2 Samuel 10

Playing The Man

Let us play the men . 2 Samuel 10:12.

Joab, the commander-in-chief of David's army, found himself in a tight corner. He had been sent by King David to lay siege to Rabbah, the capital of Ammon. But when he approached Rabbah the Ammonites came out to fight him, and the Syrians, whom the King of Ammon had hired to help him, closed in behind him. There he was, shut in between two armies, his retreat cut off in both directions. What was he to do? Well, the only course was to face the situation and make the best of it. He must divide his army in two, and fight both enemies at once.

The Syrians were the more formidable foe, so he resolved to face them himself; and for this purpose he chose out the doughtiest of the warriors men tried in many a fight like Napoleon's “Old Guard.” The rest of the army he put under the command of Abishai his brother, with injunctions that, if the Syrians proved too strong, Abishai was to come to his aid, and if the Ammonites proved too strong, he was to go to Abishai's aid.

As they parted Joab gave a few last words of encouragement the best that any general could give to his officers or men on going into action “Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the Lord do that which seemeth him good.”

We know how the battle ended how the Syrians did not wait to fight, but turned and fled before the terrible onslaught of these determined warriors; and how the Ammonites, seeing their allies routed, retired hastily within the walls of their city.

“Let us play the men.” That is surely the best motto any boy can take. If he lives up to it and all that it means he has not lived in vain. If he lives up to it, he is taking his place among the heroes of the world.

“Let us play the men.” What does it mean? Well it does not mean “let us play at being a man.” You can play at being a man when you smoke cigarettes, and speak in a gruff voice, and swagger a cane. But that is not “playing the man.”

No, “playing the man” means something far grander and bigger and more worth while. It means rising to the best that is in us, rising to all we were meant to be when God created man in His image. It means being brave and honorable and self-controlled.

Playing the man means conquering ourselves, and conquering our circumstances.

First it means conquering ourselves. There is no use blinking the fact that we have all got within us something that can make us less than man, but something that, if grappled with and conquered, can make us more than man. We have all got within us a bit of the beast. You can hear the bear growling sometimes, you can see the tiger's claws, you can watch the pig wallowing, and the peacock strutting.

Now it is the business of all of us to tame and control that beast. And be very sure of this, unless you arc going to control him, he is going to control you. We don't allow wild animals to roam about our houses and lie down under our tables. We chain them up, and put them in cages. Chain up your wild beasts.

It is going to be a tough job, but it will make a man of you. You will have a harder task even than Joab had. He had enemies on all sides, but we are not told that he had any deserters or traitors within. Not only have you enemies without, but you have traitors and deserters within. Your courage will sometimes play you false, your resolution will desert you. But what of that? The true hero is the man who persists though the odds be greatly against him, the man who faces the fight even though he be afraid.

Do you know the story of Derar, a brave warrior who was one of Mohammed's followers? In the year 633 Mohammed's followers were at war with the Roman Empire, and one day in battle Derar found himself face to face with thirty soldiers thirty soldiers whom he had to fight alone. Before help could come he had killed or unhorsed seventeen of those thirty men. When he was asked afterwards why he had not run away, he replied, “I was afraid that God would see me turn my back.” That is the only thing that a man need fear that God should see him turn his back. “Be of good courage,” then; let us fight the beast, let us fight for our manhood, “let us play the men.”

Secondly “playing the man” means conquering circumstances. Sometimes you hear people saying that “circumstances” were too strong for them. Such a statement is generally a whining excuse for moral weakness. There are some things that we cannot alter in this world: we have just to take them as they are and make the best of them. But taking circumstances as they are and making the best of them doesn't mean that the circumstances have got the better of us. It means that we have got the better of the circumstances, and that is a very different thing.

Let us suppose that an officer is ordered to a lonely outpost on the Indian frontier. There are two ways he could meet the situation. He could make a fuss about it and grumble at his hard luck I don't say he does, for that is not the sort of thing a soldier does, but he could do it. He could grumble, and do his work with half a heart, and make those around him thoroughly miserable. What would be the consequence? His work would suffer, and the likelihood is that he would be kept at that lonely outpost for some considerable time or be sent to a worse one. On the other hand he could throw his whole heart and soul into the work and determine to make the best of things. Promotion to a better billet would probably follow, but in any case the man would gain in self control and manliness. He would get the better of his circumstances by getting the best out of them. He would “play the man.”

Playing the man means “sticking in.” It means facing up to our tasks cheerfully. It means meeting disappointments and disagreeable things without whining. It means persevering when we are like to be beaten. It means grappling with our difficulties till we overcome them. It means independence not following the crowd, if the crowd are wrong.

You are going to grow up one of these days. Are you going to be men, or are you going to be puppets whom anyone can move if they pull the right string? You are determining that now. There are some boys who would fight you if you destroyed their cricket bat or broke their best knife, but who would sit down calmly and let another boy destroy what is far more precious their moral well-being without lifting a finger to interfere.

Boys, God wants men. He is badly in need of them in this world. He wants men and He makes men. The best Man who ever lived was also the greatest Hero. He overcame the beast, He suffered poverty and hardship uncomplainingly, He went unflinchingly to a cruel death from which His whole flesh shrank, He bore a burden which bowed Him to the very dust and broke His heart.

Most of you have got your heroes whom you admire and secretly try to imitate. Don't forget to include in the list the greatest Hero of all; and if you strive to imitate Him you will also become a hero, or what is even greater than a hero a man.