We continue to consider three phases of a man’s life, looking further at Warriorness.
Frustrated in one form, Warriorness may surface in another. For example, during World War II, Japanese warriorness was seen in military conquests. After Japan lost the war, war was outlawed in their constitution. So where and how could such warriorness surface? It was redirected into business. Japan won the economic war – with cars, cameras, and computers.
Warriorness can be very good or very bad. Warriorness produces courage, sacrifice and accomplishes God-honoring things. On the other hand, domestic violence is mostly masculine warriorness gone berserk. The crime and violence seen in every society is a perversion of this God-given masculine trait.
Examples of Warriorness
The following examples of warriorness will help the reader grasp, recognize and apply the concept:
The Lord Jesus Christ Warriorness was involved in Him coming to earth, explaining the Old Testament, advocating the kingdom of God, confronting the Pharisees and warring for the truth.
He cleansed the temple in Jerusalem to defend its true purpose. As a Warrior for true doctrine, Jesus Christ stumped the Sadducees,
clarified the greatest commandment, and exposed their unsystematic theology as inadequate. Jesus was the Warrior.
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Many believe he was next in line to become Pharaoh. He was a powerful man in Egypt. But warrior idealism led him to sacrifice his future in Egypt and identify with the suffering Hebrew slaves. He attempted to rally the Hebrew slaves toward freedom. In what I suspect was a carefully-arrived-at-conclusion of mental warriorness, Moses committed himself by killing an Egyptian. . . . this at the conclusion of “…watching Hebrew slaves at their hard labor.” This leadership shows Moses’ warriorness at full strength.
Elijah’s sense of warriorness was offended when false prophets advanced Baal and the worship of the true God declined. Since Baal was the god of agriculture – and the rain essential for abundant crops – Elijah asked God for a draught. It didn’t rain for four rainy seasons. This take-on-Baal-in-the-area-of-his-specialty is typical of warriors. To them, life is a winner-take-all event.
Then there was a huge fire contest on Mt. Carmel. Would Baal answer by sending fire, or would the God of Israel? Elijah was dramatic (another warrior characteristic). This was a high-voltage, flamboyant confrontation with which the most warriorly would be pleased. True to the warrior’s ideal of how things are supposed to turn out, Elijah hoped all Israel would be turned back to God in one grand, spectacular event.
Job As chapter one opens, Job is a powerful man in his warrior phase. In Job 29, he is describing what his life was like before Satan attacked him. When he spoke about a public issue, that settled it. After he spoke, discussion ended, so obvious was his wisdom (and no one wanted to look foolish). He enjoyed the attention and praise that American athletes and movie stars are given. Godly superstar status. Job was living in Warriorville.
Joseph was the favorite of his father, so life was good. He dreamed of his brothers bowing down to him. He dreamed of his parents also bowing. Likely he enjoyed his “coat of many colors.” Life was coming his way, since he was “such a big boy.”
Me Though never a warrior as defined on pages 8 and 9, God gave me a period of warrior-like success. I grew up in southern California. God redeemed me when I was 20 years of age. The warriorness God put in me led me to leave California, get out on my own and cut the
financial ties with Mother & Dad after I graduated from college, even though I didn’t have a job. I worked my way through seminary and God allowed me to serve as the pastor of three local churches from 1967-1987.
1. Max, North Dakota — After one year of seminary in Tennessee, all I wanted to do was preach and the Lord called me to do that in an unforgettable experience. At 22 years of age, warrior Keith Kaynor went north to Max, North Dakota, to serve a small Russian church as pastor. (Some pastors start churches and some churches start pastors – Max was the latter. They let me learn on them.)
After one year of preaching, I sensed a need for more training and a life-time companion. Going to Grand Rapids, Michigan, I received both. I met Marilyn, the lady who is now my wife. And God enabled me to graduate from seminary.
2. Kalamazoo, Michigan The next four years, I was a youth pastor in a church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. God brought us a lot of success. We received too much credit for the godly teens who were launched confidently into life. Some teens went off to Bible college. Two are still pastoring today.
3. Mt. Clemens, Michigan But I was not preaching regularly in Kalamazoo and I wanted to, so I resigned and we went to the greater Detroit area to pastor a local church when I was 29 years of age. All of us young couples in the congregation grew up together as we
raised our sons and daughters. I wrote my first book there. There were challenges, but God brought harmony and progress. The church grew during these warrior years as Marilyn and I served this congregation.
The next stage in the masculine journey is wounded. Enosh, the Hebrew word for wounded, describes man in his weakness and frailty. Enosh is the wounded warrior.
A man going through wounding, can lash out at his wife, his children, his boss and God because he does not understand what God is doing. The now-wounded warrior may not see beyond the people who are being unjust to him. He can become bitter and quit.
The following Bible passages speak of enosh man in his frailty, vulnerability, weakness and need:
- Psalm 103:15 David, the Psalmist, wrote “As for man [enosh] his days are like grass.”
- Job 7:1 “Does not man [enosh] have hard service on the earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man?”
- Job 14:19 “…as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you [God] destroy man’s [enosh] hope.”
- Psalm 90:3 “You [God] turn man [enosh] back to dust.”
The enosh man humbly asks with David, “Why, God, would You want to have anything to do with us?” with a sense of amazement that He does (Psalm 8:4).
Wounding is not on a man’s schedule. We men are unprepared for it. It is a surprise.
Then cometh the pale rider of woundedness. We might be:
- Publicly exposed as wrong
- Falsely accused or unfairly held responsible
- Financially ruined
- Unable to provide for our family
- Sick with little hope of good health
- Without credibility (our word means nothing! )
- Divorced
- Viewed as a thief, deviate, sexual predator or murderer
- Fired at work
- Defied by a rebellious child
- Put on a grinding work schedule of 12-hour days
- Struggling with pornography or drugs
- Gaining excessive weight
- Facing a family dysfunctionality
- Forced to give up our dreams
- Trying to overcome a war-time amputation
- Robbed of our identity
Hicks quotes a soldier about how woundedness came to him: “‘The day I killed my first Iraqi, something in me died.’”
It had been nice to be strong. The warrior assumed he’d always be healthy and enjoy family harmony. He liked being obeyed and he poked fun at the wounded. But now – as a wounded man – the pride of his previous attitude is exposed, making his experience all the more repugnant. He is now becoming the kind of person he previously dismissed as a whimp.
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