In this chapter, William Brown speaks of the importance of fathers sacrificing themselves for their children, the next generation. Specifically, men must rise up with a holy vision and set aside their preferences, entertainment, and selfish patterns. Fathers must seek the preservation and prosperity of their families by teaching them the ways of the Lord and give up worldly pleasures.
Okay, we'll do 13. Thank you. Thank you. Every son needs to hear his father say, quote, Son, sacrifice for the next generation, unquote. Deuteronomy six, verses five through seven.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up chapter 13 for your tomorrow we gave our today. Teaching boys the crux of biblical manhood is difficult today because fallen cultures hold out such distorted pictures. Either you get a model of unhealthy domination or frail passivity.
Yet there is a scene from the Battle of Iwo Jima that points to the heart of biblical manhood. The most prominent feature of biblical manhood is self-sacrifice. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20, 28. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
Ephesians 5, 22, 33 sadly uninformed biblically ignorant people assert that the Bible teaches some form of selfish male domination on the contrary the biblical teaching on male headship is demonstrably sacrificial and full of mercy. Bill Henderson went ashore with the 5th Marine Division. On that day, the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions put almost 40, 000 men on the beach for a battle that would take 10 times longer than anticipated. There was a collective feeling that it would take three days to take an island that refused to fall for 36 days. Seven battalions came ashore, each responsible for 500 yards of its own designated section of beach, identified by four colors.
Beginning at the foot of Mt. Suribachi, the 28th Regiment landed on green beaches. To the right, the 27th Regiment landed on red beaches. The 23rd Regiment landed on the yellow beaches. And then the 25th Regiment landed on the Blue beaches.
For the first hour they were met with only light small arms fire. Bill reports that there was an eerie feeling among the troops as they came ashore without resistance. Either the Japanese were holding back or the pre-invasion bombings did their duty and wiped everyone out. However, at 10 a.m. After thousands were on the beaches and many U.S.
Marines had advanced 300 yards, the Japanese cut loose with unimaginable firepower. All day and all night the 23, 000 Japanese soldiers mustered all they had and rained down artillery fire upon the Marines trying to push them back into the sea. We had 5, 372 casualties in the first two days of battle, 1, 722 of them during the daylight hours of D2 alone. Three men die in almost every minute. For over a month, Bill fought on very little rest and miraculously lived through the entire battle.
His outfit won international notoriety when they raised the flag on Mount Suribachi and gave us one of the most famous photos in the history of photography. He tells about the walk back to the ships after the last day of the battle. Bill says, finally on March 26 we secured the island and they gave us orders to pick up our gear. We were going to be evacuated and taken back to our base camp. We struggled down the road, a ragtag bunch and a miserable looking outfit.
No other outfit had ever seen combat for 37 days of intense direct conflict quite like Iwo Jima. In other long battles the conflict would go on for a few days and then back off but not on Iwo Jima. No one had shaved for five weeks. Of course I was crusted with sweat and rain and volcanic dust dried on. We were a crummy looking outfit.
Our eyes were sunken from lack of sleep, blurred from the horrors we had seen. As we marched down the beach, we detoured around to go by the 5th Marine Division Cemetery. At first we were stumbling along, but as we got closer to that cemetery I noticed something happening. The men started to march more erectly. They formed themselves up in order, and instead of stumbling on, they were marching.
Those who were limping no longer limped. When we got to the cemetery, Everyone was marching ramrod straight Something had happened to them there was a sense of awe and reverence and I left as I left I saw an epitaph which was written on an ammunition carton it is engraved on my mind it reads When you go home Tell them for us and say for your tomorrow we Gave our today Bill continues to give you the magnitude of it it took 22 ships to bring our division to Iwo Jima. It only took eight to take us home. It was an island of sacrifice. Securing Iwo Jima allowed our country to wage a successful bombardment of Japan, which finally led to her downfall.
But there was more. These costly sacrifices saved the lives of over 24, 000 Army Air Corps airmen who were returning from battle with damaged airplanes, who would have plunged into the ocean if Iwo Jima was not secured by the United States Marines. The deeds of valor on Iwo Jima are illustrations of a situation where the sacrifice of one group secured the future of another. This is the nature of war and it is the nature of biblical manhood. The statement, quote, all gave some but some gave all is one of those phrases that communicates the idea that war requires various levels of sacrifice.
Some soldiers sacrifice what are regarded as small things, while others make what we call the ultimate sacrifice death. This is true with wartime but it is especially true with God's design for manhood. Wartime means that money and time and relationships and even emotions be spent differently. You use less gasoline and food because the resources are needed for the battle. In World War II, the entire U.S.
Population participated in a massive rationing program that allocated only small amounts of what today we would call necessities. The privations were legendary. There were scrap metal drives to build more weapons and old tire drives to provide more rubber. Gasoline, sugar, bread, and meat were rationed according to the size of one's family. Common everyday pleasures were given up to support a wartime economy to secure a future.
Our troops on Iwo Jima were sacrificing for their families, sweethearts, businesses, and way of life back home. Those same kinds of sacrifices need to be made today. Every generation has its unique defining battles, where one group must sacrifice for another. I believe that one of the defining battles of the 21st century is the battle for the biblical role of manhood one aspect of this battle is to wrestle with men to convince them to rise up and prepare their sons for battle he which hema brings to mind the sacrifices men must make to win the battle for the family. Today the family, the foundation of human society, is being dashed on the rocks and undermined by nearly every celebrity, institution, and philosophy.
Sons and daughters are being lost through the neglect of their fathers. In times like these, a father must give his today for the tomorrow of his children. Men must rise up with a holy vision and set aside their preferences, entertainments, and selfish patterns. So a father must do number one, provide specific biblical instruction on the matter. Fathers can help their sons understand the nature of biblical manhood and self-sacrifice by instructing them in what the Bible says about manhood.
The self-esteem movement has created a generation of young people who treat self-satisfaction as prudent and good. Selfishness has been idolized and shamelessly promoted. Quite naturally, the result is a style-driven, debt-laden people, which have unscrupulously murdered millions of its own children a father's only hope is to read the Bible to his son and explain the whole counsel of God on biblical manhood. Number two, spend time differently. Fathers should consider redirecting their energies and using their time differently, dying to themselves in order for the next generation to prepare spiritually.
Number three, fight for the preservation of his family. The destroyers of biblical manhood are lurking everywhere, including in the church. The fight against them must include the issue of a detailed challenge. Challenge your son to a lifestyle which will make him boldly and effectively recover biblical manhood. Lost in our culture are fathers who put aside their pet agendas and walk beside their children and communicate the doctrines of sin, judgment, righteousness, and the love of God when they sit in their house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up.
Deuteronomy 6. Who will lead the way? It must be our sons who have been instructed in particular countercultural biblical patterns. Number four, keep the family together. Stop outsourcing your son.
Instead of personally walking besides our sons, the current practice of almost every family is to outsource them to the video game, the DVD, the internet, the music stream, the coach, the college. Fathers today cast their children out in the great broad road and there absent of personal fatherly discipleship, wisdom, love and correction they fall. Consider that there are millions of children in our land who have been outsourced simply because everyone else is doing it. In our land, there are millions of outsourced boys in a free fall whose only hope is the gospel with no one to pull them out of the fire hating even the garment defiled by the flesh jude 23 make sure he understands the heart the main point of biblical manhood illustrated in the statement as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her Ephesians 5 25 don't let him ever forget the line scrawled on that ammunition carton at the Fifth Division Cemetery It should be a reminder that sacrifice is necessary to secure a hope for our children. On Iwo Jima, our troops gave up everything so that freedom would be preserved.
My prayer is that there would be an uprising of fathers like the warriors on Iwo Jima who will give their todays for the tomorrows of the next generation. Train your sons to train their sons who will train their sons who will train their sons for a thousand generations son sacrifice for the next generation