The Meek Inherit All
Matthew 5:5
February 19, 1995
J. David Hoke
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
When Jesus made this statement, He certainly ran against the current mood of the
religious leaders of the day. They thought that the only way to inherit the land was to
overthrow the Roman government, and that certainly could never be done by being meek. They
had to be aggressive and hard, not passive and soft.
Most in our day think in a similar way. Think about your work situation. Think about
what your boss is trying to get you to become. Is meekness one of those characteristics?
If you are in sales or marketing, is meekness high on the list of priorities in those
sales seminars you attend? Is your sales manager or supervisor saying that you need to be
a little bit more meek? Not on your life! He is saying that if you want to get ahead, if
you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, rise to the top, you have to get out
there and grab them by the throat!
There is much emphasis today upon the rich, the famous, and the superstars. But the
Kingdom of God is brought to birth in the midst of that worldly situation and propounds a
philosophy which is diametrically opposed to the philosophy of the world. We read in 1
Corinthians 1:2629, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many
wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the
world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the
despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that
are, that no man should boast before God."
The meek shall inherit the earth. God chooses what the world throws away. He builds His
kingdom out of that. We are people like those mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. We are
the foolish in the eyes of the world. We are those who are powerless; we are the weak; we
are the base. We are the things which are not - the nobodies. Yet God has chosen us. What
a wonderful thing! God has chosen us to build His Kingdom by being meek.
Let's look, first, at what meekness is not. I am not sure we really understand
meekness from a Biblical perspective. I don't believe meekness is weakness. You are not
meek because you are timid. You are not meek because you are fearful. You are not meek
because you are shy. You are not meek because you lack self-confidence. Meekness is not
weakness.
Meekness is also not simply being nice - like some cats are nicer than other cats. We
are all commanded to be meek, not merely nice. It is not simply being an easy-going
person. You are not meek because you do not get upset easily. It might not be your nature
to get angry as easily as other people do. Some people can sit through virtual wars and
never even notice. Others of us are irritated over little things that seem not to bother
anyone else. Meekness has nothing to do with that.
Meekness is not merely an outward quality or manner such as kindness or fairness. I do
not believe meekness is a natural quality at all. I believe meekness is a supernatural
quality which cannot be produced by our own effort. Indeed, it is a fruit of the Spirit.
And God has called all of us, without exception, to manifest the fruit of the Spirit which
is meekness. Since He has called us all to have it, therefore I believe it has to be a
supernatural work done by the Holy Spirit of God in our lives.
What is meekness? It is an inward quality of our spirit, much akin to humility.
It is something God does in us that gives us a certain understanding of who we are and who
God is, and our place before Him.
Andrew Murray said this about humility, which I believe can be applied to meekness,
"Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at
nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when
nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the
Lord where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret, and have His
peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble."
Meekness is seeing ourselves for who we are in light of who God is. Meekness and
humility go hand in hand. Meekness is not expecting something because we feel like God
owes it to us. Therefore, when God gives us a blessing, we are surprised, joyfully so,
that God has seen fit to honor those who deserve no honor. Meekness is knowing who you
are. It is an attitude towards God in light of our poverty through sin, and in light of
His provision of grace. Meekness is an attitude, not primarily toward others, but toward
God. If we are meek before God, we can be bold in His service. If it is primarily an
attitude toward others, then we will bend at any stronger will. It is not compromise, it
is an attitude toward God which bends to His will. Meekness or humbleness of mind towards
God sets one free to forget himself, and stand for Jesus Christ.
There are several examples in Scripture of people who were truly meek toward God.
Abraham was a meek man. As Abraham he left his home, his family and his people, he took
Lot, his nephew, with him. God told him to leave his kinfolk and he took one with him,
which was a mistake because Lot caused him some trouble in subsequent years. Their
herdsman could not seem to live in harmony and Lot and Abraham were trying to figure out
how they were going to get along together. So Abraham said, "We are going to have to
part ways. You choose. Wherever you want to go, I will take what is left." That is an
attitude of meekness. Abraham could have said, "God called me out here. God gave me
a promise. Lot, who is the recipient of the promise?" Lot would have to say,
"You are." Then Abraham could have said, "I am going to take all of the
land I want and you can have what is left." But he didn't. He said, "Lot, you
choose."
The Scripture, in Numbers 12:3, calls Moses the meekest man on the face of the earth.
He had gone into Egypt, at God's command, and told Pharaoh to let God's people go. He,
almost literally, dragged all of those people out into the wilderness at God's command. He
led them. He took them to the foot of Sinai and went up on the mount to spend time with
God. There he received the Word of God, the very Commandments of the living God. He
brought them down the mountain and found the people worshipping a golden calf. He was hot!
He threw the tablets down, had the calf beaten into pulp, put it in water, and made
them drink it. Yet, it was said of Moses that he was the meekest man on the face of the
earth. Now, how is that meekness? It is because Moses' meekness was not meekness
towards the people, it was meekness towards God. The meek spirit that we are to have is a
meek spirit before God, so that we are sensitive to His will.
David amazes me as being a man who was meek. God had given him the kingdom. Samuel, the
prophet, had told him it was his and anointed him as king. When Samuel did this, the
people of Judah received him. But Saul was king. What would David do? David had many
opportunities to take the kingdom by his own hand. Saul was right there in his clutches
several times. David could have killed him and taken the kingdom and no one would have
questioned it. But David said he dared not touch God's anointed. David would not raise his
own hand to claim, by his own power, what he knew God had promised him. Because he knew
that God had promised him the kingdom, he knew God was able to fulfill His own word
without David's help. He was meek, not towards man, but toward God.
Jesus said, "I am meek and lowly at heart." Yet, Jesus, when He saw the
money-changers in the Temple, made Himself a weapon and drove them from the Temple. He
turned over the tables of the money-changers. Do you suppose Jesus actually might have hit
one of them? Do you think, in His anger, one of the tables might have knocked one of them
over, or that he might have hit someone to drive them forth?
Some of you may wonder if this was the same baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate at
Christmas. It is not. There are many Christians who would like to leave Jesus in the
manger. Jesus in the manger does not threaten anyone. Jesus, as the Lord of Glory, as the
living Lord, threatens people. He threatened those who were dealing in the Temple. Yet,
Jesus was meek, perfectly meek. Jesus was meek toward God. Jesus knelt in the Garden of
Gethsemane and said, "Lord, not My will, but Thine be done." Meekness is linked
to a poverty of spirit, a mourning for sin.
Meekness holds in balance two truths. One truth is that in my flesh dwells no good
thing. The other is that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Paul
taught clearly that it was not him, but Christ who worked through him. We must understand
that although anything is possible through Christ we are nothing without Christ. So, when
we approach Him, we approach Him in meekness and in humility. And we approach Him with a
sensitivity to do what He wants us to do.
Why is meekness something to be desired by us? I believe it is because it is so
essential to so many things. First, it is essential to salvation. "He will
beautify the meek with salvation." (Psalm 149:4b)
You cannot really come to know Christ if you are not meek and if you do not have a
sense of your own poverty in spirit, if you do not have a sense of your own sinfulness.
You have to see your need and be humble before God, and be open to receive from Him.
Meekness is also essential to receiving anything from God. You have to come to
Him in faith, but you also have to come to Him with an open heart to receive from Him. You
have to stand before God with hands upturned saying, "Lord, I need you. I am not
self-sufficient." "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have
wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness." (Zephaniah 2:3)
If you do not have meekness, the Scripture says you cannot receive God's word.
It says in James 1:21, "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of
wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your
souls." (NKJV)
You cannot witness effectively if you are not meek. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
You cannot minister effectively to your Christian brothers and sisters without
meekness. Galatians 6:1 says, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness."
It does not say, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
pharisaical, kick the one while he is down because he kicked you last week." Meekness
is essential to our ministry to one another. 2 Timothy 2:2425a talks about our
ministry: "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men,
apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves."
From a pastor's point of view, I want you to know that this is true. There are people
in the church who oppose themselves. They are their worst enemies. Sometimes it is not so
much that they oppose the work of Christ, but they are opposing anything God is doing in
their own lives. It says that in meekness we have to correct those who oppose themselves
". . . if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the
truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having
been held captive by him to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:25b26)
Meekness is allowing the One who is meek and lowly at heart to rule our lives, our
emotions, our behavior. Meekness, like all the fruit of the Spirit, is simply Jesus living
in you.
Meekness is a challenge for us to think in a different way than the world thinks.
Meekness challenges us to lay our lives down. Meekness challenges us not to grasp, but to
give. I believe that a person who is truly meek will be one of the most bold individuals
alive. Because if you are meek in your attitude toward God and in your attitude about
yourself, then for the first time, you do not have anything to defend. I believe that God
is looking for men and women who do not have anything to defend but Jesus and His work.
Then we can quit crying about what is due us, because we see that nothing is really due
us. We are free then to proclaim what is due to the Lord. As those who will inherit all
things, we do not have to grasp for them.
That is why God's servants, like Abraham, like Moses, like David, like Paul, could be
meek and the most powerful men of their day. Meekness runs counter to the prevailing wind
in the world. But I believe that true meekness, as it is lived out before this world, will
testify to God's power in us. When we give up doing it ourselves and begin to rely upon
His power in us, then in the midst of our weakness, He makes Himself strong. People will
look at us and they will marvel at the work of God. "My, what He has done in your
life! Look how little He had to work with and how much He's done." We may not like to
hear it that way, but that is how it is. Either it is me or it is God. I must say, the
more I see me, the more I know it has to be God.
"The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him:
your heart shall live for ever." (Psalm 22:26) "The meek will he guide in
judgment: and the meek will he teach his way." (Psalm 25:9) "The Lord lifteth up
the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground." (Psalm 147:6)
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
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