Meek Is Macho

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5 NIV

A. W. Tozer once said that if you take the Beatitudes and turn them wrong side out, you have a pretty good picture of the human race. We humans tend to nurture the exact opposite of the traits Jesus defined as characteristics of His followers. 

Take meekness, for instance. You don’t have to look far to see that we as a society do not look upon this godly characteristic with favor. The attitude of pop culture is, if you’re meek, you’re weak. Our heroes are the Rambo-type tough guys, the macho men who are strong, smart, rich, witty, and suave. The meek guy is the sissy, the wimp, the nerd, the comic character we laugh at.

Yet Jesus said that the meek, not the macho, are the ones who are blessed, who are truly happy. (The word used, makarioi, translates “happy.”)

Look up “meekness” in a dictionary, and you get anything from “weak, unassuming, servile, and timid” to “peaceful, gentle, humble, and patient.” 

God’s Word, however, defines meekness not with words but with examples. Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus Himself, are all examples of meekness, which I have come to define as “power and strength under control.”

Abraham, to whom God promised land as far as his eye could see, didn’t lord his relationship with the Creator over his nephew Lot, but rather allowed the immature, grasping, greedy, selfish younger man to chose the best part of the land. Moses, who confronted the most powerful man on earth, led a nation of stubborn, whining people out of slavery and across a Mid-Eastern desert (with Pharoah’s army hot on their heels at one point), was “very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).

David, God’s man who was promised the throne of Israel, had more than one chance to kill his enemy King Saul but refused, allowing God determine the course of events (1 Samuel 24, 26). And when he was on the run from his throne-usurping son, he refused to retaliate when cursed (2 Samuel 16:9–12). 

Paul, who was responsible for practically single-handedly spreading Christianity in the first century world, was another example of meekness. In spite of the beatings, floggings, stonings, shipwrecks, and imprisonments (2 Corinthians 11:23–30), in spite of being chased from town to town by his enemies, he still persevered in his mission, and encouraged others to “always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

And Jesus Himself is the prime example of meekness: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden,” He says. “For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–30).

So what does this mean for me today? It means not retaliating, in word or deed; accepting what is out of my control and making the best of it, believing that God is in control (Romans 8:28). It means I’m not a braggart or showy person, grasping the best for myself. It means I shut up when provoked because it takes more strength to walk away that to fight back. It means I take God at His word and practice meekness with a conscious effort, because it is not a natural trait.

In The Pursuit of God, Tozer wrote, “The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.”

If you think meekness is weakness, try being meek for a week.

Dear God, help me to be meek. Amen.

Read and reflect on Genesis 13.

From God, Me, & a Cup of Tea, Vol. 3 © 2019 Michele Huey. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

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