Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5.
It is good to know that God is going to turn the earth over to the meek, and it is important that we understand who the meek are.
The meek are gentle and mild, they are humble. They are kind and forgiving, they are benevolent.
To be meek is to have aggressive faith that does not ambitiously strive in the flesh for the fulfillment of God’s will. The meek inherit because they have an aggressive faith to come into something that is great. That aggressive faith refuses to strive in the flesh to fulfill the promises of God.
When Sarah tempted Abraham to raise a son and fulfill the promises of God by her handmaiden, Hagar, his doing so created problems that still exist between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. You live with the monster that is created when you think to produce the will of God after the flesh. When a man ambitiously strives to fulfill God’s promise in the flesh, he usually comes into a great problem. The cry of Paul to the Galatians was, “Having begun in the Spirit, do you think to be made perfect in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). There is a striving and an aggressive faith that is in God, and there is a fleshly striving that God cannot bless. But meekness does not mean that you are without any striving.
Abraham was a prime example of what it is to be meek and have aggressive faith. With his servants, he defeated in battle five kings of that day, renowned for their great abilities in organization and war. Among them was King Hammurabi, one of the most ancient to bring forth a systematic law in a kingdom, compiling the famous code, the decalogue of Babylon. When Abraham returned victorious, the king of Sodom was so happy that everything was recovered that he offered him great riches, but he would not take a shoelace lest the king should say he had made Abraham rich (Genesis 14:23). God had promised to make him rich, and he refused to see it fulfilled on a plane of flesh.
To be meek does not mean you are withdrawn in your spirit. It means that on a human plane there is a refusal to see the fulfillment through fleshly effort. You are insisting it will be an answer from God, what He really wants. It is in the Spirit that we find all the answers and fulfillment.
On Mount Carmel Elijah cut up oxen, then poured barrels of water on the sacrifice just to make it more difficult for God to burn it up. God rose to the occasion and the fire licked up the water and even burned up the stones. So do not try to make it easy for God, but go ahead aggressively with faith and refuse to rig it.
The meek submit to the Lord and will not turn to the right nor to the left, nor allow the flesh to rise up in some zealous ambitious effort to fulfill God’s will.
Hebrews 6:1 speaks of …not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works… but of going on to perfection. Hebrews 9:14 tells how our conscience is cleansed from dead works.
The meek are those who have repented of dead works. We can come to the place where there is no longer the striving of the fleshly mind: the dead works that come up in our lives. We can say, “Lord, I want to be meek before You. I would rather never have anything in this world if it is not in Your perfect will, wrought by You.”
When those who are really ambitious to have their place are constantly stirred by ambition until restlessness and discontent possess them, it is not good to put them to work until that is dead. A person may be ready to work, but when fleshly ambition flares up—“Oh, I have a place, I must fulfill it”—that attitude has to die, and then will come forth the beautiful ministry God has for that individual.
I would rather join two sticks together that will stand for the Kingdom of God than to build a skyscraper that God may tear down tomorrow. The day will show it (I Corinthians 3:13). Do not go back and try to build yesterday, it is past. Build what God is doing today. Labor in the Spirit with that effective labor which comes forth with aggressive faith. Labor to cease from your own labors and enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:10).
The meek are the people who, by human evaluation, are losers, but the losers are the ones who will inherit the earth.
The greatest example in the Bible of being meek is the description of Jesus going through Samaria. The Greek translation implies that Jesus set His face as flint to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). It meant “like a rock”; there was no variance. It was an offense to the Samaritans. In His aggressive faith to do the will of God there was meekness in His Spirit, submitting absolutely to laying down His life like a lamb to the slaughter, unmoved by the fear of man, nothing deterring Him from what He was to do.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. When God has a cross out there for you to die on, you set your face as flint to reach it. You fight all the devils of hell to get there so that you can be submissive. The meek are those who have a will set to do God’s will, to deny the flesh and its efforts and to take up their cross and follow the Lord. They are not looking out for themselves; they are really seeking the will of God and His glory.
Christ laid His life down. He was willing to deny Himself to live wholly for the will of the Father. If we are willing to suffer with Him as He suffered, we will be glorified together and reign with Him (Romans 8:17). Christ had that meekness in Him when He was prepared to endure the cross and despise the shame.
For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Philippians 3:18, 19. “Many walk”—they are walking—having all the profession and many activities of a believer, but they are enemies of the cross of Christ. They are glorying in things they should be ashamed of; they are keeping alive the old flesh and its way of living. They are enemies of the cross because they fight it. They say, “Jesus, I love You,” but they will not face the cross in their own lives. They fight it with arrogance and pride, and they do not want any part of a church that has the message of the cross. God is saying that you have to deny yourself and take up your cross, and this is the meekness that will inherit the earth. Unless you are willing to die, you will not live (Matthew 16:24, 25).
The meekness in the Lord was in no way a sign of weakness. It takes strength to be meek, to just bow to the will of God instead of doing something about a situation yourself. It requires the kind of faith that humbles itself in the face of disaster.
One of the first things that God did to Israel was put the people in a position of enforced meekness. With Pharaoh pursuing, the Red Sea before them and no way of escape, they were told to stand still! Every one of us under such impending disaster would want to run and take matters into our own hands; for you can stand still just so long and then you feel you have to do something about it. But to just trust God requires that even when it seems like it is too late, you still trust the Lord. You do not say, “Lord, if You had been here my brother had not died.” But you know whatever you ask, God will give it to you. It is a faith that knows it is never too late to see God work the greatest miracle you have ever known in your life.
The meek are those who refuse deliverance on a fleshly plane, knowing it would not be of God, and knowing that God can work apart from human effort as they trust Him and aggressively go about doing exactly what He wants them to do.
A passage on meekness is Matthew 11:27–30. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labor 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 in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
People do not understand what this Scripture really means. In it, Jesus is showing you the way of the path of rest. “All ye that labor and are heavy laden”—the tense, fleshly striving. He is saying, “Everything has been delivered to Me of My Father, and it is all in My hands. And how did it get that way? The Father put everything in My hands because I am meek and lowly. The meek inherit the earth. You who are fussing, working, and striving, come and learn what it is all about. I am meek and lowly in heart. Learn that, and you will find rest for your souls. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. Be a real winner by meekness and lowliness of heart.”
Note that He said, …no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. There must be revelation. There must be endowment by God. It rested upon Christ in His meekness and lowliness. Everything was delivered into His hands, even the ones upon this earth who are to have a revelation from God. That is how His meekness was so completely submissive to do the will of the Father. Meekness could also be termed “absolute submission.” He was meek, yet authority was there. In our natural thinking, meekness and authority do not seem to go together. But in the meek there is that refusal to take things into their own hands to work out their own destiny. They are trusting God and doing it God’s way. Jesus said, “Come, learn of Me, see how I am doing it: I am completely submissive to the Father and everything has been put in My hand. Learn of Me and you will find rest for your souls.”
This is also taught in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, which speaks of entering into His rest. For those who labor and strive in themselves, there is no rest. But those who enter into His rest cease from their labors as Christ did from His. There is a ceasing from laboring in yourself and coming into that which is of God and is rest.
As our spirits are perfected, much of the confusion, striving, and turmoil that we experience will disappear. Upon the people of God, who will go forth to turn the world upside down with the most violent outburst of divine energy, there will appear a complacency, a calm, a peace, a rest, because they will have that one indisputable thing that can never be substituted: the peace of God that passeth understanding.
The meek have a quality about them that God will bless beyond anything we could ever understand. The meek are without the striving that is born of doubt and insecurity. Some people try too hard because they feel insecure in themselves and of their place. The meekness that God wants accepts what God says and rests in it without striving or contending for a place, knowing God will establish it and none can take it away. They that are meek reject the verdict of man as to their failure, and they rest in God’s victory. The verdict of man may be that you are a failure, but if you are meek you do not rise up and contend against it: “Well, I’m not a failure!” It does not matter to you what others say, for you rest in God’s victory and what He says.
You do not need the verdict of man, “My, isn’t he a success? Isn’t he a great man?” You are not interested in building up your ego and self-esteem by contending that you are a success, because to you it is not important what man thinks of you.
Meekness is aggressive faith that wants only to move in God and refuses to put a hand to the ark or go back to old traditions. The meek wait on God until God tells them exactly what to do. They shift to the new day, to what God says to do, not just perpetuating that which appears to have financial or numerical success.
We do not yet understand much about the early Church. Paul said, “I was with you in much meekness and lowliness. My speech is nothing, contemptible; my bodily presence is weak.” When Paul came to Corinth, the people exclaimed, “That’s the Apostle? He’s nothing! He can’t even talk. His presence is contemptible!” But Paul said, “When I come, I will know not the speech, but the power. The Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” So poor little meek Paul went about upsetting the world. He said, “I was with you in much trembling and fear. My words were not enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the power of the Spirit” (words that exploded and upset the world!). You have to watch out for the meek; they have something going for them.
The Kingdom of God is not showmanship, not a put-on, not a molding of people’s emotions as if by an actor or a great orator. The Kingdom of God is released through the aggressive faith of men who have renounced fleshly efforts that it may be wholly of God.
In days when they could have had much, the meek …were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth. Hebrews 11:37, 38.
“Who are these? The scum and offscouring of the earth? Hmmm, it doesn’t sound like anything a decent Christian would want to be identified with today—sawn asunder, tortured like that. Are you sure that you want to get mixed up with these believers and live that way: dens and holes in the earth, going about dressed in sheepskins and goatskins?”
Moses in his time was said to be the most meekest man upon the earth-Numbers
Do you know how effective the early Church was? Within the span of a little more than one generation, half of the Roman empire were believers, at a time when it could cost one’s life to confess Christ as his Saviour.
Those who lived in caves and holes, destitute and afflicted, were fighting armies, quenching the violence of fire, receiving their dead back to life again, and walking in miracles.
The meek are something to be reckoned with. When the Church comes out of its pride and returns to the meekness of Christ, the Kingdom will come forth in short order. The pride and arrogance that Satan is fostering afflicts and weakens the life of the Body of Christ by contamination from the environment of the world around it. We do not need a regulation of conduct, but rather to come into a purity of spirit. The world gets to you in its arrogance: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. I John 2:16, 17. Pride of this world? away with it!
We have seen that the meek are without the self-striving, but they are bold to assume the position and the victory God declares for them. There is nothing timid about a meek man. It is just that he is not arrogantly striving in himself. But try to move him off the place that he stands his foot upon by faith that is his, and you will find he is a warrior. When he battles in the Spirit he knows he is after the thing that God has for him; he will stand there and claim it; he will fight and always win because he knows how it is done.
The meek are like Joseph in the Old Testament: haunted with the dream they received in their youth. They know the way to its fulfillment is often the path of the downtrodden, the oppressed, the forgotten, the despised and the forsaken—the offscouring of the earth. Joseph was stomped on, all the way down, until he reached the throne of the earth. Carrying his dreams in his heart, he didn’t fall into that pit; he was deliberately thrown there by his brothers. He didn’t manage to climb out, he was yanked out and turned over to the slavers. He didn’t want to be in Potiphar’s house; he was sold there. He was lied about by Potiphar’s wife. He didn’t want to go to jail; they put him there and threw away the key. There was nothing he could do about it. Down, down, down he went until the day he was on the greatest throne of that time, next to Pharaoh himself (Genesis, chapters 37–41). Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
“Joseph, don’t you look for the day when you can get even with those wicked brothers of yours?” But when he revealed himself to them he said, “Don’t feel bad, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save many souls alive.” O Joseph, you are a meek man, not battling or self-striving, not on the defensive, just serving God.
“My dear brother, they just kicked you in the teeth! Do you know what they are saying about you? Do you know what is going to happen to you?” The meek have a beautiful shrug that says, “What does it matter? My life is in the hands of God. Out of the way, I have some things to do. I must do everything God tells me to do. I must listen to His voice and be about His business. I am an aggressive soldier; don’t bother me with those other things!”
We read in II Timothy 2:4 that no man called to be a soldier is involved with the things of this life, that he may please Him who has called him to be a soldier.
“I will join Your army, Jesus; but I want to take my color television with me. I’d like to take my stereo set and albums along and a few other choice things in case there happens to be a brief reprieve. Maybe I can have a nice time with a little sports and recreation.” The first time out on the battlefield with that—boom! Television and everything else would be blown up.
What should you do? Travel light! Hold this world loosely. Enjoy it, but don’t get attached to it. Press on and possess the good things God has for you. You don’t want to hang onto one little piece of it. The whole earth will be yours. You will inherit the earth.
The meek are forgotten: unnoticed by men, but remembered by God. There have been preachers who gave their lives for God; they sacrificed and died without recognition, sometimes without even a marker for a tombstone. All that matters is that God remembers them. How many generations do the dead have that they can say, “I’ll be remembered for so many generations”? But when you trust God and walk humbly before Him, He remembers you and your generation after you, to a thousand generations (Psalm 105:8).
The meek are the heirs of God. They are the kings and priests who find it unnecessary to build an image of themselves before men. They believe in their position. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The meek are those who strive and labor in God, not in themselves. They are the martyrs who are put under in the book of Revelation (Revelation 6:9). They cry from beneath the throne, from beneath the altar of God. These are the ones whom God has destined to rule and reign.
It seems that the meek are disguised. They go through the world and you don’t seem to see them. They are not appreciated by man; God is the one who really appreciates them. You don’t realize what a force they are in the church because they are unassuming. If they have problems, you don’t seem to hear much about them. In quietness and meekness they go about their work, yet few people realize the spiritual authority they really have.