This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast.
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Now, Yes, it is. Starting and we're deep in the entrenchment here. It's very fun to be able to. To do these after-hour shows, go a little bit deeper, talk a little bit further on what I. I really, this has been a perplexing question to me.
for years and years and years. Like what in the world Does this word? Really, trying to represent about God's character, what God sees in it, is clearly He saw it in Moses. The word meekness. Right?
And he says that this was the meekest man of his time. In Numbers chapter 12, verse 3. And so, when you think about the topic, Darren, how about you? What are your thoughts on Why is this It's so perplexing.
Well, I think it t for me personally, I am such an analytical thinker. Um not not like Jim, but a l you know. A little bit. That every time I hear the word, what comes to mind is: this is not. What is me not?
Because I've heard all those sermons, right? I've heard all those Bible classes where somebody stood up and we're going through the. beatitudes and we get to you know, blessed are the meek, and then we get the entire rest of the lesson on what meekness is not. And so that's literally what I have to kind of Fight myself out of that mode of thinking, okay, yeah, we know what it's not. Let's talk about what it is.
And I I really enjoyed You're Explanation of that from the Hebrew. And I know you might not want to go deep into Hebrew, but I thoroughly enjoyed hearing that before the show. Robby asked me. There's no problem. No problem going into the this might be a first.
There are two of us that want to hear your Hebrew explanation, because really the problem with meekness is it doesn't mean in English what meekness means in Hebrew. Or probably Greek.
Well, in in any translation, you're looking through a screen. Yeah. you know, in English is the screen at which you're trying to look at a word that's a biblical word. And the beautiful thing about the Hebrew language is it's a picture language. And so through pictures, which are the building blocks of Each letter.
in the Hebrew alphabet, which interestingly is Aleph Bet. And so when you think about that in Hebrew, you can kind of see the pictures that are going to give us the picture of what this word anav, which is what Moses was described by God in Numbers chapter 12, verse 3, is the anav. And Jesus clearly was saying, Blessed are the Anav. The same idea, because obviously Jesus would be speaking Hebrew or Aramaic, one or the other. And so that word, when you hear the A sound in the nav, you can immediately think in our own alphabet, that must be a letter that starts with the A, and it is.
It's a ion. It's A Y I N, Ion. And so that A is actually, if you were to picture it in the way that God looks at this, it's an I. It's a Y.
So if you just picture a Y in your mind and think you've got two eyeballs, right? And those two eyeballs are connected to one optic nerve. And so you're getting two pictures that combine into one vision. And so when you see me right now, Grant, you're not seeing two of me, you're seeing one. And you're taking something that is two and creating one, which is a perfect depiction of what God does, right?
Right, right. We are trying to get on God's Page We're trying to see things the way that he sees them and and and Essentially, drink God's Kool-Aid.
So that's the idea of the letter I, and that's what the word Anav starts with: is that this person has got this vision, which is. Connected to God's vision, you know, open the eyes of my heart, so to speak. And so the second letter in the word Anav is: you can hear the N sound. Right, you hear it, and the and sound is the letter none in Hebrew, and that letter none. is this idea And Jesus talked about it.
that if a seed dies in the ground, that that it can spring back into new life. David talked a lot in the Psalms about being the fallen one and this idea of falling. And we talk about it all the time in a masculine journey that men have wounds and they fall. And from that point of death, Right? Then you now grow a new root, and instead of getting your nourishment from yourself, you begin to get your nourishment from God.
And that letter nun looks like a little seedling. If you ever see the picture of it, it is a seedling, and it's something that's growing in good soil. But at the soil that is, it comes from the valley of humiliation. Is where that soil came from. And if you think about all that soil that's on top of the mountain comes down to the valley for this seed that's going to grow up.
So, this vision is of this fallenness, and that's the humility part of the idea of that's translated meekness.
However, the last letter in the word anav and you can hear the V sound, and that's because the last word, the last letter, is the letter Vav. And the letter Vav, if you've ever... Just picture a straight line. Coming from heaven. And it's actually a masculine energy.
It's Jesus.
Okay? And it's his light coming down to that seed.
Okay, and so here this person has a vision of their own humility, rooted in the good soil and now receiving light from God. And when you think about Moses in his character study, That Here was a man that was a hero. You look ultimately at his personality type. He never really seemed to care about the consequences of when there was a wrong. He always wanted to try to right it from the Egyptian that was abusing the Hebrew slave, and he steps in and murders him.
And then the next day, two Hebrews are fighting. He stumps his nose in again, like, this isn't right. He saw a wrong and he tried to right it. And then You would think he would learn his lesson as he gets run out of town, essentially has to go to Midian, in deep trouble for sticking your nose in where it didn't necessarily belong. You went from Prince of Egypt to essentially run away.
And next thing you know, the first thing he does we hear about in Midian is stick his nose in again because these guys are bullying the girls of the Midian priest. And of course, one of them ends up being his wife. And so you see that underneath this. character of meekness was this idea of Justice. Like, this is not right.
And I'm not going to stand for it. And you might even recognize that when it's said that when Moses. saw the Egyptian Abusing the Hebrew, it said he looked to his right and to his left. Why did he look? In my view, not to see if anybody was watching him because there was no man that was willing to stand up and do what was right, but he was.
He was. And throughout his life If you look at it time and again, he stepped in, interceded for the people when they had sinned, and time again you see that aspect. of his character and so to stand in the gap. I think that's referenced later in the prophets or whatever, but that's what he that's what he did basically. He was a j a a judge essentially and stood on behalf of the right.
The right thing. Right. And so, you know, interestingly, we all picked leadership people. And this is not a political statement in any way, shape, or form. Don't take this.
But I've always admired this speech from Teddy Kennedy. He's eulogizing his brother Bobby after the assassination in the 60s. And for those of us who were there at the time, and I was, it was an extremely moving issue as you can hear Teddy break up as he's... you know, eulogizing his brother. But when you really think about Okay.
John F. Kennedy or Jack Kennedy, he was a hero. PT 109, if you're not familiar with the history of all the things that he did in World War II, etc., his brother was a hero, and Bobby certainly must have been along those same lines.
So here's Teddy Kennedy eulogizing his brother. My brother need not be idealized. or enlarge in death beyond what he was in life. To be remembered simply as a good and decent man. Who saw a wrong and tried to right it?
Saw suffering and tried to heal it. saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him. And who take him to his rest today? Pray that what he was to us What he wished for others.
will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times. in many parts of this nation. To those he touched, and who sought to touch him.
Some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and say, why not? Yeah, and therein lies another quality of Mm-hmm. This anav to me is vision. It it starts out with that letter, and Moses had a vision.
And that it was given to him by God. Free people. Right. And he stepped into that vision. And so you could see that It's fascinating to me, we all chose these ideas of leadership.
Uh but When I looked at this, I I couldn't help but note the the the beauty of the idea of visionaries Um that that walk with God. I I think we all see ourselves a little bit here. that we we look at our own lives and we fancy ourselves to be some sort of a leader somewhere. And yet We also recognize the lack of humility perhaps that we have. And the thing that we probably know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we need the most.
is some level of of the meekness of Christ. the meekness of Moses, the meekness of of David at times, the the meekness of Many flawed people through scripture, and that's the thing that I would want people to understand is. Jesus is the only unflawed, meek one. Every other person that you would ever lift up as a meek person. good, bad, or indifferent.
they're flawed. And I think that we all Who consider ourselves leaders? Maybe that's as a father, maybe it's an older brother, maybe whoever, maybe it's a mom or a sister. But You recognize Hopefully, unless you're a total, complete narcissist, like I am on usually Tuesday, that we struggle with our own. stuff.
And that If we can get hold of that Valley of poverty of spirit humility Um suffering. Um And let the light of Jesus shine and grow our little you know, seedling. then then we've got something. Right. Anyway, Andy, you commented earlier.
That, um Moses was an orphan and thus probably struggled with an orphan spirit. You knew that. You know I had to throw that in there. Don't get it.
Well, you can't help it. You know, as I'm listening to Darren speak and I'm thinking about what he's saying, Jesus constantly went to the Father. He was so. Part of that and Moses, like he met with God constantly, and you know, that's how he got his shine on. Um was that That idea.
And David, right? He he would go to God like, you know, how do I do it this time? And how do I do it that time? And so there's some aspect to that, right, Jim? Yes, there is.
But you didn't see a lot of that There was no commentary. There may have been that Moses did that, but there was no commentary before the burning bush. And I think that's kind of where we talked about where he truly met God. But I think that's all of our it's it's it's where all of us mess up. is whenever we don't.
really go with God and and allow him to to fathers through that. But truly he c he rose up. without knowing his real parents at all. from what the scripture says. He was You know, he was nurtured by somebody from a different Race, or whatever.
So it was really different for him and how he grew up. And he had to know that. But he knew he had people over here, though. His whole problem was he was in denial. No doubt.
Ow. But I'll bump. Instead of the Jordan. I'm sorry. It just was right out there.
I couldn't go ahead, Jim. I'm sorry. Oh, no, I was actually that did bring me back to The Ark. One of the neat things about Hebrew, and if My numbers off, it's because I'm trying to use an old memory. But there's about 5,000 words in Hebrew in the entire Old Testament.
That's not a lot if you think about it. But one of the things about The Ark? It it's the same word. For Noah's boat as it was for the little basket of reeds that he was in. and it is something that carries you to safety.
So Hebrew is a delightful language and You better be a good interpreter because you're going to need it.
So Darren, you got another clip for us. You're going to bring us back to Churchill himself.
Well, yeah, this is this is uh from um A series of films that were made about Churchill's life and through part of this, and what you have to know, the backstory. is that he did doubt whether or not He could pull this thing off. And he did fear, what if I try this again? Because there were a lot of people in his corner saying, you know, Churchill, you know, Winston, you're going to have to step up. You know, you're going to have to step up and lead, right?
And he doubted Whether people would follow him because of his past mistakes. He doubted whether or not he really had what it took. He worried what happens if I fail. I'm going to be not only the failure that lost, you know. People in World War I, but this is the ultimate loss if I lose this one.
And so he feared that. But he had a wife that spoke into him. He had some friends that spoke into him. And so this is kind of him coming to terms with. Yeah, okay, it's time for me to step up and do what I'm supposed to do.
I shall resign immediately. One of you will lead the new government, Winston. Would it be possible for you to discharge the duties of Minister of Defense under the direction of Edward Halifax? As Prime Minister. What is your opinion?
I think Winston would be the better choice. Yeah. I think so too. Mr. Trentrill has arrived, said.
Thank you. I feel very uneasy about this. People say he's unreliable. Is that true? Impulsive, sir, might be a kinder word.
Fernie could have been Lord Halifax. He would have made the most perfect Prime Minister. Perfect. At 4.35 this morning, Hitler's troops invaded Holland and Belgium. our troops and the French.
and marching north to block the German advance. How many of our men, you know, all of them? An entire army. It's an extraordinary coincidence. Hitler attacking the West and you becoming Prime Minister on the same day.
Would be coincidence, huh? Could be destiny.
So there's there's your prince, who's now the king. Yeah. You know? I've heard that he could be. You know, hard to deal with, impulsive, da-da-da-da-da, all those different things.
And then you've got Churchill. In there that says, Yeah, no, I don't want to. If I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail taking the lead. Is ultimately what he does. And, you know, I kind of help run a business, and we talk often about failing fast.
Take a risk. Try to do something. You might fail, that's okay. fail fast, learn from it, get up, Do it again, you know, do the next thing. And so That I believe came from a movie called Into the Storm.
There was one before that called The Gathering Storm. That are all kind of walking you through the behind the scenes of who Churchill really was. not the Public persona of who he was. And he was, I think, truly a meek guy. I think he was strong.
And yes, sometimes he was a little bit lambastic. But He still you know, had that quality of strength holding it together. And taking the lead when he needed to take the lead and helping other people. It was about doing the right thing. Yeah, it is like God raised up certain people.
For such a time as this, right? And clearly, Churchill was one of those that, as we look through history, and George Washington being another, as we're next clip from Andy.
So You know, I'm a kind of a history nut and I really like I look at our leaders. To me, George Washington, who this is about, and about the Battle of Trenton. And the you know, crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day to go and attack Um The Hessians on the other side, and the debate before it, and how he led and strengthened here, but. You know, you look at George Washington, I look at him as the Moses of of the United States. We truly had a leader, and he truly was a spiritual leader.
When you see all the prayers and all that he put into the revolution and for our freedom.
So this is really a cool clip between, it's a debate between him and Horatio Gates. of whether they should actually Do this, you know, do this attack. And talking about vision earlier, he had a vision. that others didn't at that time. And he was like And this was the risk that Darren was talking about.
There's risks that you have to take, and he took the ultimate risk here for our country. I waited for you to broach this. What do you think? You would not wish to know, sir. Then you have objections.
Many. Would you specify them? Gladly. Firstly, my dear sir, in order to attack, one needs an army. You do not have an army.
Secondly, in order to attack, one needs soldiers. Your men are not soldiers. Thirdly, your troops always go in one direction. To attack requires the other direction. Shall I continue?
By all means. In 11 days' time, the enlistments run out. Your men will not attack a flyer before then, and why should they? They need only sit tight and go home.
Next. There is no way to cross the river and keep such a plan from the Hessians. They have spies everywhere. The crossing will take hours, and long before you reach the other shore, the Hessians will have their artillery on your boats. Those big Durham boats of yours make good targets.
Even a Yankee gunner couldn't miss them. And finally, you will not defeat Hessians. They are European soldiers. The most disciplined, the most rigorously trained, the best soldiers on Earth, and you bloody well know that. You can't face defeat, and so you seek annihilation.
Have you finished? Surrender. This revolution is over.
So we surrender. We weigh the pros and cons and reason prevails. But you see, sir, I am an unreasonable man, as well as a poor soldier. But you are right. My men are not soldiers.
They are lads. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. They run away. They fear the Hessians as they fear death. All this is true.
They have put their trust in me. They could have deserted. Thousands have. But these lads have not. They remain with me.
And I, not you, General Gates, I command this army, and if I, a bumbling Virginia farmer, should decide to lead them into hell, they will follow me into hell. I mean, Gates was so condescending there. It was like Jesus talking to the Pharisees, you know, and how the Pharisees talk to him. And in Washington Gives the guy an opportunity to say his piece, knowing he's probably going to counter him because he did in everything, and he listened to it. And then he he maintained maintained control, but then he expressed his strengths.
And what they were going to do, and cast the vision that the guy didn't have any vision for, and hence we have a country. And it's just a powerful statement of leadership or meekness to me in that that could have been a blow-up. That could have been in all kinds of, you know, there could have been a lot more drama. And of course, it was a movie and replayed it. We weren't there.
But it's a perfect example to me of what I think meekness to be. And later on, Gates nearly lost the South. Oh, exactly. We won't talk about who the real hero of the American Revolution is. Does You're looking at me.
Yeah, like you know something about that situation. Go ahead and share. Oh, well, I just did. I don't remember too much, other than he lost at Camden and lost his command. And took off running like a well, we won't say eight.
Like the people he had contributions. Yeah. He did. the nobles in William Wallace's story, Brave Heart, Right. You know, wait until we've negotiated.
He sounds like Chamberlain in World War II. Oh, yeah. I mean, he sounds like every... quote unquote sensible Thoughtful, wise, reasonable, reasonable. leader that most people will present as the leader type.
And Washington was the exact opposite of that. But Washington was much like young David. Washington didn't have a father. That was around much. He spent a lot of time out in the wilderness hunting and fishing and exploring and surveying the world around him.
And so he knew.
some things. He had been up against his own lions, if you will, his own giants, if you will. And French and Indian War. Yeah, the failures in that, too, could have been like his Moses fiasco. Exactly.
And most important, it showed in that clip. He knew people. Yeah. He understood. The Hessians were drunk.
They knew they were. Not going to be fair to say, you see there is a care for his men, and his men would follow him anywhere. That truly showed the meekness of a leader. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing when you think about it. As we talk about at every boot camp, that one of the core desires of a man's heart is a battle to fight.
And when we're looking towards what we think are leaders, You know, quite often the Pharisees, the nobles, the people in Braveheart. You know, they're the ones that are negotiating, but we hold up the picture of Mr. Rogers, right? Which looks like that's the perfect church guy. This is the guy that needs to be a deacon.
This is the guy that needs to be because, you know, he's calm and he's got all this stuff together.
However, he wants you to be his neighbor.
However, it doesn't capture your heart. And clearly, Washington. had captured their heart. Clearly, You know, David had done that and w in Churchill. Right.
And that that's the difference between a real leader And a proposed leader. The real leader doesn't have to tell people, I'm the leader. The proposed leader has to get people to buy in, and the real leader just leads.
So we're trying to lead you to boot camp. It's coming up March 12th through the 15th in Royston, Georgia. Go to masculinejourneyradio.org. We are praying that you will join us. We've got such.
A battle to fight, such a beauty to rescue, and such an adventure to live. But we want to wrench here with you.
So join us. Go to masculinejourneyradio.org.
