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"Meek Is Not Weak"

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"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."  Matthew 5:5.  These words are found in what is known as the sermon on the mount, found in the book of Matthew.  They are the words of Jesus and in actuality they are not from a sermon, but from the Lord teaching.  King David also said, "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."  Psalms 37:11.  It's so amazing that when people hear the word meek or they use the word themselves, they equate the word with weakness.  Many people believe that for people to inherit the earth, they will have to have foot prints all over them.  In actuality though, meekness has absolutely nothing to do with weakness. 

My wife and I took our daughter to the circus last week and while we were there, I couldn't help noticing how proud so many of the performers were of the things they could do.  There was one act however, that really impressed me.  It was that of the Royal Lipizzan Stallions and the Arabian Stallion.  Now, these are indeed beautiful and most graceful horses, but the one thing that impressed me the most was their meekness.  I had seen these horses perform before, but it was before the Lord saved me and I wasn't nearly as impressed as I was last week.  As I kept watching those beautiful horses with their muscles seemingly straining at the skin doing feats that took great power with seemingly effortless grace, I kept telling my daughter, "watch them".  Then it was like the Lord told me, "Look who's making them do that."  It was a frail little woman with a rope in her hand.  That massive horse with all it's power was yielding itself to the commands of a woman not nearly as strong as it.  Then I asked my daughter, "Do you know what that is?" and she said, "No".  I told her that was meekness.  Not long after I had said that, the horse that was performing did something that was extremely difficult for it to do and also more evidence of meekness.  At that woman's command, the horse stretched his front legs way out in front of him and crossed his front hooves and bowed his front down until his head was nearly to the floor.  Was that weakness?  No, it was great power, but it was indeed meekness.

After seeing all that, I came home and began to study what God's Word has to say about meekness. It's interesting to know that the word meek is mentioned in the Bible 16 times, with the word meekness being mentioned 14 times.  Though that great horse was indeed a good example of meekness and it not being even vaguely related to weakness, God's Word gives us two of the greatest examples of meekness and I'm sure you will agree that neither of them are weak.

The first example of meekness we find is that of Moses.  God's Word tells us, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."  Was Moses a weak man?  No, Moses was the greatest leader of the people of Israel ever to live.  He had more power with God than anyone else in the land and yet he never used that power against his brethren.  Moses knew where everything he had came from and he chose to yield to God and His leadership. 

The other and the very best example of meekness is none other than Jesus Christ Himself.  Again I ask, Is He weak?  No, a thousand times No.  He is God Himself and He has more power than anyone or anything.  Meek, Oh yes, for He tells us Himself, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  Matthew 11:28-30.  Jesus Christ, while here on this earth was God, in the form of a man.  More powerful than anyone or anything else, and yet He yielded Himself to God the Father. 

That horse that I mentioned in the beginning of this little article realized that his well being came from the woman who was his trainer.  That horse yielded himself to the commands of the woman who was his trainer.  Moses realized that all he had and all he was came from the Lord and he yielded himself to the leadership and the commands of God.  Jesus Christ, though He is God, was the Son of God and He realized His position and therefore He yielded Himself fully to God.  Meek.  Now, was that horse unhappy about his decision to yield to the one who cared for him?  Well, he didn't look unhappy to me.  Was Moses a miserable man because of his decision to yield to the Lord to whom he owed everything?  No, he surely had some bad days as all men do, but none of them were ever the result of his yielding to his Master.  Was Jesus depressed over His duty of yielding to God's wishes?  No, not at all.  He too had times of despair because of the flesh, but never ever because of His yielding to God.

Now, this is not to say that a man who is meek will never get angry.  I heard a little joke about Moses once.  It seems there was a little four year old boy who came home from Sunday School and his mother asked him if he had learned anything in Sunday School.  The little boy said, "Oh yes, I learned about Adam and I learned about Methuselah and I learned about Moses."  His mother told him that was a lot to learn in one Sunday School class and she asked him, "What did you learn about Adam?"  The little boy replied, "Oh, I learned that he was the first man."  Then the mother asked him, "Well, what did you learn about Methuselah?"  And the little boy's reply was, "Oh, he was the oldest man!"  The mother was really impressed, and so she asked him, "What did you learn about Moses?"  And the little boy said, "He was the meanest man."  Confused, the mother said, "What do you mean, he was the meanest man?"  The little boy said, "He sure was, he broke all 10 commandments at one time."  Well, the instance the little boy was referring to was when Moses came down from the mountain after fasting forty days and forty nights and after the Lord had written the ten commandments upon those two tables of stone.  When Moses came down, he found his people and God's people worshipping a molten image and frolicking in sin.  This made Moses angry.  This made Moses very angry.  To the extent that he threw the two tables of stone to the ground and broke them.  Yet God's Word tells us that he was the meekest man on the face of the earth.

Jesus Christ Himself, the greatest example of meekness God's Word gives us, became angry.  "And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves."  Mark 11:15.  No friends, being meek is not being weak and neither is it never being angry.  Meekness means realizing that we are nothing without God and the we are totally dependant upon Him for everything we have and are.  Realizing this how can we but yield to His leadership?  Being meek does not mean we will go around with sad faces for our joy will be increased.  "The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."  Isaiah 29:19.  Let us all strive to yield to Him and to have Him guide us and teach us.  "The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way."  Psalms 25:9