The Meek
by James Lincoln on March 26, 2006
Once again, Jesus turns everything upside down. The first Beatitudes were not statements that would have resonated with his audience as true at all; nor do they today. Our culture doesn't organize itself to understand or pursue any one of these qualities. We live in a society that favors self assertion, self sufficiency, and putting your self forward. Of all the beatitudes meekness may be the one quality in our culture that we have the least ability to identify with. If you have power, skill and talent and you don't use that for your own advantage, well...you may look like a failure. And the appearance of failure is perhaps the greatest fear men have.
First, What Does It Mean To Be Meek?
Let's start by looking at what meekness isn't and then we'll work our way backwards. In classical Greek culture and in the Bible meekness isn't the same thing as weakness, timidity or lack of confidence. The Greek term (traus) means to be considerate, unassuming or gentle. In 2Cor.10:1 Paul says, "I entreat you (or I'm reaching out to you) by the meekness of Christ. He tells Titus in 3:1&2, "Remind the saints to be submissive, avoid quarreling, to malign no one, be gentle (meek) to show perfect courtesy to all people." Are we a courteous people? Once, Debby and I wanted to go from Queens to Manhattan. So, we asked the token agent at the subway in Queens if the train went under the East River and into Manhattan. He said, "Yes it does." He sold us some tokens. Well, we got on the train and it went right up to the East River and stopped and went back to Queens. We were confused about this but we thought that somehow it would eventually get there. After all, the transit officer said it went to Manhattan. Now, it did this two or three times. It went right up to the East River, reversed itself and went right back to Queens. We were getting a little nervous because Christy was waiting for us at Times Square. The look on our faces must have given us away. An elderly couple noticed and asked if they could help us. We told them our story and that the transit officer said that this train went to Manhattan. She said, "Oh, he's right; it does go to Manhattan. However, it doesn't go there ON THE WEKENDS." In New York, if you don't ask the right question you don't deserve the right answer. The answer was accurate, but not courteous.
Of course, meekness is one of the marks (fruit) of the Holy Spirit. It's evidence that a person is being shaped by the Holy Spirit. In 2 Ti.2:24, Paul writes,
"The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness (meekness) correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance."
The elder is supposes to address someone who promotes false teaching without being quarrelsome but with meekness or gentleness. He doesn't embarrass the man. He doesn't make him look bad or expose his weakness in front of others unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Unlike Nehemiah, he doesn't beat people up and pull out their hair.
In classical Greek the word has a colorful background. It refers to a mild wind or a soothing sound. It's that sound a mom makes when she is calming down a colicky screeching infant by making gentle soothing sounds or the way my daughter Rebekah calms down her wild classroom of preschoolers in Chicago by lowering her voice. It can refer to the taming of a wild animal. A gentle man is to be tame not wild. Meekness isn't weakness. It's strength restrained and directed to a purpose. Who wants to train an ox that is so weak that it can't pull the cart? However, you don't want an ox to go bounding through the field or china shop goring the neighbor's ox or the neighbor. How about you? When you're in a group or having a conversation are you meek or are you like an untamed ox ? What you want an ox that is a considerate, polite and well mannered. That's a good definition of a meek man or a gentle-man. I like what Aristotle said about meekness. He wrote, "Meekness is the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness." Here's one more. To be meek means to build up and preserve life not to tear down. We may think that atomic power represents the most powerful force on the face of the earth. Beloved, it doesn't. Every seed that sprouts in the ground is a miracle of God's creative power. As it grows it covers the planet with life and beauty, texture and color. As we look at life we're looking at the face of the most incredible power in a dead universe. There are a billion suns and two hundred billion galaxies in the universe and as far as we know there is only one planet that bears life. Anything that nurtures life attests to God. It takes strength, creativity, work and power under control to build and grow and give life. To be effective in agriculture and life requires knowledge, patience and discipline. Any fool can wreck something. It's much easier to kick a sand castle over than it is to build one. The meek use their power, creativity, imaginations, energy to give life and build up not tear down.
What about meekness in the Bible? Meekness in the Bible is a byproduct of a life that is refocused on God. It's the outcome of a person who yields and serves God; one who subjects herself to God without resistance. It flows out of a relationship with God that produces a patient, hopeful expectant bearing even in the midst of a severe destiny without complaining. It's triumphal waiting. You can read about this in Ps.37:1-11 The meek are meek precisely because their lives have become knitted to God by faith in such a way that their whole destiny rest in His care. This faith and assurance in God is the soil in which meekness grows because if God is for you, who can really stand against you? If God is for you, you don't have to lash out in anger just because things don't go your way. God is for you. You're not alone. He's not blind. He doesn't have His hands tied behind His back. He's not helpless. You know He is at work. He loves you, knows you and has committed all the wisdom, beauty, power and wonder of His being to His people forever and ever.
Three Examples: Mary, Moses & Jesus
Who is the meekest of them all? My first thoughts run to Mary. Outside of Jesus I don't know of a more remarkable example of meekness. What God asked Mary to do couldn't have been more unreasonable from anyone's earthly perspective both by the kind of injustice she would face and also by what she would loose. Yet, she says, "OK...OK God...Let it be unto me according to Your will." What's so inspiring and terrifying at the same time is her yieldedness and the surrender of her self determination. "I'm no longer in charge of my life or in charge of what happens to me. My plans just got eclipsed and whatever God has in mind for me tol do." To see it simply takes your breath away. Who would say, "Yes, I'll expose myself to unjust ridicule and I'll give birth to the Son of God just to see him brutally killed at the hands of wicked men. If you don't tremble at that assignment you're just not paying attention. She was meek. She didn't insist that things go her way. She yielded to some of the most painful experiences of injustice possible and yet what does she say, "Let it be to me according to Your will." That meekness inspires us and at the same time it scares us that God may call us to live and learn a measure of that nobility as well.
Moses: Now Scripture tells us that Moses was the meekest man in all the earth (Nu.12:3 KJV). Do you picture Moses as meek? I picture Moses coming down from the mountain top with the two tablets of God in his arms. He's standing above the riotous Israel as they danced around the golden calf. He's angry...really angry. He takes the two tablets that were written by the finger of God and he smashes them against the rocks. He takes the golden calf, melts it down and grounds it to dust, puts the dust into the water and he makes the offenders drink the water. And he did more. Now, that's not the image I have in my mind of meekness. Yet, the Scriptures say Moses was the meekest man on the earth.
Heb.11:24 says that Moses left Egypt, "not fearing the king's anger," but this can't be referring to the first time he left Egypt. Because we know that the first time he left in great fear for his life and ran away all the way to Midian. And what did God have him do in Midian? For forty years he herded and took care of sheep...for 40 years. God used forty years of tending sheep to transform Moses from an arrogant, self assured over bearing man into a humble, Gentle and meek man. Moses had to learn to become meek and a servant of the Most High God.
The first time he left Egypt he had his own idea about how to help Israel. He saw a Hebrew slave being abused. So, he took matters into his own hands and he struck down the Egyptian official and then he killed him. He then looked this way and that and then he hid the body in the bushes. He thought he could solve Israel's problem by his quick and clever wit and his brute strength. So in the brilliance of his self assurance and his natural strength he says, "I can take care of this and I'll just kill this Egyptian and hide the body and no one will ever know." However, someone did know and his secret came out.
So, God takes this overconfident man with the hair trigger into the desert into an occupation that the Egyptians despised and let him take care of sheep until he was ready to listen with humility and consideration therefore becoming useful for God's purposes. God moved him from a palace to a field of sheep. Trust me this was not an upward or even later career move.
Meekness is a quality that restrains anger and limits its expression to proper causes and appropriate expression. There are times to express anger and a time to wait. When Moses saw Israel dancing around the golden calf he was furious with anger. That was appropriate. Beloved, when you look defiant, arrogant and unrepentant sin in the face you don't say, "Ohhhh...Ohhhhhhh dear me that's too bad. It doesn't really matter all that much." That's not being meek. That's cowardice. Moses' anger was appropriate.
There are also times to restrain your anger. When Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he married the foreign woman; Instead of immediately lashing out against them he listened to God and obeyed God and let God deal with them. He restrained his anger. He asked God to be merciful to them.
When the people complained in the wilderness journey that there was no water to drink (Marah Ex.15:22ff) instead of blasting them Moses turned to the Lord and asked God what to do about their complaints. Moses obeyed God and did just what God said to do and put the tree limb in the water. And God made the bitter waters sweet. When they got hungry and turned against Moses and accused him of deliberately taking them into the desert so that they would die there, instead of answering the people's complaints Moses obeyed the Lord and God sent quail in droves to feed the people. The second time they complained about water and accused him of leading them into death (17), Again, Moses was meek and didn't lash out at them. Instead he (17:4) cried out to God and obeyed God. Moses was meek on each of these occasions. He was meek before Miriam and Aaron's betrayal. He was meek before the people's endless complaining and false accusations against his motives. He was meek when they griped about the water and then griped about the manna and griped about the quail. In meekness he restrained his anger, he remembered that this was God's doing and these were God's people and he took his anger to God.
However, when they came to Kadesh Barnea the people complained against Moses again about the fact that there was no water. And they accused Moses once again of seeking their death. At first Moses was meek. He turned to God. God told him to assemble the people together and SPEAK to the rock that it would yield its water. God said, "In this way you shall bring forth water for them to drink. " But this time Moses - instead of speaking to the rock as God commanded- He said to the people "Listen now you rebels shall WE bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Then he lifted up his hand and took the rod of God and smashed the rock twice with his rod. God said, "Because you have not believed me to treat me as holy therefore you will not go into the land with the people."
What happen to Moses? Instead of doing what the Lord called him to do Moses took the griping of the people personally. His thoughts went something like this:
"You rebellious people. You're making me look bad. You're not respecting my authority. You're not giving me the credit I deserve. You're attributing motives to me that aren't true. You're not giving me the honor and the respect that I deserve. So I'll show you just what I can do."
And so he struck the rock twice to demonstrate his own power. His anger was for his own sake prompting him to speak and act as if he were the central focus of the people's misbehavior and bad judgment. So, he didn't speak to the rock as God told him. To obey would have bee the meek think to do. But, it would have taken the focus off of himself. He had higher thoughts about himself and his own way than he did God's word and God's way.
Sixty years ago G.K. Chesterton spoke about this dislocation of humility. He said,
"Nowadays the part of man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - HIMSELF. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt.-The Divine Reason-..." (Orthodoxy, 31)
This is exactly what Moses did.
Moses was wrong about his self confidence and lack of confidence in God's word. When he abandoned meekness it kept him from inheriting the land. Moses was no longer at that point poor in spirit and no longer mourning for the sins of the people. It was from the love of self rather than love for God that he acted. Because he was not meek he lost the privilege of participating in inheriting the Promised Land. Moses abandoned meekness and lost self control. He took the privileges of his position and bent them so that they would serve himself and not God. It's not meek to use your position and power for your own glory. And when he ceased to be meek he lost his right to the land. Now, eventually by God's grace he got there. In the days of Jesus he - along with Elijah - met Jesus at the mount of transfiguration. For the most part Moses was a meek man. But he made a choice to abandon meekness for a moment of self satisfaction and vain glory and missed the blessings of the Promised Land. I wonder how many times we have forfeited any right to the blessings of God? Can anyone count that high?
Jesus Christ is of course is a best example. Jesus said,
"Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Mtt.11:28-29)
Moses learned meekness the hard way. He learned it against his own fallibility and natural bent against it, like the rest of us. After all, he had committed murder and tried to take things into his own hands. He had to learn meekness against his own natural tendencies. So, do we. But Jesus, beloved was flawless in his judgment, courage and actions. Jesus was not meek from any weakness in his character. I grew up in the home where violence, fits of rage and abuse were daily occurrences. Like Moses, I have had to learn meekness and am still learning it against a natural bent to be puffed up with pride, arrogant, insecure and a host of other distortions of the fall. But this is not so with Jesus. Jesus is the exact representation of God's being. Jesus reveals to us meekness because God is meek. We're told in Phil.2:5-8 to
"have this mind among yourselves which is in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
How was Jesus meek? He didn't cling or insist on his prerogatives, status, privileges, or his position. Do you? Isn't that what makes you angry? When you don't get what you think you deserve? But look at Moses...look at Mary...looked at the Apostles...did any of them get a just response from men to their faithful acts? No. Hebrews tells us that there were those who were of faith of whom the world was not worthy. Look at Jesus. He voluntarily made himself a servant, making himself less in status than he really was. That means that he laid aside power and prerogatives and his status. He told his disciples at one point that he could call down ten thousand angels to help him. Look at Jesus before Pilate. Jesus could have turned Pilate to dust in a moment. But he didn't. That would have not been meek. He didn't go around pulling rank to get out of serving. Instead he became a servant. He was meek...He let himself become vulnerable and even a victim of the words, actions and finally the injustice and cruelty of others. Jesus was the meekest of men, Oh not because he was weak. Rather because he was strong. I like it when Greg says that any weak man can speed and break the law and cheat on his income tax. It takes a strong man to get himself under control and obey the law. Jesus was strong in his faith in God. Jesus was strong in His commitments to God's purposes so much so that he was able to endure without retaliation.
THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
Again, God's promise to us is the soil in which meekness can grow. It's a future promise. It is about waiting. It's about trusting. It's about believing that God has an inheritance waiting for you. It's about delayed gratification. For a believer instant gratification can't be your long term plan. If it is, you'll not ever know what meekness is. This promise gives us the strength to endure in meekness when the natural inclination would be to defend ourselves, retaliate or to give way to fretful anger.
Meekness is both a beautiful and a painful thing. Some day all that this world was meant to be will belong to you. Some day, the world will be put to rights and along with Christ we will have a dominion over the world that brings out its best and it will give its best to us. Some day the lion will lay with the lamb. Some day the proud will be made humble and the humble will be made wise.
But this promise will only come to those who are meek. So, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and wait for His promises. Do not fret because of evil doers and injustices. Trust in the Lord and do good. Delight yourself in the Lord and His tender mercies. He forgives our sins and showers us with good things. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Cease from anger.
Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary (meekness is refreshing but impatience and anger will wear you out).
Most importantly, run to the meekness of Jesus. Jesus says that he will give you rest because he is meek. He doesn't refuse those who come to him. He is meek; He forgives and restores and uses His power today to renew, build us up and make us safe and fill us with hope. So if you are over burdened by sin and failure and hopelessness and a sense of injustice. Come to Jesus and find rest for your soul for he is meek and gentle in heart.
"Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth."