Blessed are the meek
for they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
The word “meek” often conjures up in our heads the image of a person who others walk all over – the proverbial dooormat that everyone mistreats, but who is too cowardly or shy to do anything about it. This is reflected in modern dictionary definitions (which don’t prescribe usage, but report the ways that words are currently used), which define it as: humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others; overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame (from Dictionary.com). The obsolete definition is listed as: gentle; kind.
But what does GOD mean when He inspired the writers of the Bible to use the term “meek”? What did Jesus mean by it?
One great principle of biblical interpretation is that of letting the Bible dictate on its own what the meaning of a word is. In this case, there are four other places in the Bible that talk about the character of those who will “inherit the land” or “inherit the earth” (the word can mean either land or earth, depending on context). By the way, Jesus wasn’t being original in this particular beatitude; the original is in Psalm 37:11, where it declares that “the meek will inherit the land.” Here are the others:
- Psalm 37:9, which states that “those who hope in the Lord” will inherit the land.
- Psalm 37:29, which states that “the righteous” will inherit that land.
- Isaiah 57:13, which states that “the man who makes (God) his refuge” will inherit the land.
So what can we deduce from these. First of all, it would seem that, since the end result is the same, God’s meaning for the word “meek” is NOT cowardly or shy, but instead it means:
- A person who hopes in the Lord – meaning that they aren’t trying to get into heaven on their own merits. Isaiah understood this when he described our own righteousness as “filthy rags” (64:6) in God’s sight. The truly meek person understands that, on his or her own, they have nothing to offer – their only hope is for God to show them mercy.
- A righteous person – that is someone who does the right thing, even when it means swimming upstream against the tide of poplular opinion. (Sort of like Paul urges us to be in Romans 12:2.)
- A person who makes God his refuge. This is really seen clearly all around the world where Christians are being persecuted for their faith; they fully testify that on their own they would not have been able to stand up under the torture or the separation from their families, but that the Lord was their strength no matter what their persecutors threw at them.
Secondly, to be meek is to be just like Jesus:
- Jesus hoped in the Lord. In fact, He told everyone that He did NOTHING without the Father’s instruction. (John 5:19) He showed us what fully relying on the Father’s guidance and strength actually looks like – never making a move until the Father said, “go.” Never deciding for Himself what the next move should be. In fact, a good synonym for this attitude is “totally submissive to the Father’s will.”
- Jesus was totally righteous – that is, every action that He took was right. This was because He never made a move without the Father’s direction. That should be our model, too. Jesus never once said, “I don’t need to ask the Father what to do in this situation – that’s what He gave me a brain for!” (See Joshua 9:3-15 (especially verse 14) for what that kind of attitude among God’s people leads to!) When Jesus’ opponents tried to come up with a terrible sin that He had committed to justify their desire for a death sentence, they couldn’t find the required two agreeing witnesses to convict Him. In fact, the only thing that they could actually get two agreeing witnesses on was the fact that He had said that if the temple were torn down that He would rebuild it in 3 days (NOT a sin of any kind, especially not a capital offense). Jesus life of righteous action is our model.
- Jesus made God His refuge, totally relying on Him, no matter the circumstances. Even in His last hours, He looked to the Father, confident that God was going to give Him the total victory on the other side of the cross. He went to His own death in the sure knowledge that God was not going to let Him down no matter what.
Far from being a pushover, Jesus showed us exactly what godly meekness looked like, a meekness that totally embodied all of these characteristics. And, just as Jesus inherited the whole world, if we are meek as He was, we are promised to become co-heirs with Him of all that HE inherited.