You're listening to the Hard Men Podcast, reclaiming biblical masculinity in a world of softness.

In First Chronicles, Chronicles, the story of an epic battle is recounted.

It's the kind of battle that centrally defines the masculine heart.

It's not just a battle, but it represents the battle.

It is the prototypical conflict that every man must face and stranger still deep in his core

it is the battle that man longs to face he longs to be a part of it.

Man knows deep in his bones that he was made for this particular fight.

He may run from it or he may embrace it.

But this battle is his ultimate Tailos, his reason for existing, his transcendent path to a meaningful life. It is the hero's journey.

If he runs from it, he will be haunted with the hero's journey.

If he runs from it, he will be haunted with regret all of his days.

If he rises triumphantly to face the day of this battle, he will bear the weight of glory forever. The stakes are high. A man longs

for this battle because he's hardwired to revere and strive for heroism. Heroes don't exist without battles, both in real time and

archetypal. The definition of the hero, by the way, is an illustrious man from Latin, and from the Greek a defender, a protector, or a demigod.

As Michael Walsh says in his book, Last Stands, quote, from the dawn of recorded history, men have felt the need the obligation

to take up arms against an enemy and fight for what they believe in, end quote.

So what is this battle par excellence, this archetypal battle for the hero's soul that we've

been talking about?

What is it like?

What are its characteristics?

Let us begin with the manifestation

we have of this type of epic battle found in First Chronicles 19.

...