CHESS is a game that requires careful thinking. It is a game of real skill. A player may spend many minutes in planning a move of a pawn or knight, as some of the chessmen are called. A good player will not make a single move without weighing the consequences of it. Will it lead to victory? Or will he lose the game by carelessly letting his king be captured?
If he loses he may say, “It’s only a game,” trying not to show his disappointment.
Perhaps you have seen an oil painting which shows a chess game. But the artist was thinking of something far more serious than a game of chess for while one of the players was a young man, the other one was the Devil, Satan himself. The title of the painting is a single word — “Checkmate!” This is the triumphant word called out by a player when he makes a move that puts the other player’s king in a position from which there is no escape.
In the painting the young man is losing the game. He sees that his situation is almost hopeless but with Satan ready to claim the victory he strains to find a way out. Beads of sweat are on his forehead; he grips the arms of his chair; despair and agony are written on his face.
“Checkmate!” Satan cries. Apparently the youth is defeated.
But this is no ordinary game. This is life itself and the artist is seeking to warn everyone that there is an end to each life and Satan is there waiting to claim every soul he can get.
How is it with you? If your life comes to an end today, will Satan claim your soul? Have you been going on carelessly, forgetful of the end of your life? Have you refused the earnest pleadings of your mother and father to turn to God and to take your place as a lost sinner before Him? Perhaps you have turned away from those pleadings with a carefree “I want to have a good time now. Later on I’ll see about eternity.” Be warned again of this, that God says “the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” Eccl. 11:99Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
Turning again to the artist’s painting of the chess game, we can tell you that a chess player who looked at that picture, took his own equipment and set up the board just as the artist showed it. Then he studied the situation carefully. Suddenly he sprang to his feet and with a shout exclaimed, “The painter is wrong; there is a way out!”
What that way was we do not know. We do know this, that while it is still the day of grace, God offers salvation to you. From heaven He, as it were, calls out, “Deliver him from going ‘down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” Job 33: 24.
ML-03/17/1963