By: Obed Pineda
Ever since the early sixteenth century, England’s elite soldiers who form the Royal Body Guard are entrusted with protecting the palace where the current monarch resides. After the designated time would be met, the current group of sentries guarding the royal residence would be replaced by a new group of sentries, providing them relief from their duties and simultaneously ensuring security and continuity. This transition of responsibility from the old guard to the new (that today takes place outside of Buckingham Palace) with time evolved into a public formal ceremony now known as the changing of the guard, which would also become emblematic. This changeover that began as a strategic measure to prevent exhaustion from compromising the palace guards, is now used as a metaphor that illuminates a vital change in leadership as well. It manifests the vitality of an old practice that perhaps had long been in place, to allow a new one to come in and replace it for the sake of security and continuity. Although it is true that this analogy is frequently associated with the transfer of power from one person to another, this can also be used to speak about a person making the choice of leaving behind old routines, in order to learn and begin to practice new ones. It, too, unveils the call for making changes that prompts a person to avoid being stunted by comfortably and motivates them to branch out and grow. God’s Spirit enjoins, “laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby,if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1stPeter 2:1-3, cf. Hebrews 12:1). It has been said before that human beings can often become “creatures of habit.” Holy Writ concurs with this statement considering the frequency with which the Church is warned against accommodating to this world (cf. Romans 12:2, 2ndCorinthians 6:14-17, Ephesians 4:17-20, 1stPeter 1:13-14, 1stJohn 2:15-17). Therefore, a case can be made that conformity is the old guard from our old man that must be replaced by the new guard of incongruity with our previous lifestyle, stirring within us a craving and diligence for personal transformation. Let us return our mind’s eye to the pericope aforementioned in this treatise, and regard the old guard identified by the inspired Peter. There is no question that the earthly wisdom of operating with malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speech is all very simple to follow because it is “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2, cf. James 3:14-16). Paul illustrates conforming to man’s standards as a slippery slope spiraling downward that is very easy to follow because it requires no effort or strength. Indeed, the laws of physics prove that it is effortless to fall following gravity’s pull, but this is also the reason why the Master cautions, “broad is the way that leads to destruction,and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13). When a man chooses to change out the guards of his heart, he begins by awakening his inward man from its comfortable, yet perilous, slumber (cf. Ephesians 5:8-14). Remember that the purpose for this constant change is to ensure security and continuity. Thus, the path to eternal life begins by gaining a “desire [for]a better, that is, a heavenly country” (Hebrews 11:16a, addition OP). It is essential to recognize that becoming tethered to this physical realm lulls our soul into complacency (cf. Luke 12:13-21). Settling for increasing only our earthly possessions stagnates a man for “the things which are seen are temporary,but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2ndCorinthians 4:18b, cf. 1stJohn 2:17). Allowing ourselves to be arrested by the outward beauty of this world will blind and bind us to it. It takes a great amount of courage and faith to immediately put into effect the changing of the guards of our mind, as Moses did. The inspired Stephen (as recounted by Luke) explains that “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heartto visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposedthat his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand” (Acts 7:22-25). Stephen points out the metamorphosis that took place in Moses’ life by first revealing that his first forty years of life, he enjoyed the privileges of being a prince of Egypt. Yet, something within Moses woke him out of this fantasy in which he had been encapsulated in for four decades. The Holy Spirit revealed to the Hebrew penman that what stirred Moses’ desire to visit, defend, and avenge his Israelite brethren was when “by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:24-27). Moses effectively administered the changing of the guards of his reason when he chose to embrace the bitter truth over the sweet lie. He accepted his identity as a child of Israel, and denied the false alias of Egyptian royalty. Nevertheless, in doing so Moses’ eyes were now truly open taking into account that Scripture states that Moses was able to endure because he was “seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27b). God’s loyal servant severed the anchor that sought to tie him to this world. How marvelous to learn that even though Moses had everything any other carnally minded man would want (i.e. monetary wealth, high social status, political power, etc.) he possessed an immovable faith in the new, spiritual guards that would guide him to the true reward. For this reason, Moses was able to outgrow his comfortable earthly life and forsook it, being convinced that “our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20, cf. Hebrews 11:26-27). If the guards of our inward palace have been changed, then let us resist bringing them back. When the urge of returning the old guard beckons our mind, let us ponder, “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (Romans 6:21)?