Biblical Models of Manhood: Part 3
David, Solomon, Elias and Tobias
For teaching us about masculinity using stories, the Bible is in a league of its own. It gives us the gritty stories of real men, not fantasy characters.
In Part 1 of this exploration of Biblical models of masculinity, we learnt three main lessons from Noah, Abram and Joseph: a man must ride the storm, put God above all things and be tested in the fire of humiliation.
In Part 2, Job taught us to praise God during suffering; Moses showed that the masculine man is steadfast in prayer; and from Joshua, Gideon and Samson we learnt that true heroism is humble.
In Part 3, we’ll look at David, Solomon, Elias and Tobias. What’s the source of true courage? How can luxury and lust bring down kingdoms? What happens when a man gets lazy in his spiritual life? What advice should a strong father give his son? These are some of the questions this article will answer.
DAVID
David was the second of the Israelite kings and flourished around 1000BC. He was humble, pious and trusted in God. He was also patient, just and generous. He cared for his subjects like a father. He even loved his enemies. But women were his weakness. Few men from the Bible have more to teach us.
Because of his musical talents, David was summoned to the court of the king, Saul, who didn’t suspect the young shepherd boy — around 20 at the time — would be his successor. But Providence was preparing David for his position.
Prior to this, David had humbly accepted his role as a shepherd. His time was spent praying and meditating on the beauty of God shown in creation. This raised David’s heart to God, so he composed and sang psalms and canticles.
While David was peaceful and content because of his life and prayer and praise, Saul’s high status couldn’t make him happy: 'There is no peace for the wicked' (Is. 48:22). There is ‘anguish upon every soul of man that worth evil’ (Rom 2:9).
The contrast between David and Saul was also made clear by the challenge from Goliath, the Philistine giant. Despite being the tallest man in Israel, Saul lacked the courage to face Goliath. He had no confidence in God. But David, armed only with a slingshot, accepted the challenge out of zeal for God’s glory: 'The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine' (1 Kings 17, 37).
Goliath — boastfully seeking single combat for his own glory — trusted only in his own will, muscles and weapons. And since 'humiliation followeth the proud, and glory shall uphold the humble of spirit' (Prov. 29, 23), he fell. God thus highlighted the virtues of their future king David to the Israelites.
We must be like David when facing the Goliaths within ourselves — pride, lust or whatever sin beset us. You can’t beat the Devil by yourself. Having failed to face Goliath out of fear, however, Saul then fell prey to envy when seeing the people praise David more than they praised himself. He grew murderous and tried to kill David. If you don’t control your passions, they will control you.
Because of his close friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan, however, David was saved. Sent by Saul to kill David by Saul, Jonathan warned him instead, telling him to hide in the fields. Because of David’s piety, courage and modesty, Jonathan loved David 'as his own soul' even though he knew David would take his place as Saul’s successor. 'Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend, and they that fear the Lord shall find him.' (Ecclesiasticus 6:15-16)
All David’s troubles increased his humility and confidence in God. He also saw everything a ruler shouldn’t be. As we have seen elsewhere in this series, masculine men are forged in the fires of suffering. And the way it developed David is shown best by the fact that, when Saul, defeated, was finally in David’s power, David would not allow him to be killed.
David forgave him. St. John Chrysostom writes that although no women praised David for this as they had done his victory of Goliath, choirs of angels did. But Saul was too weak to endure defeat: when finally overcome by the Philistines, he committed suicide, thereby condemning himself to hell.
As a king, David modelled piety and reverence for his people, dancing and singing before the Ark of the Covenant. He openly confessed his faith. Fathers can learn from this how important their example is to their families. Do your children see you pray?
But David also shows us what happens when a man gets lax in prayer. His weakness was women. Multiple wives is touted as alpha by many men’s influencers today, but David — a great warrior, a builder of empires — marred his success by having a harem. He thought this would tie together the groups that made his kingdom. But his wives were alien to each other, and his children lack the support of a strong family structure.
And David himself grew effeminate. A life of luxury isn’t good for virtue. When he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (one of his generals), bathing from a distance, he lusted after her. A man must guard his eyes: 'He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor. 10:12).
David sent Uriah into battle against the Ammonites to ensure he would die. And Bathsheba became pregnant by David. He had not only sinned himself but drawn her into sin, too, breaking the fifth, sixth and ninth commandments.
When the prophet Nathan told David the story of a rich man’s unjust actions toward a poor man, David was angered and demanded justice. 'You are the man,' Nathan said, and told David that God would not allow the child to live. Hearing this, David repented, and Bathsheba conceived and bore another child, Solomon — the future king of Israel.
Even in his fall, however, David remained in some ways a model of masculinity. Rather than trying to excuse himself, he was contrite. He composed the penitential Psalms: 'Every night I water my couch with my tears' (Psalm 6:7). He fasted. He grieved. And eventually Nathan went to him to say that God had forgiven him.
But he would still have to suffer temporal punishment. This came in the form of his son Absalom’s rebellion against him. Proud of his great beauty — especially his long hair — Absalom wanted to become king by overthrowing his father. But he died when his precious hair became tangled in a tree after he tried to escape capture following the defeat of his army.
David didn’t complain about the civil war. He accepted it as part of his punishment from God. And he forgave Absalom, weeping over his death. When David himself died, he told his son and heir, Solomon, ‘Keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in His ways, as is written in the law of Moses.’ Ultimately, this is all that matters for a man, and sums up masculinity.
SOLOMON
David had united all the tribes of Israel under one monarch, and Solomon continued his work. He crushed his opponents and installed his friends in all the critical political positions, bringing Israel to the apex of its power. But Israel’s wealth resulted in extravagance and effeminacy.
At the start of his reign, Solomon prayed to God for the gift of Wisdom. He wanted to govern his people well. In the Our Father, the perfect prayer taught to us by Christ, there are five petitions for spiritual gifts and only two for temporal ones. Even these two also involve spiritual petitions. A man must put first things first.
Solomon also built the first Temple in Jerusalem. When he fell on his knees in the outer court and lifted his arms to God in prayer, he showed everyone how to revere churches. When you’re in church, remember his example. Receiving Holy Communion standing, for example, would have struck him as shamefully disrespectful.
Despite being so gifted, however, even Solomon fell. And how it happened teaches men crucial lessons. At first, he associated too closely with the pagan kings of Tyre and Sidon. Be careful who you’re friends with. Original sin means disorder comes easily to us. Solomon couldn’t resist, and he was smarter and more virtuous than you are.
Next came his unlawful intermarriage with pagan wives. This made him lax in prayer. Like David, he fell through lust and sensuality. Beginning with unchecked venial sins, he progressed to mortal ones, ending by denying the true faith and not only enabling but enforcing idolatry.
The first daughter of lust, as Aquinas said, is blindness of mind. Remember how, in the first article in this series, we saw how Moses killed his soldiers who fornicated with pagan women and bowed to their idols.
Solomon’s status had puffed him up with pride. Success makes it easy for a man to focus on earthly riches. A happy life often distracts us from our Last End. God thus makes us suffer because it attacks arrogance: ‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth’ (Hebr. 12, 6).
Near the end of his life, Solomon wrote this in the Book of Ecclesiastes (12:1-14):
‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. I made me great works…I heaped together for myself silver and gold…Whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not ; and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure. I saw in all things vanity and vexation of mind. Fear God and keep His Commandments, for this is all man.’
His father had taught him this, of course, but man more often needs to be reminded than instructed, as Dr. Johnson wisely noted. So what do Solomon’s life remind us of? To live well, a man must avoid laxity and effeminacy. He must also avoid bad companions. And he must pray.
ELIAS
Elias (Elijah) saved Israel from being corrupted by the nature worship of Baal. When a man wavers between serving God and straying from Him, he’s at the crossroads between Heaven and Hell. Elias didn’t hesitate. We shouldn’t either.
When God sent him to the kingdom of Sidon to announce the impending judgment, he knew they might kill him. But he obeyed with confidence. And although God and told him to seek hospitality from the poor widow of Sarepta rather than from a rich man, he didn’t doubt this either.
Elias fearlessly confronted the idolatrous pagans, including their unbelieving king. They could easily have killed him. But to save the people from their sin, he was willing to risk his own life. A man must fear God only. That is where true courage comes from.
Elias also shows us the power of prayer, especially in times of difficulty. Because God worked miracles at Elias’s request, St. James comments that ‘The continual prayer of a just man availeth much’ (James 5:16). If you’re not praying, you’re not using your most powerful weapon in the spiritual war you’re engaged in whether you like it or not.
Although we’re engaged in spiritual warfare, however, we still need meekness. This true strength. Elias, for example, had a fiery temperament. That’s why, when God appeared to him, the wind sighed gently. God is merciful and patient, and He expected Elias to be as well. As St. Francis of Sales said, ‘You can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a cask of vinegar.’
For men of a certain temperament — the kind more likely to sin by being bad boys rather than soy boys — this can be tough. Charlemagne, for example, was reprimanded by the pope for trying to convert pagans at point of his sword.
But Elias showed true strength in disciplining his passions. Prayer and detachment from the world enabled him to endure suffering with exemplary strength. And he showed great confidence in God in responding to His call. When he thought about the idolatry and impiety of the Israelites, Elias was sad. Similarly, when we see God being forgotten, we should mourn: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4).
TOBIAS
Finally, Tobias is a good model of fatherhood. A captive in Assyria, he trusted in God when he had to send his son on a journey to Gabelus: 'I believe that the good Angel of God doth accompany him and doth order all things well that are done, so that he shall return to us with joy.'
A good father seeks God’s protection for his children. Tobias’ advice to his son (Tobias 4:1-23) to lay ‘as a foundation in thy heart’ hits hard today. ‘Honor thy mother all the days of her life,’ he begins. Respect for women is an index of spiritual health, and this starts with mothers. You teach your children this by honouring your wife.
Tobias also warned his son, ‘Take heed to keep thyself, my son, from all fornication, and beside thy wife never endure to know a crime.’ The strongest sign of a pagan society’s depravity, St. Paul said, is disordered sexuality. Aquinas, too, said that nothing darkens the intellect more than disordered sexual desire does.
He reminded his son that man is always at the crossroads: ’Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning.’ Humility leads to heaven. Pride leads to hell. For as long as he lives, man is never safe. The battle begins again each moment.
A good father also protects his son from the damaging influence of degenerate peers. ‘Lay out thy bread and thy wine upon the burial of a just man; and do not eat and drink thereof with the wicked.’ It is impossible, as Aristotle said, to be friends with a wicked man without becoming like him in some small way.
Finally, a good father helps his son avoid pitfalls by sharing the wisdom that comes with experience. ‘Seek counsel always of a wise man,’ said Tobias. Icarus, by contrast, ignored his father, flew too close to the sun and died.
RECAPPING
What’s the most important thing you learnt from this article? Let me know in the comments.
Most important thing I took from it is a reliance on God to protect and provide for us but also to be grateful for that support. Both David and Solomon take their eyes off God once they reach a level of decadence. Tobias and Elias seem to be fully aware and confident in God at all times.
Really interesting article - thank you. You acknowledge David’s mixed capabilities, falling short in later life but still trying to do his best when he realises when he has done wrong. Jonathan’s sacrifice (seeing David and protecting him even though he realised David would take his rightful place) is such an elemental story. Jonathan can see what is right and has to be, for the greater glory of God, so he essentially sacrifices himself. A very powerful story.