Act Like a Man

I have heard it said that in some cultures, you are not considered to have reached genuine manhood until you have seen The Godfather. While there are certainly elements of the Italian mafia that do not need to be emulated, there are lessons that we can take from Don Vito Corleone’s gentle art of ‘persuasion’.

In this scene, a washed up entertainer named Johnny Fontane complains to the Don that a studio is passing him over for a part in a movie. He buries his head in his hands and moans ‘What am I gonna do?’

“You can act like a man! What’s the matter with you?”

In studying the life of the great Israelite warrior, Joshua, we find him leading a people that were once enslaved in a foreign country being ‘given’ a land of their own. In our modern culture, when someone says they are giving us something we expect no effort on our part except to have that gift placed in our hands.

In Joshua 18:1-3, the ‘Promised Land’ was being divided up between the tribes. At this point seven of these tribes had not yet been allotted what they believed was their inheritance.

“Then Joshua asked them, ‘How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?’”

How often do we as believers in Jesus Christ sit and wait for God to give us the things we want or need? We sit with our head in our hands, bewildered that life isn’t working out the way we wanted. We seek Him for answers and get frustrated when a gift wrapped present with a brightly colored bow isn’t delivered effortlessly into our laps.

The Israelites had been ‘given’ a land of their own - to conquer and possess. This means they would have to take up their weapons, risk everything, and go to war in order to receive what God had given them.

2 Peter 1:3 tells us that ‘By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.’

God is far more interested in developing what is inside of us than He is in throwing a birthday party. Whether we like it or not, we are at war.

War with sin. Our selfish desires. Spiritual forces determined to drag us from God’s best and the opportunities He provides.

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 The Message

There is an illustration about a man that lived on the edge of a large mountain. Beside his home was an enormous boulder. God spoke to the man and said ‘go and move that boulder.’

Day after day the man pushed, pulled, and struggled with this massive object. It never moved an inch. Days turned into weeks, months, and years with no movement.

“What am I supposed to do, God? I can’t do this! It is too overwhelming!”

God then tells the man to go and look in the mirror. What he found was a body filled with muscular definition; the picture of physical strength and power.

God had given this man the opportunity to go to war with an immovable object not because he was interested in a boulder moving, but in developing him internally. It was not about the task, but through this man’s obedience he experienced what God truly wanted for him.

When you say you are hungry, God may give you a net instead of a fish. If you are thirsty, instead of a glass of water He may give you a shovel to dig a well. Joshua’s people wanted their land, and they were given swords and shields to go and take it.

Do you have land yet unconquered? What’s the matter with you? Be a man.