthens them by cofferdams when waters swell. Where there would be no ground to build on, he creates land by drainage, and when it is drained he thanks God and praises not himself but ascribes to God the glory.
To this sacred impulse alone the Dutch in times long past owe the restoration of their national existence. So long as that noble impulse operated vigorously, the cause of God has flourished in the land. And what in this century also has been won from the ancient enemy, God’s people in every land owe almost exclusively to the Azariahs and the Berechiahs, who did not dally but took hold, did not sit still but heroically showed themselves men of action.
This nobler spirit has come upon whole sections of land in all parts of the world, and you can make whole rosters of all sorts of groups of people, who have united themselves, and bravely made advances, in the name of the Lord to stand against unbelief and revolution, and to continue propaganda of principles so sacred to their heart.
Yet it is by no means yet the case, that courage and compelling power of a sacred conviction has made itself master of all hearts.
There are still many that are “at ease in Zion.” “Peace, peace,” sounds the song of slowness, “peace, for no harm is near!”
One loses himself in his affairs, and the needs of the cause of the Lord do not concern him.
Everything is expected and hoped for from the men who are in office. One leaves it with those who appear to have been appointed.
Always others, never yourself.
And if the spirit of the lukewarm and the slow to act had also unnerved Azariah and his friends, the trespass would have been committed, and the heinous wrong in Israel would not have been arrested.
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