Obey Your Last Order First

In the U.S. military we have a general principle that all must follow: Obey orders in the order you received them, or "obey your last order first." In addition, we have a somewhat related principle: do as you are told, and any complaints you may have about your orders may be registered AFTER they have been carried out.

As with all general principles, there are some exceptions, but here is an ideal infantryman: He will not march off a cliff when told to not march off the cliff. If, after being told not to march off the cliff, he is then told to march off the cliff, he will march off the cliff. . . and he may feel free to complain to the next person up his chain of command, after he hits the bottom.

There are several reasons for these principles, most of them written in the blood of dead men. In this case, the lieutenant who gives the order knows, and the sergeant who delivers the order suspects, but the rest of the platoon is ignorant of the fact that the cliff is only 2 meters high, and being at the bottom of it will prevent the platoon being mowed down by a strafing enemy aircraft in the next 10 seconds. If they took the time to explain to the satisfaction of the last man, they would be explaining to dead men, so they train for OBEDIENCE RIGHT NOW, of the last order you were given, and "because I said so" is more than sufficient explanation.

I met a man who used to be a 'dirt eater' and was wounded in the current war against faithful muslims radical islam terror, who now has clear direction from the Lord, and goes to places where he stands at great risk of harm, at no small expense, to do what he knows he was told to do. He it was, who expressed to me the following:

The last words of our Lord Jesus, just before he left, were in effect "get out there all over the world and tell people about me." That was the last audible verbal command anyone ever received from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To an ex-soldier, this is the last order he was given, and (after a process of getting his mind right and getting over himself) he realizes that he is to be about carrying out that order. So should you.

Yes, yes, and so should I. We should "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" but don't be too hard on my laziness, please, remembering the childrens' song:

God's still working on me / to make me what I'm going to be / I took him just a week to make the moon and stars, africa and asia, jupiter and mars / how loving and patient he must be / He's still working on me"