What are the Characteristics of This New Generation of Fighting Men?

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Posted by rfathers on December 15, 2009

Today’s new generation of fighting men will distinguish itself by its devotion and commitment to Our Lord Jesus Christ. In this, they will be unlike the old generation of fighting men who suffered from a slave mentality when they were in the desert with Moses.

Let us clearly define the old generation of fighting men that God would not let go into the Promised Land before we discuss the new generation of fighting men that we need today.

That old generation of fighting men had its origin in the post-Joseph era in Egypt when Pharaoh sought to enslave the Israelites (Exodus 2:6-22). The Bible does not record any specific activities of the men or any organized resistance to Egypt’s enslavement effort. It is significant that the resistance of the Israelite women (midwives who feared God) is well-documented as they refused the command of Pharaoh to kill all newborn baby boys (v. 15-22). Were the men as steadfast as the women?

Perhaps they had become complacent during the privileged and protected years under Joseph and afterwards. That complacency gave way to bitterness (Exodus 2: 14) which continued up into Israel’s time in the desert possibly leading to their own destruction (Number 1439 NIV).

Nonetheless, in the post-Joseph era the old generation of fighting men does not appear to have been doing much fighting – or at least not victoriously. By the time that Moses was prepared to lead them to take the Promised Land they had clearly lost the will to fight in spite of assurances that God would deliver the land into their hands. Instead, they wanted to return to Egypt where they had been slaves (Numbers 14:1-4).

This is why God did not let them go into the Promised Land. God said they had to die in the desert and that their children would take their place in the Promised Land (Numbers 14:29-32).

Today a new generation of fighting men is needed to address the current challenges that our families and nations face. Today men need to change – not be eliminated. This is a transformational process. Every man needs to eliminate from within himself any lingering characteristic or attributes that doomed the old generation of fighting men that was lost in the desert.

To this end we have constructed seven points that describes the characteristics of a new generation of fighting men to help ourselves prepare for the challenges at hand.

In the next post we will discuss the first of those seven points, the things we want to leave behind as explained by Moses in Deuteronomy 1:26-46.