Will the Men of YHVH Please Take Their Place?

What makes a man a real man?

Is he prince charming riding gallantly on his steed to rescue his princess in distress? (The Proverbs 31 woman certainly doesn't need rescuing but I guess somebody forgot to tell Disney this).

Is he perhaps the image that Hollywood has spent years and billions of dollars selling to us ( Picture any of the silver screen heroes we are all so familiar with).

Maybe it is not only we women who are confused by what makes a man a real man .... perhaps our men are just as confused. Perhaps they too have bought into the lie that is sold to us on every magazine rack and billboard advertisement? The world has packaged them in all different shapes and sizes. We have the metro -sexual (don't worry ladies I am also still trying to figure out exactly what this means), so far I think ... he's the man that isn't ashamed to be in touch with his female psyche, and will give any woman a run for her money when it comes to salon treatments, moisturiser and eye cream. Then we have the more 'manly man', he is made a better man  by the brand of jeans he wears, the beer he drinks or the brand of cigarette he smokes. Unfortunately... just as women are sold the' perfect' female image by the media, so too are men. Perhaps though, in order to understand things a little better,  we should take a couple of steps back. 

1 Corinthians 11 v 3 - 'and I wish you to know that of every man the head is Christ, and the head of a woman is the husband, and the head of Christ is God'. How many times does our focus fall on 'the head of a woman is the husband,' which is absolutely and unequivocally true ... but ... who exactly is the head of the man?? Should and does this govern the way a man lives his life?? Why does Rav Shaul state firstly that the head of every man is Christ?? How many men forget this. How many men forget that not only will they have to give an account for themselves .. but .. for their families as well. Many men want to be treated and respected as the head of the home but fail to fill that exact position. They fail to be the provider (which is not only physical), protector and nurturer that Yah has ordained them to be. They fail to take their place as the spiritual head and sadly are content in allowing their wives to function as such in their place. Some are abusive... physically, verbally or emotionally and don't realise that this does indeed hinder their prayers and ... mould their children. The worst part of all this though, is that these men are not unbelievers but professing men of YHVH.

These men do not realise that not only are they in the process of shaping the next generation but their walk very much shapes a large part of their wives walk too. Maybe there's a much deeper level to Yah's words 'The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children even up to the third and fourth generation'.

Yes, by Yah's grace He uses each one of these situations to strengthen and sculpt the prayer life and heart of His daughters .... and when a man fails to rise up to the task Yah will and has used women (think of Deborah in the book of judges) but I often wonder just how much His heart aches each time one of His sons chooses not to be a man and step out into the life and strength that His heart and death secured for  them  or  for every tear that falls from His precious daughters eyes. By no means do I intend to sound as though I am lumping all of YHVH'S sons into one basket. I am very well aware that there are true men of YHVH who are not perfect but on the journey ... who love Him with all of their heart, soul and strength and whose lives are governed by His heart ... His Torah. Men who love their wives and are showing and training their children to know what a real man looks like and how and by what a true mans  life is governed. Yes real men make mistakes, yes real men fall ...but... real men do not take Yah's name in vain and are very well aware of the  consequences of doing so.

So .... what makes a man a real man?

The same thing that makes a woman real woman.

The heart and Torah of YHVH.

I have often wondered why we have such a clear cut description of a woman of Yah in Proverbs 31 and nothing similar for a man. But then I realised the entire word of Yah is filled with the  description of the men of Yah, from Abraham and Moses, Joshua and Caleb and of course the entire account of the life of King David himself who is called a man after Yah's own heart. These men's lives were governed by the Torah of Yah and even though they fell by Yah's grace they always got up again.

Whether they have bought the lie the world has sold or are sitting in passivity the men of YHVH need to realise that only they can make the choice ... the choice to rise up and to take their rightful place.

It's been empty for far too long.