There is a story of a man who went fishing, and whenever he caught a really large fish he threw it back. When an onlooker asked why he threw back the big ones and kept the smaller ones, he responded that he only had an 8-inch frying pan. When it comes to the crisis facing men, we need to expand the frying pan. Understanding the bigger mission for which God has created men is essential to enlarge the direction for small-minded and diminished thinking around masculinity.
This article will trace three defining essentials of the mission of manhood which are found in the book of Genesis. Then we will look at the words of the Savior, who provides the power source of this mission.
Essential # 1: Have God as your reference point.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
When Moses composed these first words of sacred truth, they stood out in the sharpest contrast to the paganism which Israel would find itself in as she escaped Egypt and settled in Canaan. Paganism, then as now, blurs the Creator and creation distinction so that everything is considered god, and the order and distinctions of creation (e.g. male and female, human and animal) are minimized or erased. Further, if you take God the Creator out of the scene, you are left with the unintelligible picture of:
Nothing becoming everything.
Chaos turning into a complex and patterned order.
Unintelligent/impersonal matter evolving into intelligent/personal beings.
Design happening accidentally without a designer.
To believe this takes enormous faith. What kind of world does that lead us to? Consider these questions:
Where do you come from? Nowhere.
Who do you come from? No one.
Why are you here? No reason.
Where do you go when you die? No where.
What is the point of it all? Nothing.
If it hurts so bad and there is no reason, where does that lead? Despair.
To the crisis facing men, we cannot start with man because man has no reference point in which to define or understand himself. We must start with God. If man is made in God’s image, men are to reflect and mirror that image. This means that as a starting point, men are to imitate the character of God. Since God is reliable, men are to be reliable. Since God doesn’t hold on to anger, men are not to hold on to anger. Since God treats us with patience and kindness, men are to treat their families with patience and kindness. Since God creates with excellence; men should build, manage, lead and serve with excellence.
This further means that how men understand their distinct roles and calling must come from God.
Essential # 2: Harness your restlessness.
Let's now go to Day 6 of Creation.
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. (Genesis 2:7-8)
Notice that the Garden of Eden is "planted...in the east." This means that God created the man outside the garden, and "there he put the man he had formed." Man had already been formed outside of the Garden, and after he was formed he was put into the Garden. This detail is not incidental; it is intentional. Why, then, was Adam made outside Eden? Perhaps Adam is created outside of the Garden because that is where his destiny, vocation and calling is. Old Testament scholar Gerhard Vos points out that man is positioned from the very beginning to expand the garden into all the earth.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28)
Man’s call is to cultivate the world, order it, and bring forth its potential. Theologian and Dutch statemen, Abraham Kuyper wrote:
We with our own human nature are placed in a nature around us, not to leave that nature as it is, but with an urge and calling within us to work on nature...to ennoble and perfect it.
Adam is implanted and wired with a holy restlessness to go outside the garden. He is given the command to fill the earth and subdue it. He will live in the Garden but his destiny is to leave its safety and move beyond it; he is wired to do hard and difficult things west (or outside) of the Garden. He is not designed to be a "nice guy" who lives a life of safety. His natural instinct is for adventure, exploration and building.
This desire implanted in men is reflected in The taming of the Wild West. which has become the stuff of legend in American history. Those who love this time period can recall heroes like Kit Carson, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett: men who survived in the wild and untamed regions utilizing their strength, skill and instincts to tame a wild and dangerous world. Davy Crockett went away from the safety of home as a young man and lived on the frontier as a hunter and backwoods farmer. I remember watching Daniel Boone with a coon skin hat propped on my head, while listening to the theme song:
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Ernest Seton, who founded Boy Scouts in 1910, dressed in buckskin and took groups of boys outdoors, hiking, camping, and canoeing. Seton presented scouting as a solution to boys who became “weak chested cigarette smokers with shaky nerves and doubtful vitality.” These are echoes of the original man in Genesis, who has been created with a restless energy to explore and build outside of Eden. There is no hint in Genesis that the aggressive instincts which are in men are a result of the Fall. They are God-implanted. If we don’t understand how that is a gift of God and know how to direct and steer them, they turn harmful.
Essential # 3: Embrace your responsibility.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it... 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:15, 18)
Seven times in Genesis God declares all he has made “good.” But in 2:18, for the first time, he reveals an aspect of creation not good. What specifically is not good? Adam is alone. Is Adam lonely? No. He doesn't even know or understand what loneliness is. The mission is so big, he cannot do it alone. The story continues:
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. (Genesis 2:21)
As Adam is placed into a deep sleep, this prefigures a laying down of his own life in order to give life to another which is ultimately reflected in Jesus Christ. This models the leadership of a husband to his wife. (see Ephesians 5:25)
22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman, for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:22-23)
Here is the woman in front of him for the first time. Instinctively and beautifully, he declares, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Men are given a high sexual desire because they are meant to be deeply bonded to a woman in marriage. Implicit in this statement is that the attraction is in the difference. The man and woman are equal, but there is a complementary difference. God could have made man and woman at the same time and in the exact same way. But the different and complementary way in which God makes the man and woman highlights the male and female peculiarity.
Science affirms this difference. Gender differences of male and female goes down to the cellular level. DNA forms complex strands called chromosomes'. The chromosomal structure of every cell in our body is stamped either XX (women) or XY (men). Because our chromosomes are different, it means men and women are different at an irreducible level:
Our brains are different.
Our voices are different.
Our body shapes are different.
Our body strength is different.
Our reproductive systems are different.
On average a man’s body is composed of 40% muscle, a woman’s is 25% muscle. Men have 50% more blood, causing those epic battles of whether to open or close the window at night. Paula Johnson, a medical researcher who sought to understand the differences in healthcare for men and women, writes:
Every cell has a sex and what that means is that men and women are different down to the cellular and molecular level. It means that we’re different across all of our organs, from our brains to our hearts, our lungs, our joints.
Final Questions About Men
Is masculinity toxic? Men can have serious problems when they express their masculinity in sinful and selfish ways. Those ways can be labelled as "toxic." But guess what? Women can express their femininity in toxic ways, as well. The issue is not masculinity or femininity--the issue is sin. Nancy Pearcey uses the analogy from computers. The distinct software that God has placed into men and women is good. The problem is that there is a virus of sin which has invaded. We need to distinguish the software from the virus.
How is masculinity detoxed? When the apostle John writes, “I write to you young men because you are strong,” (1 John 2:14) Strength is a blessing if it is directed toward godly ends. If not, it is harmful and dangerous. Some men need to relearn what it is to be a man. Because of poor modeling or bad examples or a lack of guidance some men have been under the impression that manhood is about pushing their weight around and using force to get what you want. In sharp contrast to this, Jesus is the ultimate model of manhood. He declares:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
When Jesus describes himself as gentle, the word used in Greek is praus. It means strength under control. The Greek military leader Xenophon used the word to describe war horses that are well trained—strong and spirited yet highly disciplined. Socrates used the word to describe the speech of a man who could argue his case without losing his temper. Plato used the word to describe a victorious general who was merciful to a conquered people. Aristotle used the word to characterize a person concerned about justice without revenge or retaliation.
The key to learning this strength under control is to take Jesus yoke upon us. In other words, we are to come under his calling, his purpose, and his mission--NOT OUR OWN.
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