Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)

There are some sayings of Jesus that most people would accept as wise and realistic – people often say that they admire the Sermon on the Mount, but then usually indicate that they do not practice it. There are other sayings of Jesus that most people would assume were connected to his particular aims and therefore express important aspects of the Christian religion. And there are some sayings that many people would assume were completely unrealistic as far as daily life is concerned. 

Into which of those categories would most people place the third beatitude? I think most would place it in the third category because they would say that such a thing does not happen in real life. Indeed, they would say that the opposite happens. It is not the meek who get things, rather it is the self-centred and the driven who climb the ladder to the top, ignoring others as they climb. No-one gets to the heights by being meek is the opinion of the majority. What would a meek person look like in the House of Commons?

Who are described as meek in the Bible?

Moses is so described in Numbers 12:3: ‘Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.’ Obviously he managed to be both a leader and a meek person. The verse does not say merely that he was the meekest man, but it says that there was not a man or a woman who was meeker than him. In the context of that verse, he was challenged by his brother and his sister about his wife. They are not described as meek, so we cannot assume that it was a family characteristic. We know that at one time, when he was an Egyptian prince, he was not meek but capable of using violence against others. Yet over the next decades in his life he became meek.

In James 3:13, we are told that meekness and wisdom go together. In the context, a wise man was an individual who could teach others how to live for God. If he was not meek, he was not wise in a spiritual sense. Teachers had to live wisely as well as say wise words. The evidence of living wisely was meekness. How can we recognise meekness? There is a very close connection between meekness and gentleness, and sometimes they are used interchangeably in the Bible. 

The promised Messiah is described as meek in the Old Testament. In Psalm 45, he is described as a warrior fighting for a cause marked by three things: truth, meekness and righteousness. Maybe there is a kind of progression there – inner truth leading to meek demeanour leading to right actions. In Isaiah 11:4, the prophet says that the Messiah will act on behalf of the meek of the earth in the sense of defending them.

There are two other verses in Isaiah that give information about the meek: ‘In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel’ (Isa. 29:18-19). In that description of God’s people, four features of their experience are mentioned. They will no longer be deaf, they will no longer be blind, they will be meek, and although poor they will praise God. The prophet was using very difficult features of daily life to depict spiritual experiences. Deafness, blindness, deprivation and poverty would go away, and that is what takes place at conversion. A believer possesses the ability to hear God, sees what God has for him, receives fresh joy from God, and has access to God. It is the meek who receive fresh joy.

Those four examples – Moses the great leader, wise teachers described by James, the promised Messiah, and the joy given to the meek – are all connected to the possession of meekness in their characters and behaviour. So even if the ungodly despise the idea of meekness, it should be prized within the church.

Features of meekness

The first detail that we can mention is that the meek are a select group. We know this from the blessing that Jesus says they will yet receive. They have a great inheritance, and this inheritance belongs to all of them, and it is an inheritance that will not be given to any other kind of people. Moreover, in its ultimate meaning, they will receive the inheritance at the same time, when Jesus returns.

Second, meekness is evidence that a person is spiritually alive. We know that is the case because in some Bible translations meekness is part of the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5. The list of graces listed in the fruit of the Spirit together describe the normal Christian life. If one of those graces is absent, a question mark can be placed alongside a person’s profession of Christianity because it indicates that the Spirit is not at work within that person.

Third, an important element in meekness is submission to the Word of God. A meek person bows to the authority of the Lord as expressed in the Bible. He does not put his own ideas above the instructions that God has stated. Of course, this submission is not one of slavish compulsion. Rather, it is how the meek person expresses his love for his God. It began when he submitted to the gospel offer and embraced Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. As a sinner, he or she responded lovingly to the message of forgiveness through a crucified Saviour and they repented of their sins and trusted in Christ.

Fourth, a meek person is Christlike. It has been frequently pointed out that Jesus described himself as meek and humble at the end of Matthew 11. When giving that description of himself, Jesus was encouraging his listeners to become his disciples. Discipleship is basically twofold: it includes instruction by Jesus and imitation of Jesus. Inevitably, as time goes on, the believer in Jesus becomes more and more like him. This process is inevitable because of divine grace. Christlikeness is the basic feature of sanctification.

The great reward promised by Jesus

This reward is future orientated. It is unlike the previous blessings that are mentioned by Jesus and which have a present focus. The poor in spirit already have the kingdom of heaven and the mournful already experience divine comfort. But the reward of the meek will not be experienced until all of them experience it together. And we know that some of them are not yet born and others of them have been born but are not yet converted. 

Here we have an example of the expansive nature of the teaching of Jesus. Most devout people in Israel would have been aware of how the Old Testament indicated that the meek would inherit the promised land and that they would experience its blessings for as long as they were faithful. Yet even when they were faithful, they would only enjoy its benefits for as long as they lived, and then they would die and no longer participate in the blessings of Canaan. Here Jesus enlarges the geography of the blessing from a land to the earth, and he extends the period of enjoying it to an eternal inheritance.

Peter reminds his readers that they are looking for a new heaven and a new earth. The inheritance is coming; indeed it is closer than ever before. Paul informed the Romans that the whole creation is stretching out its neck in anticipation of the glory that is going to be given to the people of God. He also says that the Holy Spirit within them is groaning with them, a reminder that the Lord himself anticipates with delight the day when his people come into their inheritance. I wonder what Jesus looked like when he said this beatitude. Was there a look of longing for the moment when he will say to his Father, ‘Behold I and the children you gave me’?

We live in the now generation and one consequence is that many don’t know how to handle things that don’t happen immediately. In any case, what is the point of wanting the latest version of something when it will be out-of-date in a few weeks? A sensible approach would be to wait until the best appears. That is what the meek in the past did and it is what the meek in the present do. Their eyes are on the inheritance promised to them by God, which means that they are not attracted overmuch to the inferior things provided in this life. They use those inferior things as they move through life, but they don’t assume that those things are the highest things in life. 

The knowledge that they have a guaranteed inheritance makes them content in their circumstances. Whatever the difficulties of this life, and some of them go through hard experiences, they know that those current light afflictions, as Paul says, are working for them an eternal weight of glory. They understand why the Bible tells them to be content with such things that they have been given in providence, to remain calm and consistent in the changing circumstances of life. In the present, they live in a passing, fading world. When the inheritance comes, everything remains perfect forever.

Application

I once knew a man who was known as a gentle giant. He was large in stature, dedicated in spirituality, kind in his attitudes, and warm in his words. His presence filled the room without him trying to do so. It also changed the atmosphere in the room – the way he spoke, the things he spoke about, elevated the conversation every time. What word would describe him? He was meek. Where is he now? In heaven, waiting for the inheritance. He was blessed, and those who knew him still recall what his presence was like.

Meekness, says Paul in Colossians 3:12, is like the best clothes a person can wear and which will be observed by others. The clothes we wear usually say what we are like inside. The garment of meekness shows that we are humble because of God’s grace, gentle to others, self-controlled in whatever situation, grateful for an inheritance beyond estimation, and are like Jesus. If that is who we are, we are blessed.