With the outright attacks on manliness represented by gender-neutered translations, and the general unconcern over this issue, I have decided to highlight example of manliness in Scripture. My first example comes from the book of Job in which Job goes toe to toe with God like an ancient Greek hero. God, for his part, comes back at him with a blast of undiluted masculinity.

Job starts out as a man’s man. He has got it together. He has wealth, children, lands, servants, everything. He is the Ancient Near East equivalent of a Fortune 500 CEO. He gave and demanded excellence in all he did. When the setbacks and sorrows come, he gets the benefit of 20/400 hindsight of his so-called comforters. In the verbal sparring that ensues, Job silences his accusers, maintaining his integrity. In this he also demands justice from God. He demands it as forcefully as he can. He is a manly man. He doesn’t bend to the corrupted world-view of his contemporaries. He maintains and defends his integrity, and resolutely demands justice.

As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,  ³ as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,  ⁴ my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.  ⁵ Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.  ⁶ I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days. Job 27:2-6  

And God responds to Job, answering his challenge, disdaining all but Job. God speaks directly to Job and opens with an indisputably masculine challenge. “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.” Job, are you MAN enough? No “Let’s sit down and have a reasoned, relational conversation” here. God challenges him to a direct confrontation. God is no sissy. He proceeds to catalogue his accomplishments (laying the foundations of the earth), his power, his authority (over the wind and waves), his breadth and depth of knowledge. This kind of boasting is masculine. You do not hear women rattling off this kind of catalogue. This is 100% masculine material.

And Job is intimidated. Look at his answer, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.  ⁵ I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:4-5). But God has none of this. He repeats his challenge to stand and face him like a man, and then gives Job two final examples of his superiority. The last and longest of these is (drum-roll please) fishing! That’s right. Fishing. There are few things more in the realm of manhood than fishing. I am not a fisherman. I don’t like to fish, so I am not biased here. We all know fishing is a man’s past-time. And, I suggest,  it is one of God’s. Consider Job 41. The entire chapter is about a fish, a big ferocious fish that makes Moby Dick look like a minnow.

Can you draw out Leviathan² with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?  ² Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?  ³ Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?  ⁴ Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?  ⁵ Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?  ⁶ Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?  ⁷ Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?  ⁸ Lay your hands on him; remember the battle - you will not do it again! Job 41:1-8

Here is a Divine, recorded-in-Scripture example of trash-talk. “If you were stupid enough to try it the first time, and lucky enough to live through it, you won’t be stupid enough to try it again…Ahab.” Trash-talk. The way God speaks of leviathan, makes me wonder if we might see one mounted over God’s fireplace – with a stuffed behemoth standing nearby. The details given through chapter 41 sound like the boasting of a deep-sea fisherman, the conqueror of this mighty fish describing the valiant foe captured as his trophy.

God is addressing Job on a purely masculine level, and he expects Job to speak to his face as he did when God was absent. Job is not allowed to be a shrinking flower, cowardly avoiding the reckoning he demanded. This is a character quality that built in to us men. Godly men have the courage to speak the truth especially in the face of fierce opposition. This is the response that God is provoking in Job. God did not tell Job to sit down, shut up and listen. He challenged him to a confrontation. No one is surprised that God proved out superior to Job. The surprise is that there was a contest.

God does not seek cowering yes-men. He wants men who flex the full might of their power; men with integrity who will stand before him as Job did, not in defiance, but demanding that justice prevail. Men who are so committed to truth and justice that they are willing even to ask him to give account for perceived injustice.

And here is how Job demonstrated his greatest manliness. He perceived an injustice, and he demanded that it be made right. But when he understood that his perception was inadequate, he ate crow, a full helping. He had the courage to bake a full pie of four and twenty black birds in front of his friends and accusers. In the full view of everyone he challenged God’s righteousness. And in his audacity he learned the extent of God’s magnificence unsurpassed by any of the prophets. When the contest ran its course, and he came in a distant second, he acknowledged God’s superiority. He did this with a genuineness and humility that followed a head-to-head confrontation on a level playing-field.

Many men are unwilling to allow things to come to this point. They huff and bluster while God is far and away, but they will never address God directly about their grievances. Consequently they never have to face their own finitude nor learn the wisdom that comes from standing before God.

The challenge of Micah 6:8, walk humbly with your God, is to walk. God is fully able to teach the humility to the greatest of men as he did with Job. Just ask Nebuchadnezzar. God is not the least bit intimidated by your greatness, but he has told you, O man, what he requires of you, and that is to walk with him. He has no use for those who refuse to measure their pace by his; those nurse fantasies of besting him, but never giving him the courtesy of an honest contest.

Walk with him in all your strength. That is what he seeks from you.