The Rescue – Part 2

It was a beautiful day. Two young men were sitting inside an ornate wooden gazebo that sat at the edge of a vast forest. Above them was a cloudless blue sky, and to the west a grassland stretched out to the horizon. Far in the distance a gleaming white city could be seen.

The attention of the two young men was fixed on the table before them, which held a chess set of rare beauty. One man picked up a knight, made of pure sapphire, and set it down firmly on the board.

“Checkmate!”

Harry Norton stared at the chessboard in disbelief. His brother Matt had just moved his knight into position, placing his king into danger – mortal danger, as it turned out. He turned his gaze away from the chess set and looked into the distance.

“Man,” he said. “That sure didn’t go well.”

“You’ve got to watch those knights,” his brother Matt replied. “They’re tricky pieces, and they can get you into trouble before you know it.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Harry replied. “I was talking about our attempted rescue of Jason Pratt.”

“Oh. What about it?”

Harry ran his hands through his thick black hair and turned his attention back to his brother. “I don’t think it was a rousing success, Matt. I mean, we all died. After the S. S. Perry shot our craft out of space there wasn’t even enough of us left to bury!”

“That’s true,” he said. “We didn’t accomplish what we set out to do.”

“That’s putting it mildly, Matt! Sure, I knew there was some danger involved. I knew that we were no match for Kadambari warships, and I knew that our desperate maneuver there at the end might kill us all. It wouldn’t have bothered me if we had died when we overloaded the engine – that was just part of the risk. What really gets me is that we were murdered by our own people. Our own people, Matt!”

Harry stood up and began pacing. “They told us we could go in there, remember? We got proper authorization and everything. They told us that if we could make it out of Kadambari territory we would be home free. Do you remember?”

“Oh yes,” Matt said. “It only happened a few days ago – four, I think, to be precise.” He reflected on that a moment. “Man, it’s hard to believe that we’ve only been in Heaven for four days. Is that all it’s been? It somehow feels like I’ve always been here.”

His brother turned around to face him and leaned against the wall of the gazebo. “I just can’t believe it, Matt. We would have been home free if our own people hadn’t betrayed us. Why did they do it? Why?”

“I think it had something to do with establishing trade relations,” Matt said. “It was their way of telling the Kadambari government that they would do whatever it took to build a relationship with them. I’m sure they got their message across.”

“Which makes it even worse! They betrayed their own people to their deaths over something as stupid as building a close relationship with the most evil star system in the galaxy! I can’t even figure out why they’d want that in the first place – and no,” Harry said, seeing his brother about to say something, “that’s not an invitation to explain it to me. The point is that they were able to murder all three of us almost effortlessly and get away with it, too.”

A voice called out from behind them. “I told you two kids that you were going to be killed.” They turned around and saw a very content Jason Pratt walking toward them out of the forest. He had a pair of binoculars slung around his neck; he had been talking a walk through the forest and had just returned.

“I know,” Harry replied, “but I thought you were talking about the Kadambari Army. It never occurred to me that we might have to worry about our own people.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Harry, that never occurred to me either. I was in a lot of pain at the time, but I knew that our chances of getting out there alive weren’t very good.” Jason set his binoculars down on a ledge and drew up a chair to the table. “It looks like you lost another game to your brother! Have you won one yet?”

Harry shook his head. “Not yet – but I will eventually. Doesn’t it bother you that they can do something like that and get away with it?”

Jason looked at him curiously. “Get away with it! What do you mean, young man?”

“I mean they’ve hushed up the whole thing. The Kadambari Army is claiming that their army destroyed a couple of spies, and our government is backing their claim. Our friends and relatives have no idea why we really died. There aren’t going to be any repercussions, Jason. The bad guys got exactly what they wanted and we went down in flames.”

Matt began putting the ruby and sapphire chess pieces back to their starting positions as Jason pondered things over for a few minutes. “That’s so, Harry, but it’s not the whole story. There’s a whole other side to this that you’re not thinking about.”

“First,” Jason said, “don’t think that you are the only one! Things like this have been happening for a very long time. Christ Himself wasn’t exactly treated very fairly while on Earth, if you will recall. The authorities are supposed to preserve law and order, and when they go bad it’s a serious matter. That’s why God holds them to a higher standard: He’s given them more power and responsibility than everyone else, and therefore expects more out of them.

“I’m not going to get into the reasons why it happens; you know those as well as I do. What’s bothering you is that you think there aren’t going to be any repercussions. Is that right, Harry?”

He nodded.

“Well then let’s stop and consider a couple different futures here. First, there is yours. It’s true that you died and that they didn’t, but you don’t look too bad off to me. You’re no more dead than I am, and from what I’ve seen you’re really enjoying yourself here. You’re where you have always wanted to be with the Person that you’ve loved all your life, and you couldn’t be happier. You are definitely not suffering, and there is nothing in your future but a lot of really good things. For all intents and purposes, Harry, you’ve got it made.

“But what about the people that betrayed you? Well, they’re still alive down there, quite happy – for now. One day, though, they’ll die, and they’ll have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for their lives. If they don’t believe in Christ before that happens, Harry, then that is not going to go well at all. Jesus is going to bring every last thing into account, including the murder of you and I and your brother, and they’re not going to have anything to say in their defense. They’re going to face the full force of His wrath, and that’s a scary. The infinite wrath of an angry God is going to be horrible: more terrible and fierce than anything you can imagine.

“It doesn’t stop there, though. After all their sins are judged – every last one of them, including your own murder – they will be thrown into the lake of fire, where they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever and ever, without end. And that will be the end of that. You will live on forever, until the very memory of your time on Earth seems like a distant dream, but they – well, they will not be as fortunate.”

James helped Matt put the last chess piece in place and then moved a sapphire pawn to the middle of the board, signaling the start of a new game. “No, Harry, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. They’ve got what they wanted, but they won’t like its price tag – not one bit. Just be patient, Harry: judgment is coming quicker than you think.”

He looked at him, a smile on his face. “Your move!”