Biblical Models of Manhood: Part 2
Job, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and Samson
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, we’ll see what the stories of Job, Moses, and Joshua, Gideon and Samson tell us about patience, prayer and humility.
Job: The Power of Patience
Despite being a man of outstanding piety, Job loses everything: his possessions, his children and even his health. By provoking Job to curse God, Satan wants to see if Job’s piety is rooted only in his prosperity. Yet Job patiently endures all his afflictions for God’s sake. And whereas Job was only admired by the angels before his trial, afterwards he is feared by the devils. Trembling before him, they realise that God allowed Satan to test him to grow in holiness. No pressure, no diamond.
Our culture prizes comfort, but historically cultural decadence has always preceded decline. Soft times make soft men. That is why the saints sought out hardship. Jesus went into the desert to overcome the Devil, and Christianity advises men to deliberately make things harder for themselves. Suffering can be medicinal. And that is why God sends it not just to punish sinners but to perfect the just.
This is an arrestingly counter-cultural message. Modern man is told to pop pills to take pain away. But Christ came not to eliminate suffering but to elevate it.
Although Job was a good man in prosperity, he was not a great man until the fires of adversity burnt his minor flaws away. Through suffering, he grew in confidence, patience and humility. And this not only increased his reward in heaven but provided a model for other men and humiliated the devil. We shouldn’t wish for easier lives.
Because Job knew that all things come from God — including what seems terrible to us at the time — he even praised Him in the middle of his trial. He understood that we cannot even exist by ourselves. That is why, as everything he had slipped from his grasp, Job didn’t despair: ‘The Lord gave; the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’ Your life is not your own. It’s a gift you didn’t deserve.
You will sometimes see stories in the news of very successful businessmen who kill themselves and even their families after getting into financial difficulties. Compared to Job, they are effeminate. Augustine’s comment on Job in The City of God (1.10) helps us understand why:
‘Like a good servant, Job counted the will of his Lord his greatest possession and through obedience to that will his soul was enriched. It didn’t grieve him while he was still alive to lose those goods which he was shortly going to have to leave at his death. But as to those feebler spirits who, though they cannot be said to prefer earthly possessions to Christ, still hang on to them with a somewhat moderate attachment to them, they have discovered by the pain of losing these things how much they were sinning in loving them. For their grief is of their own making. In the words of the apostle quoted above, “They have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” For it was well that they who had so long despised these verbal admonitions should receive the teaching of experience.’
The central insight here is that the pain of losing earthly possessions tells us how much we were sinning in loving them. Those suicidal businessmen were disordered in their attachments. Some men can’t even cope when their favourite protein powder is out of stock. This is not just feeble but foolish.
And this is why we need what Augustine calls ‘the teaching of experience’. It’s ‘a hard school,’ said Ben Franklin, but ‘fools will learn in no other.’ The will of God is our ‘greatest possession.’
After failing to break Job by taking his possessions, however, Satan asked God to let him take Job’s health:
‘Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life; but put forth Thy hand, touch his bone and his flesh, and then Thou shalt see, if he will not curse Thee.’
Imagine the gym bro who believes his identity and self-worth depend on a particular performance level or body-fat percentage. Touch his bone and his flesh, and you will break him. This, too, is effeminacy.
Because of his faith, however, Job remained strong. Although he looked forward only to death, he knew — despite never having seen Him — the reality of his Redeemer, and he looked forward to seeing Him in Heaven. He stood firm even when his wife, broken by the loss of her children, succumbed to Satan, doubted God’s mercy and justice and tempted Job to join her.
His friends, shocked by his sufferings, assumed he had sinned. Why else would God have let him go through all this? And so they, too, reproached him and abandoned him. But it was at rock bottom that Job found the securest foundation: faith. And after Job heeded God’s command to pray for his rash friends — an example of the power of the intercession of Saints — God healed his body and restored double what he had lost.
All Satan’s assaults on Job were permitted to perfect him, and Job’s story shows the power of bearing all sufferings patiently. There are very good reasons why we have to suffer. As Basil the Great comments on Job’s story, ‘Be perfectly assured of this, that though the reasons for what is ordained by God are beyond us, yet always what is arranged for us by him who is wise and who loves us is to be accepted, be it ever so grievous to endure.’
Moses: Strength in Steadfastness
The story of Moses illustrates many masculine qualities but especially steadfastness in prayer.
It began with the power of the prayers of his parents. When he has born, there was a kingly edict decreeing the drowning of every new male Israelite offspring. Risking their own lives, his parents bravely hid him for three months despite knowing they could be put to death for it. But they trusted in God and sent their baby down the Nile in a basket. Fear God only.
The Pharaoh’s daughter then rescued him, took pity on him and had him raised by a Hebrew woman until adopting him herself, giving him a place at the court. But Moses, despite being surrounded by wealthy pagans, kept the faith he’d been raised in. And he left this life of luxury, preferring a life of poverty and integrity to help his oppressed brothers in the faith, even killing an Egyptian who degraded one of them. A man must not seek a soft life.
Moses then lived as a humble shepherd for forty years before God spoke to him. God always tests men by hardship, and Moses was selected because of his humility. He ‘exalteth the humble, and abaseth the proud.’ And the encounter happened in solitude because constant involvement in society means constant distraction and poor prayer. That is why all the Saints have stressed the importance of solitude.
Initially, Moses said he wasn’t worthy to take up the task God had given him. Even after God said, ‘I will be with thee,’ he still protested, and at that point God rebuked him. That is because fortitude requires greatness of soul, and the vice of pusillanimity (being small souled or not desiring great things) is opposed to this.
Eventually, however, Moses agreed. Why? Because it would have been not humility but pride to trust his own judgement rather than God’s. God’s plan for your life can intimidate you because He knows what you’re capable of with His help. But He knows better than you do what’s best for you.
Brandishing the ‘rod of God,’ Moses then had to show fortitude to face the merciless, powerful Pharaoh by working miracles and bringing the ten plagues. And finally, with God’s help, the fearless shepherd — against all the odds — broke him, forcing submission from the Hebrews’ enemies. At the first Pasch, as the angel of death came, Moses and his men stood sandalled with their staves in hand, ready to continue their courage by facing the wilderness in exile.
The crossing of the Red Sea was a great display of fearlessness from Moses. With the Egyptian army on their heels, his people were terrified. But with awesome confidence he simply said, ‘The LORD shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.’ (Genesis 14:14) As the waters parted, he then placed his trust in God while he walked beneath them before they crashed down on his enemies.
The Crusaders showed the same attitude when massively outnumbered, and Christians today must also fear only God. We’re not fighting the culture war alone. And if we lose our jobs like I did, we must remember that Moses didn’t worry about how they would survive in the desert. The manna and water that God sent shows he provides for us in the wilderness.
But we have to help ourselves for Him to help us, as Joshua’s battle against the Amalacites shows. While Joshua fought against the hostile tribesmen to secure the Israelites’ safe passage, Moses prayed, raising his hands to lift his heart and mind to God. But whenever he let his hands drop, the enemy overcame Joshua despite his valour. ‘The continual prayer of a just man availeth much’ (James 5:16), and we need to fight but also ask God to fight for us.
Finally, Moses showed his masculinity in his righteous anger. When he descended from Mount Sinai with the stone tablets and saw the orgies before the Golden Calf, he broke the tablets in half. His people had broken the covenant. He then smashed the calf ‘to convince them of their stupidity,’ as Haydock comments, ‘in adoring what he, in a few minutes, reduces to powder.’
And then he punished them:
‘Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
And he said unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’
That question goes to the heart of masculinity: ‘Who is on the LORD’s side?’ Three thousand men were killed. Because he loved his people, Moses had no tolerance for sin. A strong man does not shrug his shoulders or let things slide. But he not only punished them: he also begged God to forgive them, eventually returning from Mount Sinai with new tablets, his face blazing with light.
Later, Moses again showed his hatred for the weakening effects of pleasure-seeking sensuality in his response to the Moabites’ attempt to use sex as a war tactic. Thousands of women arrived at the Israeli encampment and seduced the men before getting them to worship at a pagan shrine. Moses killed everyone involved — Moabites, Midianites and Israelites — totalling 24,000 offenders.
The severity of Moses reminds us to keep God’s commandments, worship God only and bring our children up in the fear and love of Him.
Joshua, Gideon and Samson: True Heroes are Humble
The stories of Joshua, Gideon and Samson show the importance of humility. It is folly to rely on our own unaided power.
We have already seen Joshua’s valour in facing the Amalacites. But his role at Jericho also teaches an important lesson because it was "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down" (Hebrews 11: 30). Joshua knew that marching around the town and blowing his trumpet couldn’t make the walls fall down by his own power. But he also knew that God was with him.
In the same way, we have to labour persistently against our obstacles and vices: ‘Labour as a good soldier of Christ Jesus…he also that striveth for the mastery, is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.’ (2 Timothy 2-5) Your walls of Jericho might be pride, lust or wrath. But if you keep marching around them, they will eventually fall with God’s help. Even the seemingly invincible fortress of porn addiction can crumble.
Similarly, Gideon’s enemy seemed overwhelming. Outnumbered by 450 to 1, he could easily have despaired. But he didn’t. He knew God was with him. Indeed, God had chosen Gideon because he was humble: ‘The weak things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the strong, that no flesh should glory in His sight.’ (1 Cor. 1, 27).
In fact, God allowed only the men who would lower themselves to lapping water like dogs to fight for Gideon. Victory by a smaller force meant greater glory to God. ‘I can do all things in Him, who strengtheneth me.’ (Phil. 4, 13) Bohemond the Crusader, facing similarly hopeless odds, rode out into battle and crushed his enemies despite being exhausted by starvation after a long siege. The culture war — a spiritual war, ultimately — can seem overwhelming. But masculine men aren’t daunted. We ride out.
Samson, too, shows that no matter how great our gifts, we still fall without God — fall harder, in fact, the greater our gifts are. ‘He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.’ (1 Corinthians 10:12) As Fulton Sheen said, you can’t lose your balance when you’re on your knees.
Gifted by God with superhuman strength, Samson was sent by God to punish and humble the enemies of Israel. When a young lion attacked him,
‘the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.’
Note how he doesn’t tell anyone about it. As Haydock comments, ‘The modesty which he displays is more wonderful than the feat of valour.’ Menochius, too, remarks on this: ‘Brave men are never boasters.’
Samson didn’t make an Instagram post about the alpha lion inside himself.
Later, however, when he killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, Samson was less humble, showing the dangers of pride. As Ambrose of Milan says, he was not ‘as controlled in victory as he was strong against the enemy.’ He ‘ought to have attributed the outcome of the engagement to God’s favour and protection,’ but instead he ‘attributed it to himself.’ Our gifts come from God, and the only proper use of them is ultimately for His Glory.
Samson’s story is a reminder of the importance of self-control and self-denial. Until meeting Delilah, his downfall, he had abstained from wine and all intoxicating drinks. But one disordered desire was his undoing. He should have avoided the occasion of sin and immediately prayed for the strength to resist temptation.
But he didn’t. As St. Ambrose perceptively comments,
‘The strong and powerful Samson strangled a lion, but he could not strangle his own passions. He broke the bonds of his captors, but he could not break the bonds of his own lusts.’
Unlike Joseph, who was truly strong, Samson couldn’t walk away from the wrong woman. His eyes led him astray, and because of that he was blinded (morally and literally). His dalliance with Delilah should also remind us how right Moses was to deal so severely with fornication with heathen women. Lust leads to spiritual blindness.
Despite his human flaws, however, Samson showed greatness, especially in sacrificing himself at after God granted him his strength again following his repentance. In his self-sacrifice, he foreshadowed Christ, who also lived an austere life and was betrayed by the people he humbly fought for. And where he fell short of Christ due to being a mere man, he reminds us to pray humbly for God’s help.
TLDR
Recapping so far, these are the main lessons:
Noah: ride the storm
Abram: put God above all things
Joseph: be tested in the fire of humiliation
Job: praise God during suffering
Moses: be steadfast in prayer
Joshua, Gideon and Samson: true heroism is humble
In Part 3, we’ll look at David, Solomon, Elias and Tobias.
Excellent work, Will. Looking forward to Pt III.