Expansive Energy
Mystery of Leave No Trail
Proverbs 30:18-19 (HCSB)
18 Three things are beyond me; four I can’t understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship at sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.
An eagle in the sky leaves no trail in the air. A snake on a rock leaves no trail on the stone. A ship at sea leaves no trail in the water after its wake dissipates. All three of these examples leave no trail in the air or on the rock or in the water.
A trail speaks of direction and purpose or a path to travel upon. The same is also true of a young man who meets a young woman and is transformed in his purpose and direction in life because of procreation. Before a single man is married, he is barren and the same is true for a single unmarried woman who is also barren until married. But when two singles (of opposite gender) marry then both become fruitful and can procreate. It is this power of procreation that can transform a formerly aimless young man into someone of purpose and destiny.
This parable found in Proverbs 30:18-19 speaks of spiritual things that are invisible to the human eye. Drive and ambition and purpose are all motivating factors within a young man which can transform him into something else. Drive and ambition and purpose are like an invisible trail or pathway which a young man can travel upon once he has found a young woman as a marriage partner and gains the power of procreation to motivate him into living for something higher than himself.
Prior to meeting a young woman to marry, a young man will typically lack direction or purpose in his life. Seldom will such a young man labor with diligence and faithfulness if it is only for feeding his own mouth alone. Such aimless young men may flit from one job to another without any “staying-power” to remain faithful. Often, they just work long enough to earn some money to buy some toy or gadget they are interested in. But after a young man finds a woman to marry his love for her and his love for his progeny is expressed by his diligent labor to feed his family and to provide for them for the future.
This drive found within a married man translates into “expansive-energy” as these men clear new fields to plant more crops, or invest in livestock to increase family income or seek out trades skills and knowledge to earn more wages for feeding their families. The drive to increase and overcome and expand into new territories largely comes from the “expansive-energy” of married men seeking to provide for their families and seeking to create an improved standard of living for their children’s future.
Proverbs 30:18-19 (HCSB)
18 Three things are beyond me; four I can’t understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship at sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.
Again, the way of the eagle and the way of a snake and the way of the ship at sea all relate to this way of the young man with a young woman and the power of procreation. It is this invisible force that drives a young man to labor diligently with long-hours because his labor is an expression of his love for his family as he works to provide for them. This pathway of diligence and ambition and overcoming is an unseen motivating factor within the heart of a young man who seeks to provide for his family and give them a better future. This pathway is invisible just like the pathway of an eagle which lives no trail in the sky or snake that leaves no trail on the rock or a ship which leaves no trail in the sea. But invisible or not, motivation is something that drives a young married man to live for something greater than himself as he is energized by his love for his wife and children in providing for them.
This parable also reveals the attributes that a man needs in order to have success and to experience the expansive energy needed to overcome in life.
1. The eagle has great long-distance vision and has eyes that are set in focused manner which represents a man having foresight to know what investments he will make in the present in order to have a positive change in the future. Being “eagle-eyed” speaks of a man who has purpose and drive and ambition and who has a specific plan or set-path to follow toward his success.
2. The serpent speaks of being crafty or shrewd to see the desired outcome and knowing how to obtain it by clever negotiations.
3. The ship speaks of commerce and trade as well as naval power to overcome and conquer new lands. It requires many men to operate a large ship so this also speaks of joining together with other men to work toward obtaining a “like-minded” goal that is beneficial to everyone within the group. This joint-effort or group-cooperation can result in synergism which speaks of producing much more as a group of men working together than if the same number of individuals worked alone. It is a win/win situation for everyone involved in such a group which labors toward the mutual prosperity of everyone within that group.
These attributes are all founded upon procreation of young man marrying the opposite sex and living for something greater than themselves. The power of procreation is what produces expansive-energy to expand into weaker (self-indulgent) cultures and to displace them.
As cultures abandon their divine purpose and live only for pleasure then procreation falls by the wayside. When men no longer live for something greater than themselves, they will typically live only for self-gratification. Many powerful civilizations rotted away from moral decay within when they gave up marriage for procreation and sought only immorality for pleasure. Men who do not have that invisible pathway within them of drive and ambition and overcoming to create a better future for their family will become aimless like a beast that has only a temporal existence.
Groups of people and societies which retain the “expansive-energy” of procreation will naturally overcome and expand into weaker nations that have fallen from their eternal purpose and have degraded themselves to live only for self-indulgence. History provides a long list of now-extinct civilizations that fell from their eternal purpose when their men dropped their purpose and cared for nothing except self-gratification. When this happens, their civilization will rot away without leadership of strong men. Without male-protection such a society will be absorbed by outsiders who are stronger than themselves. There is no strength outside the unification of men whose inner fortitude is being driven by a need to expand and overcome and conquer for the sake of their own families. This is the foundation of all male expansive-energy which builds the great civilizations of earth!
Example of Masculine Drive Lost Due to Communism
Mayflower Compact, 1620
After losing half of their members to starvation, William Bradford realized that their communal-living arrangement (where no individual property rights existed and each member was entitled to an equal share of the total output) resulted in the detriment of their new colony.
“Bradford recognized the demoralizing aspect of this arrangement. The industrious would subsidize the slackers; the most productive would get no more “in the division of the victuals and clothes” than the least productive. Instead of fostering harmony, communal property led to laziness, envy, thievery, poverty, and social dysfunction — just as it would in the 20th Century through the spread of communism.”
“In 1623, Bradford and other leaders assigned to every family “a parcel of land” for its own use. With private property came economic freedom and individual initiative. “This had a very good result,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious” — leading to a big increase in corn production and far greater “contentment” for the community as a whole.
That’s how private property and economic freedom saved the Pilgrims.”
Erosion of Masculine Expansive Drive
The problem with the first American pilgrim community-living arrangement (where slackers were rewarded equally with those who were diligent) was that this type of “communism” destroyed individual initiative. Why should a man labor to feed “freeloaders” and those who are lazy? Why should slackers share equally with him in his labors? This communal-living arrangement resulted in pitiful food production and starvation of half of the first US citizens. When this communal-living arrangement was ended and each family was given their own plot of land to farm then there was a large increase in production. The reason for this is that when a man labors for his family then he will put in great effort to produce a crop. If the same man is forced to give the fruit of his labor to freeloaders, then it is massively detrimental to production. A man is driven to work hard and become industrious to feed his own family but if that is taken from him by taxation and given to freeloaders then this will destroy his drive and his initiative and his ambition.
Again, this is a natural illustration that there are invisible motivating forces that exist within the heart of a married man which will drive him to labor and work for the good of his own family and for the support of his own progeny. If this is deprived from him under a socialist or communist type of government then his drive will be destroyed. Why labor for others who do not even work? Such an attitude nearly destroyed the first American colonies and caused the starvation of half their members. Only when a working man can keep the rewards of their own labors for their own families and for the benefit of their own progeny will these men be motivated to work.
There exists within the hearts of married men an invisible pathway of drive and initiative and determination which motivates them to labor in order to feed their own families. Anything that hinders this masculine drive or causes it to be negated will reduce a once-productive man into a passive and lazy individual who has no purpose in life. Masculine drive comes from a man’s motivation to labor to feed his own wife and children. No man will be motivated to labor for those outside of his immediate family. Only the love for his own wife and his own children will cause a man to go without sleep and pay any price to labor for their benefit.
Dominion Over Heathens
Joshua 12:1 (HCSB)
1 The Israelites struck down the following kings of the land and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan to the east and from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon, including all the Arabah eastward:
All of these kings and heathen cities and heathen states and coalitions were destroyed by Joshua under the help and direction of God! This means God gives dominion over heathens to his people. God’s people are to use their dominion because if they are passive, they will be overrun and ruled by heathens.
It is in the best interests of God to give dominion to men like Joshua who will defeat heathens and take dominion over them. God’s people should have economic dominion and be the head and not the tail and to be the lender and not the borrower and to have economic power to fund a strong military and be strong with technology and weapons which give them dominion over the heathens.
Deuteronomy 11:22-25 (NIV2011)
22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—
23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
25 No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
God gives dominion to those who obey and serve him so that they will have authority over those nations who worship idols and break all of God’s laws.
Exodus 17:10-13 (NIV2011)
10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
There is a spiritual principle seen here that when Moses lifted up his hands in worship of God then the Israelites were winning the battle but whenever he stopped then the enemy would have the victory. The principle to be seen is that as long as God’s people are seeking God and worshiping God then they will be given dominion over the heathens. It was only when God’s people fell away from God and broke his commandments that they were left to the power of their enemies to abuse them.
Joshua 23:3 (NIV2011)
3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.
God however fought for the Israelites as long as they obeyed his commands and God caused all of their enemies to be defeated.
Throughout Israeli history whenever the Israelites yielded to God then they would have victory but when they became self-indulgent and decadent they would be defeated and abused and oppressed by the heathen-nations.
Once great civilizations of the past have been destroyed by the self-serving of self-indulgent men who dropped their leadership resulting national moral decay. When a society becomes like Sodom, they abandon the use of the woman for procreation and seek only self-indulgence and pleasure without regard to the future or building a better life for their children and grandchildren.
The Jewish Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all wealthy men but they did not live for money or material possessions. Instead, wealth was considered a means of caring for their families rather than the focus of their life endeavors.
Genesis 18:18-19 (NIV2011)
18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
God chose Abraham specifically because God knew that Abraham would instruct his children after him in the ways of the Lord. If the following generations also instructed their children in the ways of God, then the knowledge of God had the potential to pass onto every generation from Abraham until this present time. The knowledge of God’s ways could then spread to all humanity in every generation on earth. Therefore, it should be the goal and purpose of God’s people to procreate and mentor godly offspring who are taught the ways of God so they can extend this godly knowledge to all generations on earth.
Whenever humans become decadent and self-serving and abandon procreation and only seek their own self-indulgence then that is when human society falls into moral decay. All of the population of earth was destroyed in the time of Noah (except eight people) because the whole world population become decadent and self-serving seeking only their own self-gratification. Such people do not build anything for the future or for their children or serve God but do everything from self-serving motives. Instead of sex for procreation these reprobates only seek sex for selfish immoral indulgence. Everything goes into debauchery when humans seek to serve no one but themselves!
This is why godly men seek procreation and build civilizations and expand so that they have something good to pass onto their children and grandchildren who can live a better life than their parents had. It is a godly thing to care about others more than yourself and do something good for the future benefit of your own progeny.
2 Samuel 8:11-12 (NASB)
11 King David also dedicated these to the LORD, with the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations which he had subdued:
12 from Aram and Moab and the sons of Ammon and the Philistines and Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
God will bless those who are godly as he did with righteous men like Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Hezekiah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, David and many others who worshiped and obeyed God. David collected great wealth from the heathen nations that he conquered and this was a fulfillment of the principle that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22 (NASB)
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
A good man leaves and inheritance for his children’s children because he his labor is done out of love for his children and grandchildren to provide something better for them than what he had himself. He labors to leave behind assets like land and property and things that can produce a livelihood for his future progeny. God also promises that the wealth of the sinner will be laid up for the righteous meaning God will take the labor of the wicked and give it to those who are pleasing in his sight.
Deuteronomy 6:10-11 (NASB)
10 “Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,
11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,
God used the heathen nations of people living in God’s land to build houses and store good things and hewn cisterns from rock and plant vineyards and olive trees and to provide much wealth and good things for the children of Israel. This is a fulfillment of God’s promise that the wealth of the wicked would be laid up and given to those who are righteous in God’s sight.
Ecclesiastes 2:26 (NIV2011)
26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Solomon also said that God gives the sinner the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to those who please God. It is no wonder that nations of people who engage in pagan idol worship should end up being servant to nations of western civilization (whose culture at that time was based upon the principles of the Jewish Torah and who worshipped the God of Israel and kept God’s commands). God gives righteous people technology and economic power and superior weapons that they might have dominion over all of the heathen nations of the world who engage in false religions and idol worship and break all of the commandments of the God of Israel.
1 Chronicles 18:11 (NIV2011)
11 King David dedicated these articles to the LORD, as he had done with the silver and gold he had taken from all these nations: Edom and Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines, and Amalek.
God gave David dominion over all of the heathen nations surrounding Israel and from these nations David collected a great deal of plunder and wealth including vast amounts of silver and gold.
1 Chronicles 22:14 (NIV2011)
14 “I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.
David provided wealth for the building of God’s temple and this included a 100,000-talents of gold and a 1,000,000-talents of silver (a talent being about 75 lbs.) so this would be 7,500,000 lbs. of gold and 75,000,000-lbs. of silver! This is an enormous amount of wealth given to build the temple of God upon the earth! All of this came from the conquered heathen nations and is a fulfillment of the wealth of the wicked being laid up for the righteous.
However righteous men like David were not greedy and they honored God with the increase that they received from the Lord and were generous and gave freely!
Luke 12:30-31 (NASB)-M
30 “For all these things the (heathen) nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.
31 “But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
The ungodly people of the world all seek after wealth and riches and make an idol of possessions. But the heavenly father knows his people have need of these things to care for their families. But if God’s people will seek the kingdom first (as David and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the other godly men of past history) then God is free to bless his men if their hearts are not set on wealth or riches. All godly men gave to the Lord freely of their wealth showing that God was first place (not material possessions). They were free to give because they were not enslaved to the love of wealth. It is those type of men that God can prosper and bless richly because they have God first place in their hearts (not money).
The believer is not to seek material things but seek God who supplies all of these things abundantly for us. Therefore, it is the motive of the heart that matters.
It is therefore only a natural circumstance that heathen nations that engage in idol worship should experience poverty while western nations that follow Jewish Torah principles and worship the God of Israel should be advanced in prosperity and blessing and technology and have dominion. This is a natural result of following and obeying God’s laws and having God’s blessing upon them as a result.
Following Jewish Torah principles like seed-time and harvest and not eating the seed and not eating female livestock and saving money for investments are all principles that will cause anyone to prosper who follows them.
Godless people however will commonly break all of these principles therefore much of their poverty is self-inflicted by the poor decisions that they make. I once heard a story about a man who owned a fishing boat in Leyte Island Philippines. This man happened to blunder onto a massive school of fish and he hauled in a great catch worth huge money! But as soon as he arrived at his hometown, he had a big party to celebrate and he spent his entire income on buying beer for everyone in town! They called him a one-night millionaire for this reason!
But this foolish man is an example of how godless people frequently cause their own poverty by their foolish decisions. Instead of buying beer for everyone he could have purchased another fishing boat or nets or equipment or hired more workers to increase his business. A Jewish man would have invested these windfall profits into business expansion or into a new business. But those who are Torah-ignorant will typically cut off their own prosperity in their own future by the foolish financial decisions that they make!
It is no wonder that those who do not follow the Jewish Torah are typically poor and broke while those who do follow the Torah principles will prosper. It is no wonder why western civilizations that honor Jewish Torah principles have had the highest standard of living on earth while heathen nations of idol worship (despite having great resources) languish in poverty. The Torah principles of the bible are the foundation of all western civilization and are the reason for the great wealth of the United States (that one time honored the word of God in education and in every part of society)!