A Brief Survey of what it Meant to be a Man in the Traditional Life, and what it means Now

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Mat 4:16  

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Luk 16:15  

 The definition of what constitutes a man is a long and tedious one when one is a traditionalist. But it is a very short one when one is a Christian, for then it can be summed up in only one verse: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). 

The Heart of Darkness

Yes, some of our old traditions were really good. But few tended towards depravity, as any reader of literature books can testify (Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Fox’s White Mischief, Blixen’s Out of Africa). In short an eruption of violence (physical, moral and temperamental) ruled the past traditions of men, as even the Bible testifies:

‘This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness’ (Eph 4:17-19).  

‘For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries’ (1Pe 4:3). 

Typically a traditional man went to war to fight his enemies – and his enemies were other tribes… he ambushed them, he speared them to death, and lastly he stole their animals and women as spoils of war. These he took back to his tribe, where he was crowned as a warrior and a true man. He was then celebrated in long rituals lasting months or weeks (see chapter one of the book of Esther), where they indulged in eating, drunkenness, sexual orgies, and where they sacrificed to the fertility gods in dances and trances which sometimes bordered on the black magic (Kongi’s Harvest, Soyinka).

But then Christianity, the Great Social Upheaval of all Time, Arrived on the Scene, and it Continues to Annoy loyal Traditionalists by its Radical teachings

‘The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him’ (Joh 12:19).   

The traditions glorified outward strengths, but they knew little about the inner life… or the silences which speak louder than words. A man was praised for valour – but of the battles that raged inside his own heart he knew nothing about. Emotions awed them, and it would seem that was the preserve of witchdoctors. So whereas a man found nothing but praises from his fellow men ‘at the gate’, but at night and alone in his bed, voices which he could not discern condemned him to death! It is only Christianity with its heritage of education which has brought these things to light.

 It is no strange that those men died early. Anger killed them. And when they died it was on the sour note that they had been bewitched. A lot of the men actually blamed their wives for their death. Witchcraft was the bogey word for explaining all sorts of misfortunes, including emotional traumas. A witch doctor was a god, as the power of life and death was presumably vested in him.

A traditionalist might become a Christian, as some did, but he never quite relinquished his manly pride. And so typically he would be one person at church and a completely different person in his homestead.  ‘Come unto me all ye that labour...’ was church language, but to a stoic traditionalist that was an insult. Why should a man run to a fellow man (Jesus) for help? To love your enemy and to pray for him was insane. And not to revenge against your enemy was the preserve of Christian ‘foolishness’. These were some of the insults the Christian missionaries endured every day of their lives. The devil was unknown in these shores, and neither was the God of Abraham. His exploits among the gods of Egypt had not yet reached here. But thank God for the Bible! He is truly Ebenezer, for this far he has brought us!

The darkness described in the Bible is real. But so is the light… ‘he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound’ (Isa 61:1). 

·      ‘And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.’ 1Pe 1:25b. 

·      ‘Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’ (Joh 8:12).  

·      ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us’ (Act 17:26-27).   

·      ‘And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent’ (Act 17:30). 

·      And so from the beginning the gospel has found a ready home among the poor… among those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness… and where God has readily filled them all (Psa 107:9).

·      ‘But the anger of the Lord is toward the proud, the haughty and arrogant; (Pro 8:13). ‘Those that walk in pride he is able to abase’. Dan 4:30.

Precious friend, are you tired of all the traditional conventions competing for your attention in the world? ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,’ says Christ, ‘and I will give you rest.’ And ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36). Let us pray: Lord I have tried to be a man by my own strength in all my life but in vain. Father, give me this rest I pray.

 

 

  

 HUMAN TRADITIONS VERSUS CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

The radicalism of Christianity is its power… and without it, it is just another humanist creed – Part One

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Luk 14:26  

Something like a crisis of faith is what grips any new convert to the Christian religion…and the pull between the new traditions and one’s old traditions may sometimes grow so large as to resemble Jacob’s wrestling with God on River Jabbok…

But nevertheless Abraham’s unwavering type of faith is what God calls his followers to imitate… Abraham’s obedience was immediate and a complete severing with all his past. Abraham never again went back to his roots. And neither do we find him wistfully reminiscing about his old traditional life…

Rather we find an Abraham who is animated with a newfound hunger and longing… and almost gripped by a beatific vision for a new life which was far removed from that of his father’s traditional life… and so it is written,’By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb 11:8-10).  

The radicalism of Christianity is what gives it power… and it is what makes it unique… And so Abraham’s life (and of every believer) becomes like a movement which begins in a low note (in Egypt) but which rises eventually to a crescendo in the Promised Land…and where one wave of faith sweeps all unbelief to oblivion, and where one glimpse of glory shines a light into a thousand possibilities….

Abraham lived fully the New Testament life before we got here: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). And ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth…’ (Joh 3:8). Abraham was never (at any time) left in doubt that a higher Being had acted…had spoken…and had chosen him. Have you felt anything like that lately? Then by God’s grace act! Go! The voice can’t be seen…but it can’t be doubted? That is God. Obey him instantly! Many have felt something like that before…like being on the cusp of a mighty change…but they let it fall to the ground; the music floated in the air ever so sweetly, but it got carried off by the wind… ‘It was a vision’ we say, or ‘I had a close call’, or ‘I felt something, so sweet, so urgent… but I feared I was about to lose my mind! I dismissed it…what if it showed in real life as a fact?’ The vision may go… but the conflict never does. It only surfaces again slowly in small pockets of remembrances…

I believe the climax of all unbelief will show itself eventually --- it is especially heightened just before one’s death and when it is particularly strident… I have seen a patient throw a blanket over their heads and bury themselves under it, screaming…and why? Because it is the resurfacing of that vision again, and because it is where madness and reality intersect in a whirlwind of mental maelstrom…but God forbid that we should ever reach there!

And so Abraham believed, and Abraham let the wind carry him because he was certain it was from God and that is why it was counted to him for righteousness… Or else he should never have gone anywhere if he had not acted or obeyed (his first instincts) first! So what are you afraid of? Start moving! Pray to him for courage and the one who says ‘and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out’ will answer you in due time.

The Camels are Coming! Man, Get ready for your Rebekah!

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. Gen 24:63  

‘And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things’, so chapter 24 of Genesis begins in one of those scenes most beloved by pastors on marriage and the search for a wife. But what strikes me, or what would seem discordant at first, is the expression that God had blessed Abraham in all things. Really? But Abraham had only one legal child so far, only one! And at 100, he was still very far from being called a grandfather, or even the father of many nations! And yet the Bible writer says, ‘the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things’! Now does that not, in our own time, sound merely like a rich hyperbole?

But then it was a camel country… and it was a desert without roads… it was agrarian… and it was the land where a sower went forth to sow… and yet it was the land where God had blessed Abraham in all things! Now is there a parent today who is worried that his own beloved son, like Isaac, does not seem to be anywhere in a hurry to end his deafening loneliness? Then please get your camels and gifts ready! And then bring in your trusted servant and let him hit the road immediately and may God go with him!

And God had blessed Abraham in all things! And it was only fair therefore that Abraham should’ve blessed his son… Fathers …God has blessed you in all things… spoil your wife, but also bless your sons! God created men and blessed them…so they would spread the blessings… ‘And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing…. and kings shall come out of thee…’ (Gen 12:2;17:6).  

And so the camels came for Isaac at last… and so the journey of his blessings got in its right shift right here, and so was the birth of a nation’s destiny readied, and so were the blessings which were vouchsafed to Abraham by his almighty God about to take a new turn…but that only happened because there had been Sarah to begin with…and Rebecca! ‘The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife… And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David ’ (Rth 4:12-13,17). 

‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham’ (Mat 1:1). 

And so was Abraham blessed in all things as a matter of fact: ‘Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham’ (Gal 3:6-9). And may your own blessings too continue to bless others like Abraham’s and even long after you have left to sleep with your own fathers!

 And so are you still very far away from your own blessings as yet? Get a Rebekah! As it is written, ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD’ (Pro 18:22). And so Isaac brought his wife into his mother Sarah's tent, ‘and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death’ (Gen 24:67). Guys, the camels are coming! So stop meditating and look yonder… isn’t that a train of camels raising the dust of history and coming specifically for you? Stand up then… and be ready to embrace your bride!

 

 

The Word of God as the Joy of God!

‘neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.’ Nehemiah 8:10

For years I had struggled to understand what Nehemiah meant by the term ‘the joy of the LORD’, but now thank God I understand! A week ago I made a poor decision, and, at the time it seemed so bad that I ranted, I puffed, and I huffed but to no avail! Yes it was a stupid decision initially and from all standpoints, though at the time I made it I never saw this (and isn’t this the road we travel all the time in life?) Sometimes revelations only follow after a failure and never before! And yet, later, that poor decision proved quite profitable in the end! So it wasn’t fate or bad luck, but God’s providence which was in full work after all! And suddenly I recalled something even more liberating... Over the last two weeks what had I been preaching on, if it wasn’t joy? So where had my sorrow come from? And suddenly I saw how Satan had craftily played me! For two weeks I had sang about joy, so where was mine? Why could I not live with the same medicine I was so enthusiastically prescribing to others? And with that flash of light my joy was restored!

And from that time the Holy Spirit just began to rain on me these wonderful nuggets of encouragement (pray, why had I not seen them before?)

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2Co 2:11  

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Jas 1:2

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Th 5:18 

Pray without ceasing. 1Th 5:17 

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Rom 12:12

Rejoice evermore. 1Th 5:16 

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 1Pe 1:6-8

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 2Co 4:7-9

And that was how the same medicine that I had dispensed to others came back to heal me! Trials are good because they also check our pride, as Paul pointedly noted, ‘And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure’ (2Co 12:7). In the end I learnt that there was nothing special about me, but that I was just another ‘unprofitable servant’ before him!

So what is ‘the joy of the LORD’? It is everything his word says he is! He says ‘I AM’ so whatever one lacks in life God declares that he is precisely THAT THING at that time… and so he is love, joy, peace, patience, mercy, comfort, wisdom, protection, shelter in storms, shelter for weary souls, provider, protector, rest, savior, teacher… Father…shepherd, joy, bread, he is life, the way, and the truth! – ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ (Joh 8:32). And so ‘the joy of the LORD’ tends towards liberation of a person always, unlike Satan’s which always leans towards sorrow and enslavement. Ah God! That I would be free for life! And how true is your word that I can do nothing without you! So now fill me O God with this joy now and forever more!