Sermon: Blessed are the Meek
Scripture: Matthew 5:5
In this week’s lessons, we discover how the Bible defines meekness, and what is promised to those who possess it.
Theme: The Psalmist’s Definition of Meekness
I believe that this trusting attitude before God was the primary sense in which Christ used the word “meek” in this beatitude, and I base my belief on the fact that the beatitude itself is quoted from a context in which that thought is prominent. I know that someone will say, “What? I thought Jesus originated the Beatitudes, that he made them up.” Well, it is true that he did make most of them up, but not this one. This beatitude actually comes from the thirty-seventh Psalm. It comes at the end of a long list of commands that encourage a person to place his trust in God. The psalmist writes:
Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way…
The Psalmist then closes the section by saying:
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace (Psalm 37:3-7, 10-11).
Who then are the meek according to the thirty-seventh Psalm? They are those who trust in the Lord, who delight themselves in the Lord, who commit their way unto the Lord, who rest in the Lord. It is these who are happy, according to Jesus Christ, and who shall inherit the earth.
All of this is illustrated in a remarkable story from the book of Numbers in the Old Testament, chapter twelve. I turn to it deliberately because one sentence embedded in the midst of the story tells us that the main character was, in God’s sight, the meekest man who ever lived. The man was Moses. The sentence says, “Now this man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). The story is about a rebellion against Moses led by Miriam, his sister, and Aaron, his brother, who was the first high priest of Israel.
This is the story. When he had fled from Egypt forty years before God used him as the deliverer of his people, Moses had gone to Midian where he had settled and married Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian. Zipporah was of the same stock as the other Israelites and had borne children to Moses. But she had died by the time of the story recounted in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, and Moses was marrying another wife. This new wife was a Cushite, a name given to the inhabitants of ancient Ethiopia. And the point of the story lies in the fact that the Cushite was partially if not entirely black. In other words, she was not a Semite, and those who were closest to Moses, his sister and brother, felt that the stock of Israel was being dirtied by the mixed marriage.
Study Questions:
Where does Jesus get his view of meekness, and what does the passage teach us about it?
What is the problem that develops between Moses and his sister and brother?
Application: Reread Psalm 37:3-7. Are there areas in your life in which you need to trust, rest, and wait patiently upon the Lord?
