Whatever Happened to Godly Men?
The gospel of Luke presents Jesus as a man. In laying out the case for His humanity, we
come across Luke 2:52.
“And
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
In other words, Jesus became a man. He moved from childhood to adulthood. He grew up physically and mentally. This is an important verse because we know
that He was preparing for 3 years of service to His heavenly Father which ended
with His physical torture and death on the cross. For the sins of the world, He needed to grow
up!
Each of us has gone through, or
will go through, this same process of growing up. If you are reading this, it is safe to assume
you have already gone through the transformation from childhood to
adulthood. Some of us are old men,
others are middle aged, and still others are young men. As we survey the current state of the world
in which we live, a reality check tells us, we need men! Not just biological males with he/him
pronouns and not men like Demas, who love this present world (II Timothy 4:10)
. We need men of God who follow after,
pursue, and chase after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and
meekness (power under control). Men who,
“fight the good fight of faith” and who live the eternal life of which they are
in possession (I Timothy 6:11 – 12)
With the need of the hour before
us, one must ask, where have all the men of God gone? Many churches are devoid of men…not just men
of God, but men period. Of the men that
are attending, many are ungodly hypocrites dragged to church by their godly
wives. Still other men in churches are simply
unwilling to stand. Far too many men are
embroiled in one immoral sin or another.
Sadly, many of these men, in all these categories, are fathers who are
so self-absorbed they fail to realize the impact their godlessness is having on
their sons and the other young men in the church who are desperate and hungry
for a godly man to emulate. If you are a
godly man, I pray you realize the impact you have on the young men in your
family and in your church. They are
watching you.
If you are a godly man, young or
old, I also want you to realize you are NOT alone! There are others, just like you! I Kings 18 regales the historical account of
the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah was greatly outnumbered, and the
prophets of Baal had home court advantage.
Mt. Carmel was the supposed dwelling place of Baal. After God uses Elijah in a mighty way, the
following chapter records Elijah in a low moment. In his despair, the Lord lets him know there
are 7000 men like him, who have not bent the knee to Baal. That is good news and bad. It is good news because Elijah is not alone,
but at the same time, that is bad news because Israel, at that time in their
history, numbered in the millions. The
supermajority of men in Israel were Baal worshippers! Thankfully, we know from Scripture that God
does not need large numbers of men, just faithful men. And, just as Elijah was not alone, neither
are you.
So, how do we move from our perch
on the wire of complacency and inactivity into a place of faithfulness? I always find truth and history
to be inspiring and motivating and I believe God’s Word agrees. Hebrews 12:1 talks of the “Heroes of the
Faith” (The theme of our Family Bible School this summer.)
and says, “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”.
Let’s start with truth. Romans 8:35 asks a very pertinent question
that we, as believers, must know the answer to, if we are to walk
faithfully. “Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword?” The answer comes two verses later in verse 37
with a resounding NOTHING! “Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved
us.” You and I are super conquerors
through Him! That is the absolute
truth! Anyone who has trusted in the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for their salvation is more than a
conqueror through Christ! Ephesians 3:20
furthers this truth by emphasizing that God is able and that we have His
power working in us. Sometimes, however,
we do not feel like a conqueror, and sometimes we don’t feel
able. We live in a culture that thrives
on feelings, and sadly we often make decisions based on how we feel rather than
what is true. II Timothy 1:9 tells us
that God has called all who are saved to serve Him. His wisdom should trump our feelings.
Now for some history to inspire and
hopefully motivate us. Judges 6 opens
with a telling statement of the condition of the people of Israel. Scripture records that they did evil. At other times in the nation’s history,
Scripture simply says they did that which was right in their own eyes. While doing what is right in their own eyes was
bad enough, I believe doing evil was the next level. Because of their evil doing, the Lord
delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for 7 years. Verses 3 through 6 records in brief detail
the events of those 7 years. Israel hid
in the dens, caves, and strong holds of the mountains while the Midianite
masses overran their promised land and pillaged and plundered everything without
resistance. Things become so dire that
verse 7 tells us they finally cry out to the Lord. Up until that moment, they were faithfully
worshipping the gods of the Amorites (vs 10).
Where were the men?
In Judges 6:11, we find a young man
named Gideon hiding from the Midianites in a winepress. Just like all the other men in Israel’s
culture, he was hiding. He was a
coward. He was NOT leading. The church today is filled with Judges 6:11
Gideons. Men who keep their heads down
and their mouths shut as the culture overruns their position. They don’t lead in their marriage, home,
church, or community. But God was
calling Gideon for His purpose. God was
calling Gideon to lead!
I find it fascinating, in Judges
6:12, before Gideon has done anything, that the angel of the Lord
(preincarnate Christ) calls the coward in the winepress a “mighty man of valour”. Gideon was called a mighty man of valor, not
because of anything he had done, but because the Lord was with Gideon. You and I are “more than conquerors” who
cannot be separated from the love of God according to Romans 8:37, 39. That label, placed on us, is not because of
anything we have done, or will do. It is
a label given us, solely based upon what Christ has done.
Judges 6:13 – 24 tells of the many
excuses Gideon throws out to counter God’s wisdom in picking him to be a mighty
man of valor. It sounds a lot like Moses
and his many excuses when God called him to lead Israel. By contrast, the apostle Paul understood when
he was weak that he was strong (II Corinthians 12:6 – 10) How did Paul know
this truth? His faith had been tested
and proved many times by the time he was inspired of God to pen those
words. Paul, through experience had shifted
from dependence on himself to complete dependence upon God. Young Gideon had yet to learn dependence on
God. He was about to.
At this time in Gideon’s life, he
was living in a family and city of Baal worshippers, (Judges 6:25 – 32) and the
Lord, who was with him, was about to call him to “clean house”. Gideon obeys that very night. He takes 10 servants (11 men in a nation of
millions) smashes the alter, cuts down the grove, builds an alter to the Lord,
and offers a burnt offering to the Lord with his fathers young bullock and the
wood from the grove. God used one
faithful man to desecrate and destroy their idol worshipping strong hold. One…faithful…man!
There is a noticeable pattern in
Scripture that we see from time to time.
Gideon was faithful in the small things, and so God used him in more
ways and to do greater things. The Apostle
Paul’s journeys, as recorded in the book of Acts, subsequently grew in
length. The maps in your Bible bear this
out. You and I need to be faithful in whatever God sets before us, and allow
God to use us however he sees fit.
Often, those first steps of faith take place in our marriage, our home,
or our church.
Not long after Gideon destroys the
grove, the annual Midianite invasion begins (Judges 6:33 – 35). However, after seven long years of keeping
their heads down and being overrun, Gideon blows the trumpet ( a call to
battle), and men respond. They respond
because of the faithfulness of one man.
They respond because they are personally affected by his example. Thirty-two thousand men show up because of
the faithfulness of one.
This historical event ends with a
resounding victory. The irony in
Gideon’s story is that it begins with cowardice at a winepress, and ends with
godly victory…at a winepress. The
surroundings are the same, but faithfulness breaks the cycle, and produces a
vastly different result.
Sometimes we wonder, “What can one
man do?”. We think, “Does what I am
doing really matter? Am I making a
difference?” What I do know, is that one
man doing nothing will accomplish nothing.
Ungodly, faithless, self-absorbed men will be just like every other
ungodly, faithless, self-absorbed man.
In stark contrast, one faithful obedient man can and will rally others
to the spiritual battle.
Let me leave you with one parting
thought. Judges 8:10 gives us the odds
of the battle in which Gideon led the men to a godly victory. The Midianites numbered 135,000 of which
15,000 survived. In contrast, Gideon’s
army of torch bearing, sword wielding men was winnowed down to 300, of which all
survived (Judges 8:4). Those were 45 to
1 odds, but the underdogs were on the Lord’s side. The truth is, God could have achieved the
same victory with even less men.
Deuteronomy 32:30 is part of the song of Moses and says,
“How should one chase a thousand, and two
put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had
shut them up?”
According to the song of Moses, Gideon needed
only 27 men, but God gave him 300. We
live in an age where mega churches are viewed as the pinnacle of spiritual
achievement. Pastors are celebrities. Servant leadership is a thing of the
past. The popular sentiment is, “the
bigger the footprint in the community the better”. Books are written to assist churches on how
to become the next mega church. More
people and more money must mean God is blessing. God didn’t need an army! He needed an excuse wielding coward of a man
to simply trust Him! With that one man,
He ended Baal worship in Gideon’s family.
With that one man, He ended Baal worship in Gideon’s home town. With that one man, He defeated a culturally
powerful, marauding army. With that one
man, He brought peace to Israel for 40 years.
Whatever happened to godly
men? Who among us will be Gideon? Who will faithfully be the man of God He has
called us to be?
But thou, o man of God, flee these things;
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art
also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
II Timothy 6:11 - 12
A portion of this article was first published in the summer 2023 Truth Aflame, a free publication of Bible Doctrines to Live By.