The Man In The ‘Band’
By David Madison
“Three times a year”, God commands, “all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.” This is recorded in the book of Exodus, Chapter 23, verse 17. This commandment of God Almighty is directed to the “males” only.
Was the Lord God discriminating against the woman in this instance? Many of our lawmakers would think so: Even the ones that claim to believe in God’s word and call themselves “Men”. God thinks otherwise, and He of course, is right!
Why then, would God command all the “males” to come together, three times in a year? The answer to that question is very simple.
What you and I must realize by now is that, God knows some thing that the majority of us don’t know, and that is, “Men and Women are not alike”. Men and Women complement each other, but they are diametrically opposed to each other in character. Men and women are chiefly motivated by different things and they are motivated by these things in different ways.
This is precisely why men, for the most part, don’t understand women. Men may learn techniques to attract women, and methods to make them reasonably happy and content, but too really understand the woman; the man must become a woman in character. This effort to identify with the woman in character sounds very noble; but by doing so he is putting his “Masculinity”, as well as his “Manhood” in jeopardy. Incidentally, this effeminacy is what the “women’s” movement in America seemed to advocate; and when our nation’s males became “sensitive”, “caring” and “delicate”, a hatred of men seemed to seize the group. I would be very surprised to meet a well adjusted woman who would be completely satisfied with a husband who shared the same character traits with her sister.
God commanded the men to come together as a group because He wanted to instruct them as “Men”. God knew that even though women are every bit as intelligent as men, they perceive things in a very different manner. The way men perceive things and the way women perceive things are so different, while they may both be right in context; the outcome is often a great confusion. God is not the author of confusion and will have none of it in His “Order”, even if He must arrange things in a way that the carnal mind does not understand, to assure it.
Men tend to learn in general, and learn “Manhood” in particular, when they get together among themselves. I have no statistics at my fingertips to support this view, but it is nevertheless true. God thinks so…that is why He commanded them to assemble together as “Men”. Men are motivated chiefly by “Laws”, and women are motivated mostly by “Love”. Men fare best with “Rules” and “Regulations”, while women are at home with feelings and instinct. This will be dealt with in more detail in chapter eight. There is much in a “pure” spiritual realm that men may acquire from godly women, but:
Men are always strengthened, by other godly men!
Assemble together with two or three Bible believing “Men”, and read this book aloud. Read it as if confessing it to the Lord. The Godly “Men” will be strengthened by your confession and you will be strengthened by theirs as you read (confess) all the principles of godliness and “Manhood” that are written here. These principles will work because they are Bible principles and because they constitute the “Order” of God in the character of “Man”.
One of the liabilities of our educational system may turn out to be the co-education in our public schools. Recently, a school district promoted a program in which the little boys and the little girls were separated in the early grades. This was ruled unconstitutional and discriminatory by a federal judge.
The real problem with the co-educational system is that most of our public school educators are women, and they tend to think in a feminine mode. Actually this is absolutely the right way for women to think, but, when little boys and little girls are in the same classroom; this thinking in the feminine mode is distressing to the boys. The reason for this is:
Little boys are as different from little girls as men are different from women!
Little girls seem to be able to sit still almost forever, and they tend to be more reserved. They tend to have a longer attention span and they can assume a very mannerly posture at an extremely early age.
Little boys are rambunctious and fidgety. They tend to mature more slowly in the early years, and their attention span is often very short; they also tend to be more aggressive than the girls. All these things tend to annoy female teachers who themselves were attuned to being more reserved during their beginning years in school.
Because of this different mode of behavior between the boys and the girls, and because the deportment of the boys is often a source of annoyance to the woman teacher:
The girls are perceived to be “good” and the boys are thought to be “bad”!
The Real truth of the matter is, the Boys are acting just like Boys should act — It’s their nature — It’s just different from the way girls act.
The teachers are not actually teaching the little Boys to be good. What’s really happening is:
Little boys are being taught to act like little girls!
When the little Boys find it difficult to act like the little girls, the teacher (female) perceives this as being rebellious and the little Boy is then branded as an uncooperative child; many times this image follows him all the way through school, just because he acts like a Boy.
It is worthy of some note, that these same little boys can, and do excel in little league baseball, and pee wee football, learning the difficult formations, memorizing the action signs in baseball, and demonstrating superb discipline while doing so!
The lesson we should learn from this is that little boys develop better among themselves, just as Men grow stronger among other Men!
When ungodly Men get together, their ungodliness is intensified — they strengthen themselves in Sin!
Men, when they are among themselves, drink more liquor, use more profanity, tell more lies, stimulate more lust in their lives, and generally act more like the devil! That is Why Men who like to drink, and Men who watch pornographic films, and Men who like to fight and be aggressive, Always get together with other Men who like to do those same things!
Whether it’s for good or for bad it’s an inescapable fact:
Men really do strengthen one another!
There is an event that actually happened, that fully illustrates this truth! A young man took up membership with a local church congregation that has a large contingency of young men in attendance. This young man whom I will call “Brad”, was the most timid and meek fellow that you would ever likely meet. Brad would apologize for things he never did, he would explain each and everything he did; even to people who did not ask, and even to those who did not care; Brad avoided Confrontation like mice avoid cats. He tended to deny anything controversial that he was accused of saying, and often cried when he was under harsh dispute by someone who was defiantly aggressive. Brad was a nice guy, but boy…what a Wimp:
Brad eventually became engaged to be married to one of the girls in the church, so the other young men decided to boost his ego.
The young men started by saying such things as, “Man, that Brad is tough”, and “That Brad doesn’t take any stuff from anybody”.
At first, all Brad did was smile very shyly, and scuff his feet around; but as they continued to say these things, he started to agree. He started saying, very quietly, “That’s right!”, from time to time, but eventually he was loudly and adamantly saying, “You’d better believe it,” and “You’ve got that right”!
A miraculous change came over Brad. Just by being with other young men (who were Christians, but masculinely aggressive) by listening to their words of encouragement, he gradually became so “macho” that when other young guys would visit the church, they would immediately perceive Brad to be the toughest guy in the bunch!
God’s Word is right, so are all His principles and patterns! God’s way is always right, and is never wrong. When you learn to have confidence in the Divine Plan of Almighty God, you will always succeed, and never really fail if only you submit to them and follow them, every day of your life.
Just as wicked men strengthen themselves in their wickedness when they get together, also:
Righteous men strengthen one another when they get together!
When the righteous Men of God Almighty get together, they enhance in themselves Real Manhood, and take on the manly character and characteristics of The Lord God Himself, as demonstrated in the life of Our Savior, Jesus Christ!
When righteous Men get together in accordance with the Word of Almighty God, they begin to identify with the Faithfulness of God and the Courage of God and the Accountability of God and the Wisdom of God and the Submissiveness of God! They begin to operate in the Order of God (being led by His Holy Spirit), to establish in their lives all the Authority, Power, Leadership, and Success that can be naturally and supernaturally released to them by the Divine Grace of God’s Master Plan!
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, assembled together twelve men. These were Men of different temperament, different social levels, different occupations, of different political persuasions, who lived relatively close to one another in a very small country! Despite all these differences and limited area of involvement:
Eleven of the apostles of Jesus Christ changed the entire world!
Eleven Men, who had no visible/world shaking talent or ability, were able to change the entire known civilized world. The twelfth disciple, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord Jesus, was lost to the group.
These eleven ordinary men also changed history, and affected human beings on a global level (excusing the changing of the languages and the international distributing of the rebellious wicked at the tower of Babel) more dramatically and deeply than possibly anything else on the face of the earth for all recorded time!
Where did these men get this kind of Authority and Power?
What did they do? How did they do it? What made these eleven ordinary Men different from other Men? How was the Lord Jesus Christ able to use these eleven ordinary men to establish an unshakable foundation that would last for eternity?
The only thing that Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did was to:
Get the godly men together!
And etch in their hearts all the Principles and Patterns of the Order of God Almighty (revealed in His Master Plan) as recorded in the Holy Bible.
All that the eleven apostles did was to:
Submit entirety to the Lord Jesus Christ, and confess Him before Men!
When the eleven Apostles submitted completely and Entirely to the Will of God Almighty through the Lord Jesus, and established the Godly quality of Faithfulness in their discipleship unto Him; they Earned the right to be entrusted with all the Authority, Power and Leadership of the kingdom of Heaven!
When the eleven disciples Confessed Jesus before men in Identification with Him, there was a subsequent confession made in heaven that the Godly characteristics of Real Manhood (the very character of God himself) were present in their lives, and as a result of this, The Lord God Almighty released unto them World Shaking, World Changing, History Altering, and Eternity Enduring Power and Authority that changed them from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
When the righteous Men of God came together and Strengthened one another in Godliness, they changed the world. When righteous Men Today, get together and strengthen one another in the Godly characteristics of Submissiveness, Faithfulness, Accountability, Courage, and Obedience, they too, can:
Change the world In their home, In their family, In their church, In their places of business, in their community, in their towns, and in Its entirety, through the grace of Almighty God!
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
