SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/18/2020
11:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Meaning of Meekness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:5
Message of the verse: “5 "Blessed are
the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”
We
begin with a question and that question is what do most fallen men throughout
history have done to get into heaven?
Well the answer is that they try and do it on their own, and this is the
audience that Jesus was speaking to at this time. These people were trying to justify their own
ways, defend their own rights, and serve their own ends. Not much difference from people today, in
fact no difference. MacArthur writes “The
way of meekness was not their way, and therefore the true kingdom was not their
kingdom. The proud Pharisees wanted a
miraculous kingdom, the proud Sadducees wanted a materialistic kingdom, the proud
Zealots wanted a military kingdom. The
humble Jesus offered a meek kingdom.”
Because
meekness has always been God’s way for man let us take a look at some examples
from the Old Testament and we begin with the book of Job where we are told that
God “sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety”
Job 5:11). We learn the following about
Moses who was the Jews’ great deliver and law-giver but we read from Numbers
12:3 “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than
any man who was on the face of the earth.)” Next we look at David and we know that David
was the supreme military hero of Israel, but let’s look at Psalm 25:9 “He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble
His way.” David did know gentleness or
meekness as we have to believe this because he wrote about it.
Now
as we move to the New Testament we can see that Jesus is being taught about
meekness in these beatitudes, and then as we move on in the NT we see that Paul
entreated the Ephesians to “1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in
love,” (Eph. 4:1-2). Paul told
the Colossians in Col. 3:12 “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and
beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience.” One more from what Paul wrote
to Titus “1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be
obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle,
showing every consideration for all men” (Titus 3:1-2).
We
are not going to get to the heart of the matter of what meekness is and what it
is not. If I had to come up with a good definition
of meekness I would say that “meekness is power under control.” Meekness does not connote weakness, as in
extrabiblical literature it was referred to the breaking of an animal,
something I believe we talked about earlier.
Proverbs describes a person with meekness in Pr. 25:28 “Like a
city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control
over his spirit.” Pr. 16:32 states “He
who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit,
than he who captures a city.” MacArthur
adds “An unbroken colt is useless; medicine that is too strong will harm rather
than cure; a wind out of control destroys.
Emotion out of control also destroys, and has no place in God’s
kingdom. Meekness uses its resources
appropriately.”
We
will look more into this subject in our next SD, Lord willing.
4/18/2020 11:50 AM
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