Why study the men of the Bible?
The first answer is because I studied the women of the Bible last year. Still, I could have done another study on the women this year because there were many that I left out. But what I said is correct, I am doing it because I did study the women of the Bible last year, and I like to be fair.
But that is not the only reason. The trouble with human beings is too often when take up the plight of an underdog, we create another underdog to go after thinking that will make all things right. It doesn’t. It just makes two groups of underdogs. The one that was and the new group.
Men have been the dominate sex for centuries. Some have overlorded women, but not all. Some were abusive of women, but not all. Some have seen women as only objects for sex, but not all. Some viewed women as illogical and stupid, but not all. Somehow, we dumped all the men together and thought of them as those men who treated women badly.
What has happened in our present society is that a man has to be careful what he says to or in front of a woman. I and a coworker used to have banter that was at times sexual in nature. It was all fun. As far as I was concerned it was going nowhere. He knew this. He laughed once and said we would both be in trouble if we got caught, and we did one day in the stairwell. Our director was coming down the stairs as we were casting back and forth barbs. Then we saw him. I laughed and said, “Our jobs are so messy that we are just letting go of stress.” I then added, “Haven’t you wanted us to let go of stress. This is our way.” But the thing is we knew each other, and we both dealt with people with really dark sexual deviancy that just making sex sound normal helped. But in this present climate I am sure the Director would have called us both in for a talk. That is sad in many ways. I hear of men who said something decades ago and have recently been called out for a joke they made. If I had had a problem with my coworker’s banter with me, I would have said stop it, and I did to one man who made it much more personal and called me at home. He creeped me out. I was glad when he left the Agency.
Society has gotten way too “touchus”, as my Aunt Nelle would say. Basically, that means that society gets offended too easily. How can we work out differences if we do not talk openly. Many women have made it their business to point anything a man says that is wrong. Some women have used barbs and asks of being a bully to keep men in their place. Men and women were both created to be strong in themselves, but both sexes have been guilty of making the other sex weak. It is wrong to clip the wings of women so that they do not become who they should be. It is equally wrong to clip the wings of men so that they do not become what God intended which to be men. It is sad this is done just to satisfy a few touchus people. I am writing about these men of the Bible to expose their human side. They are imperfect, but so am I.
I find this incredibly sad that men have to watch how they speak when talking to women for fear they will be accused when all it is simple banter between them. Not all of it is said is sexual harassment. Men and women should be able to communicate but we have put up all these barriers between us. What has happened is that young people hook up for sexual pleasure without developing a love relationship. Despite what is presented these days, I love men who wear fedoras and such a shame they have gone out of style. I can open a door for myself, but I love being treated like a lady, but I also want to be respected and treated like a woman. I love a man who is strong but is kind. I am a strong woman. I can walk over a man who is weak. I know this about myself. Good men are not the ones who drug and rape women, who beat their women, who control their finances, and who leave them when the going gets tough. But even good men have flaws. Just like good women have flaws. We are imperfect beings who carry within each of us the image of God. “So, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27. We just get in the way of that image shining outward by placing it under a basket of our making.
The Bible is filled with good, but flawed men. It also is filled some not so good men, and then there are the out and out bad men. Even bad men are image bearers of God, but they have buried that image deep in a tomb of their making.
Men and women were both made in the image of God. We are image bearers. There is a sonnet I love… and it is “As Kingfisher’s catch fire” by Gerald Manley Hopkins.. In the first part of the sonnet he describes that moment as the sunsets that the wings of the Kingfisher’s wings seem to catch fire and the dragonfly seem to burst into flame, and he ends that first part with “myself it speaks and spells, Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.” That is the question that all of us ask at some point, “What is my purpose?”
It ends beautifully saying that we all possess the loveliness that is Christ within us. Men and women it matters not, and it is because there is a loveliness in men and in women…I think it is right to honor that loveliness and to acknowledge our many failures and strengths.
I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
I will begin with Elizabeth’s husband and end with her cousin Mary’s husband.
I chose to write about men because in God’s eyes they are lovely.
Ever in Christ’s Love,
Mary Elizabeth Todd
Dear Lord Jesus,
Guide me on this journey. Open my eyes and my heart to a new understanding. Use my words to bless others.
I am very tired today, and I am praying for strength to face this day. May the iron infusion begin to heal me. Give me rest as I need it.
Amen
MET
February 10 and 17, 2023