Matt 5.5 "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth."
As we go through these beatitudes we’re discovering that Jesus turns conventional wisdom on its head and presents those things the world despises as the way of the Kingdom.
And this morning we’ve come to a beatitude that isn’t really understood well at all.
Meek rhymes with weak and that’s often how we think of it. It’s a word we often associate with someone who is timid, weak or passive.
But, actually, the Greek word for meek is same one we often use for gentleness, so we find it is one of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal 5.22-23).
Another thing we find is that Scripture contrasts the meek not with the strong but with the wicked. In fact, this beatitude is very similar to Psalm 37, which says, "A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace" (Ps 37.10-11).
We can see how true meekness is removed from our common conception from the stories of three famous identities.
A STORY OF THREE KINGS
SAUL
The first one was a young man, tall, lean and handsome, with the ruggedness that comes from growing up on a farm. He lived in something of a rural backwater, so you wouldn’t have picked him for fame, but still, in his neck of the woods his father was a well known and respected community leader and the family did well. But even though the girls swooned over him and his family had some influence he was a very modest bloke, so none of this really went to his head.
One day he was out looking for some livestock that had escaped, and along the way he decided to ask someone in a nearby town who might know where the animals were. But he got the surprise of his life when he was told, "Everyone’s looking to you - you’re going to lead the nation," and then he was invited as the guest of honour, with the best seat and food in the house.
What’s an unassuming, humble guy say to that. "Hey, I’m a nobody from a nobody family in a nowhere town. I think you’ve got the wrong guy."
And he got an even bigger shock when this guy privately took him aside and poured a jar of olive oil over his head! The prophet Samuel said to him, "Saul, God’s anointed you to be king over Israel"
A couple of days later its time for the coronation. It’s a simple affair because this is the first time Israel’s had a king. But even with very little pomp and circumstance involved, what does Saul do? He goes and hides out in the baggage. There’s no way he wants to be in the spotlight, he’s too humble for that. They almost have to drag him in and crown him by force!
At this point, don’t you think Saul seems a picture of what it means to be meek. He’s unassuming, humble, avoids the limelight. Up to this point he hasn’t even told his own family what’s going on.
But once he’s crowned, things start to go horribly wrong. As king his job is to rally the troops and chase off the Philistines who have been occupying the land for years. So far so good, but Samuel had said to wait for him to make an important sacrifice and find out his orders from God. A few days into the battle and the men were deserting, Samuel hadn’t shown up and Saul was starting to panic. So he made the sacrifice himself. It was an arrogant and disobedient move as only the priest was meant to sacrifice. It cost Saul his dynasty.
Some time later God commanded Saul to deal with their age old enemies the Amalekites. The Israelites were to leave no one and nothing alive. Men, women, children and livestock were to be killed. Sounds pretty brutal doesn’t it? We’re really not comfortable with that sort of thing nowadays, especially in the light of God’s call to grace and forgiveness. But it was the law of the jungle back then, kill or be killed. Only Saul didn’t. He kept the king and the best of the livestock alive, ostensibly to make a sacrifice to God. But when Samuel pressed him, Saul admitted he’d done it because the men were pressuring him and he was afraid. He’d given in to the fear of people and as a result God completely rejected him as king.
Meek, humble Saul who thought he was a nobody, had become king and all that meekness was seen to be hollow. In fact, it was not meekness at all - it was fear. And as time went on and Saul saw a threat to his kingdom rising he tried harder and harder to hold onto what he thought was his. And in the end he lost it all, including his life.
It’s the meek who will inherit the earth.
DAVID
Of course, the threat to his throne was young David. And the contrast between the two was huge. Where the young Saul had been unassuming and self-effacing, David assumed a lot! In fact, he was down right cocky. Do you remember how his military career began?
One day the armies of Israel and Philistia are facing off and the Philistines are challenging the Israelites to a duel. Their best take on the Philistine’s best and the winners takes all. But who’s going to fight a 9’ behemoth like Goliath? So David has come down to the army camp to bring supplies to his brothers when he starts asking around about what’s going on. Do you know what his brothers say?
Now put this into perspective with what Samuel had said Saul was like before the kingship went to his head. He said, "You were once small in your own eyes."
And listen to what David’s brother says: "I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is." Ouch! OK, not a fair assessment, perhaps, but a lot different to what anyone could have said about ’meek’ Saul.
And we all know the story. David was being obvious enough to be noticed by the King, who hauls him into his tent and lets this young shepherd boy talk him into taking on the giant! He’s killed the odd bear and lion, this guy will be easy going!
Does this sound like the voice of the meek to you?
And yet as his career goes on, we start to see David do some amazing things. Of course he had to flee Saul once Saul started to feel threatened and throw sharp pointy things at him. David attracted a bunch of malcontents around him, people looking for adventure or running from the debt collector. At one point he tricked the Philistine king into thinking he had switched allegiance to Philistia. All the while they were running raids against Israel’s enemy nations. David was a leader, a warrior, a man’s man. And the girls were crazy about him, too.
And yet, on two occasions when he has the opportunity to kill Saul and take the throne he refused to do so. He refused to harm ’the Lord’s anointed’. Once, when he was still on the run, he got homesick and said how he longed to have some of the water from a spring in his home town. So his bravest men secretly penetrated enemy lines and got some of the water for him. What did he do? He said, "How can I drink this, it’s the blood of the men who got it for me." He was so honoured he didn’t feel worthy and poured it out on the ground as a drink offering to the Lord.
The difference between Saul and David was where their confidence lay. Saul had been small in his own eyes, and yes he had the appearance of humility. But in the end it was seen, in fact, to be fear. David, however, didn’t seem to have regarded himself at all. He was far more concerned with God’s reputation and that’s where his confidence lay.
When he had talked Saul into letting him have a go at Goliath he’d said, "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." (1Sam 17.36-37).
JESUS
There’s one final story about a meek person we’re going to look at. As we look at this next video clip remember that the Greek word is the same for both meek and gentle.
MOVIE CLIP: juxtaposing Matt 11.28-30 with Matt 21.12.
CONCLUSION
The essence of meekness is not weakness. It’s not being passive and certainly not being timid or afraid. Ironically, like Jesus in the temple, only the strong can be truly meek.
True meekness is a gentleness and humility of spirit. It’s confidence in God and submission to him.
When Jesus spoke these words he was largely talking to people who were nobodies in the eyes of the world, people with no hope of inheriting anything! He was talking about a blessing that is very much in the future. We know that when Jesus returns he will rule the earth and his people will rule with him! That’s pretty cool, huh? Incidentally the Bible says he will rule with an iron sceptre - with strength.
Yet there are many Christians who inherit the earth now, so to speak, because they have trust in God at their heart and obey him. The earth is the Lord’s to give to whom he will and he doesn’t give it to the powerful or the self-assertive but to those who are humbly submitted to him.
I’m thinking of Christians who see a vision fulfilled in ministry or business, not out of selfish ambition, but because they are obeying God and offering it up to Him. Or the Chinese church that is severely persecuted by the authorities but is spreading like wildfire and has plans to evangelise the region between China and Jerusalem. What an inheritance!
It’s about attitude. It’s about the submission of our heart before God and our gentle and humble attitude towards others.
It’s 1Tim 1.7: "The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline."
