December 9

As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. - Joshua 5:14.

TO do justice to this image we must throw off the restricted meaning of the word “captain” as it is used now, and consider it as it was exemplified in the earlier ages, for to them the reference is. And we observe that here the “captain” means nothing less than the commander-in-chief. Let us make three inquiries.

First, How did our Lord Jesus Christ become the Captain of the host of the Lord? He does so two ways. By the appointment of God: “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” I have laid help upon one that is Mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people. By the suffrages of the army. For their Captain is not forced upon them against their consciences or their consent. None of them are conscripts, they are all volunteers; all his people are “willing in the day of his power,” willing that he should be to them all that God wills him to be; as God says, in Hosea, “They appoint themselves one head.” Why, it is God appoints the Head of his Church. Yes; but they acquiesce in the appointment. They make it their own; the call is theirs, and this is the very essence of faith, to approve of God’s appointment; to say “Amen” to all the testimonies of revelation concerning the Son of God.

Observe, secondly, what he does as Captain of the host of the Lord. He instructs them. “He teaches their hands to war, and their fingers to fight.” He gives a tone to and animates them by his presence and example; in the course of duty and suffering he goes before them. As Paul says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” He maintains discipline. It is from obedience, subordination, and order that an army principally derives its power. “Order is heaven’s first law,” says Pope, and it obtains in the church: “Warn them,” says Paul, “that are unruly,” or, as it is in the Greek, those that are insubordinate. “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called of God.”

It is he must appoint the line in which we are to act offensively or defensively. All must be determined by him; he must assign the place and the post at which we are to fight and perhaps to fall. Moreover, he furnishes them with whatever is necessary. Are arms necessary? He provided the whole armour of God. Do they require rest or food? He has engaged to furnish all these; they do not go a warfare at their own charges. “As thy day so shall thy strength be.” He notices and rewards his soldiers.

Observe, thirdly, the attributes this Captain possesses. He has everything which can qualify him, and draw forth our confidence in him and our submission to him. What tenderness! It is said of Trajan that he tore his robe in order to bind up the wounds of a poor bleeding soldier whom he saw before him. But what was this to our Lord and Saviour? “By his stripes we are healed.” Then what wisdom and prudence. “In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” No enemy can be concealed from him. “Hell is naked before his eyes, and destruction hath no covering,” while with regard to his people, “his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in their behalf.”

What power, what resources has he. All creatures are under his control. Every being, from an insect upwards to an archangel, is ready to start forth at his nod to avenge him on his adversaries. What a wonderful character then is the Lord Jesus. We see how many images are made use of in the Scriptures in order to hold him forth! He fulfilled them all, yea, and surpassed them all in their combination. Here we see how it is that the poor Christian succeeds, though he is so weak in himself, and though his enemies have every quality which can render them formidable.

Hence says the Apostle, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us.”