“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
The Lord begins His sermon by making a series of declarative statements. He now makes the third statement of the characteristic that God blesses.
Blessed are the meek The word the Lord uses does not mean weakness. It does not refer to a cowering weakling. Rather it is the use of one’s strength under control –demonstrating one’s power without undue harshness. We see this by those who are called meek in the Bible.
First it is used of Moses. Numbers 12:3 says that Moses “was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth”. Moses had great authority as the leader of Israel. He did not use this authority to defend himself even when the nation, and his own brother and sister, ridiculed him and rebelled against Him.
Second it is used of Jesus. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle (this is the same word for meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. Jesus had all authority under heaven and earth. With one word He could send a person to eternal hell, raise a dead person to life or order a demon into the abyss. Yet meekness caused the Lord to keep that power under control even as he was ridiculed, slandered, beaten, scourged and even killed. Meekness is what kept Christ on the cross when He could have “called 10,000 angels” to his defense.
Interesting we also see this word used of a Godly wife in 1 Peter 3:4. Here the wife is said to have a meek and gentle spirit shown to her husband. This spirit is directly linked to the wife’s voluntary submissiveness to her husband, a key element of meekness.
What can we learn? First, remember the Lord’s flow of thought. A person is poor is spirit, humbled by their inadequacies to meet God’s standard of perfection. The one who enters the kingdom of God mourns over their sin, the evil they have done, the way they have failed God and the shame they have brought on God, others and themselves. When this person ponders the severity of their situation and their total inability to meek God’s standard they become meek. They do not assert their own rights, they submissively yield to God as the authority in their lives. They acknowledge, accept and follow what God says instead of their own will.
Think of meekness in another way. This is the key characteristic of a bondservant. The bondservant does not begrudge the authority of the master. The bondservant rejects his own desires to follow the will of the master. Meekness is to the master but it also is
meekness toward others. This is the way we represent God to others. We have the truth. We have the authority of God behind us. We are in the right to stand where God drew the line. Yet we read in I Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Meekness is not remaining silent when God’s word is under attack or when we need to tell others about salvation. It is putting aside embarrassment in order to obey God’s Word – ”be prepared to give an answer”. But meekness also gives that answer with gentleness and respect. We represent Christ not by attacking a person but by “speaking the truth in love”. Meekness does not water down the truth to make it palatable. It speaks God’s full truth but with gentleness and compassion. James tells us. “Who is wise among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”