Exodus 14:13-15

Playing The Game

Stand still.... Go forward. Exodus 14:13; Exodus 14:15.

The other Sunday I asked a class of school boys what sort of boy they admired most. Immediately came the answer “A fellow who plays the game.” I asked what they meant, and one replied, “Please, it means being straight.”

“Being straight” takes in a great deal, but not all that “playing the game” implies. A boy who was a great favorite at school failed in an examination. He was very down-hearted, for he had hoped to come out well. His teacher felt sorry for him. He did not say, “Cheer up: you'll do better next time,” however; he just looked and said, “Play the game, son.” You have an idea what he meant, haven't you?

In today's text Moses is telling the children of Israel to “play the game.” The Israelites had set out from Egypt believing that God would help them when they met with difficulties. But when they actually did come across the difficulties, they immediately forgot their faith. They lost heart and upbraided Moses, crying, “It would have been better for us to have gone on serving the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness. Why did you not leave us alone?”

You think the children of Israel were stupid and cowardly, don't you? You must remember that for many generations they had been just poor downtrodden slaves in Egypt. And slaves have no spirit.

It takes a free man to have true courage. Moses knew all this; he was sorry for the frightened and perplexed men and women.

In a very gentle way the great leader said, “Play the game.” “Fear ye not, stand still.... The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” He knew how much God had already been to the children of Israel: and he knew what it was to play the game by standing still. He had learned to do that at the back of the wilderness, when he had fled from the king of Egypt.

But God let Moses know that in this case he must be something else than gentle. “Why do you keep praying?” “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” were God's words. “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”

Do you think it is possible to “ play the game” by standing still? Do you think a soldier in war time could do it? He could. During World War I when rations had to be conveyed to the men at the front, no light had to be shown: to strike even a match might have meant death. A non-commissioned officer said to his men engaged in this hazardous task: “Whenever a searchlight is turned on you, or the country is lit up by a flare or a star shell, stand perfectly still. It's movement that gives the show away. Keep still, and they'll think you're a bush, or a tree. But as sure as you move, you're a deader.”

But it is by going forward that a real soldier generally has to play the game. “What does it feel like to be in a charge?” someone asked a Gordon Highlander. “I just put my hand over my eyes,” he answered, “and asked God to help me to do my duty like a man. We rose up and ran forward a little way, and then fell flat while the bullets and shrapnel flew over us like hail: then on again.”

This is what someone has written about “playing the game” on the cricket field, on the battlefield, and on the greater field of life.

There's a breathless hush in the Close tonight

Ten to make and the match to win

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,

Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,

But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote

“Play up! play up! and play the game!”

The sand of the desert is sodden red,

Red with the wreck of a square that broke;

The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed his banks,

And England's far, and Honor a name,

But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:

“Play up! play up! and play the game! ”

This is the word that year by year,

While in her place the School is set,

Every one οf her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame,

And falling fling to the host behind

“Play up! play up! and play the game!”

(Henry Newbolt, Poems New and Old, p. 78.)

That is like the game of life. You have just started on it, boys and girls, and you were not made for failure. Someone wants to be your Captain. He is the greatest leader that ever was in the world. With His hand on the shoulder of each one of you He is saying, “Play the game.” If you yield yourselves to His leadership, you are sure of “getting there” in the end.

He may tell you to “stand still.” If so, ask Him to help you to do that bravely. To most of you He will say, “Go forward.” I like best to think of you doing that, and, at the last, calling to those coming up behind “Play up! play up! and play the game!”