Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Flash Of The Blade"

[Iron Maiden cover]
As performed by A7X

As a young boy chasing dragons with your wooden sword so mighty,
You're St. George or you're David and you always killed the beast.
Times change very quickly,
and you had to grow up early,
A house in smoking ruins and the bodies at your feet.

You'll die as you lived
In a flash of the blade,
In a corner forgotten away.
You lived for the touch
For the feel of the steel
One man, and his honour.

The smell of resined leather
The sticky iron mask
As you cut and thrust and parried at the fencing master's call.
He taught you all he ever knew
To fear no mortal man
and now you'll wreak your vengeance in the
Screams of evil men.

You'll die as you lived
In a flash of the blade,
In a corner forgotten away.
You lived for the touch
For the feel of the steel
One man, and his honour.

"St. George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier and priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr." He was tortured and killed for his faith in Jesus in 304 A.D. A legend grew up around his memory in which, during his travels, he came across a pagan town that was held in terror by a dragon. This creature required daily sacrifice of either a sheep or a maiden. George arrived just in time to save the princess from being sacrificed and slew the dreaded dragon. The entire town marveled, and converted to Christianity.

"David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms."

David consolidated all of Israel and expanded its borders to those outlined by God to Abraham in the book of Genesis.

Both of these men are epic heroes, military men who lived by the sword. David, in fact, surrounded himself with his "mighty men," as the people called them, warriors so famous and battle hardened that they reached larger-than-life proportions.

And both of these heroes had learned what the fencing master taught the young blade in this poem:

He taught you all he ever knew
To fear no mortal man
and now you'll wreak your vengeance in the
Screams of evil men.

Jesus taught His disciples the same thing about fear. "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," Jesus told them. "Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, had just been describing Jesus' review of some very scary situations, in which it would have been natural to be terrified. But Jesus told His disciples three times "don't be afraid," while He was talking about these scenarios.

God is never thwarted, never frustrated or delayed or interfered with in moving forward with what He decides to do. Even when we talk about God permitting, or allowing, something to happen, God chooses to permit. God always has the power to intervene, to prevent actions and events. Because God permits events, we can say, in a certain sense, that He has willed them.

God's Word, what He has declared in scripture, is not always obeyed even though God commands it. God's desires are not always realized (He says, for instance, that he finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He desires that nobody would die, actually, that nobody would turn down His offer of eternal life. But plenty of people do). Nevertheless, God's determined ends always come to pass.

The courage not to be afraid comes from knowing that God is sovereign, which gives us the three assurances that Jesus gave His disciples:
1) "Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now."
The truth will eventually come out. Jesus promised His disciples that He would be right there with them, at their shoulder, whispering to them what they needed to say -- which was the practice of rabbis in Jesus' day as they trained their students.

Jesus keeps that promise today through His Spirit, living within those who have been born again.

2) "Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life — body and soul — in his hands."
The soul is more important than the body. This goes against what our culture says, that now is all that counts, that there is nothing to look forward to after you die.

3) "What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries."
God is in control, and He is intimately acquainted with your life. Think of a mother with her baby. She studies her baby, she knows every nuance, every expression. I used to love just watching my babies sleeping. Who else would be fascinated by that? But God is so fascinated with you that He even spends time keeping track of every hair on your head. God loves you and me with all His infinite and eternal heart, soul, mind and strength, and He asks the same of us.

A blade lives and dies by the sword, that's also a biblical truism, something Jesus said. In this piece, the hero wreaks vengeance on evil men but dies in battle, forgotten and alone, who upheld honour, living by it and dying by it. It's a tragic tale, and maybe a true one, sometimes, for those soldiers who have made it a career, foregoing the warmth of a home and family. But in one way it is not a true story.

No person ever dies forgotten or alone. God is with every person, whether they acknowledge Him or not. Their life and their death means more to Him than you or I could every really imagine.

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