11 January 2024
If every man ought to be at least a nobleman under the Covenant, this settles a lot of other questions.
There has been a long discussion across the manosphere over how we should go about restoring male dominance against the ubiquitous (and iniquitous) feminine self-worship. I don't pretend to pass judgment on the various answers. I've long since withdrawn from the discussion, mostly because too many men are convinced they already have the best answers. The discussion often devolves in men competing to be heard on their own particular take.
When western men start trying to recover their moral nobility, it's natural for them to take off in all different directions. They are instinctively competitive, instead of cooperative. Most of the time, the differences are merely semantic. Everybody is vying for supremacy for his own home-grown flavor. In other words, it's the kind of chaos you would expect from a freehold society. Since the western image of God is that of an absentee landlord, there is no incentive to turn to the established model going back to ancient times.
Let me emphasize once more: I'm not trying to devise a model of my own. I'm doing my best to rediscover the buried ruins of what God's people once built up. I openly admit that what I've found is not the whole thing, only the part within my personal reach, so that I can dig away the dust our world has left to cover God's revelation. I aim for a broad understanding, and leave the details for each man to discover for himself. Feel free to distinguish yourself that way.
As always, I don't take myself that seriously. There's more than enough for all of us to discover on our own. Rather, I hope to recover the broad shape of the longstanding image that God declared in His Word. I'll save the details of what I think I can do about it for a more private discussion, when we can compare notes. Let's focus on just getting the outline out of what God has revealed.
Our Radix Fidem community commentary on Ecclesiastes (found in this volume) warns:
The sarcasm and mocking Solomon offers here could easily be aimed at the large number of Western Christians who don't get Hebrew wisdom literature. The underlying premise of the book is portraying the vanity of trying to understand life, the universe and everything from a merely human point of view. Is there anything man can devise or do on his own that would give meaning to our human existence? The wisest man in human history could not come up with a good answer, try as he might all the ways men seek to conquer this existence....
This book is easily the pinnacle of Hebrew mysticism. That is, there is nothing here truly spiritual, in the sense that this book is wholly a matter of God's moral laws for fallen mankind. This is moral wisdom on an earthly level for an earthly existence. It does point to spiritual depth, but never mentions it directly, as is the case with published Law Covenants. As non-Western literature, there is nothing here of questioning the nature of existence, nor defining the meaning of things from a rational position. That's the wrong question here. The question is how to make the most of human existence after the Fall, how best to obtain the very most life here can offer.
That question is played out while pretending to avoid references to revelation. Solomon experiments with all the ways men pursue the different approaches, and he does so with vastly superior native ability. He does make reference to mere logic in the rational mold, but dismisses it, too. In the end, he answers with the assertion that, taking the very best of all the various philosophical approaches to the basic question of how to make the most of our human existence, and using the very deepest and wisest mind with access to as much human knowledge as existed at that time, you still can't come up with anything better than a pretty simple grasp of God's Laws.
In other words, this is a study in nobility, leaving the deeper issues of spiritual royalty for other books. Rather, "this book follows in the great ancient traditions of building a curriculum of wisdom training for servants in the ruling court. This was Solomon's handbook for young men hired onto the royal staff." It was a handbook of Hebrew nobility.
And very quickly Solomon outlines in the first chapter that the key to a blessed life is recognizing the situation as God made it. We must remain humble. Everyone serves someone else, and the path to nobility is to find your place in His divine plans. Your best hope is not big dreams; those are merely entertainment in your own head. Rather, the key to significance is seizing the joy of God's calling for your life. The assumption of the whole book was that a man should be noble, at the least.
The model of Biblical Manhood is the shepherd sheikh, the one who keeps sheep for his Master. He is God's delegate, holder of a vassal position of great importance to God. He rules on God's behalf over whatever portion the Lord grants him. His only ambition is to make God smile.
This answers every other question life. Whatever solutions God will allow us to seek will arise from embracing this model.
Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. For God will evaluate every deed, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 13:13-14 NET)
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