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If we recall from our previous study, Kittle and Friedrich’s Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament says that the Greek word for meek (praus) is never used in reference to God, and I can see why; for He is not the one being trained. He is not, nor ever has been in need of learning obedience from a master. He is the Master! Also, the meek are warriors. Meekness is a quality of the royal heroes who are pleasing to God. It is the opposite of arrogance and pride. It is quiet and expects destiny to be filled with that which is grounded in God. It has the mark of godliness and enables the believer to correct others without haughtiness. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:12 that meekness is one of the gifts of election: Put on therefore, as the elect of God...meekness... Col. 3:12.

Moreover, we also remember from our research that meekness is connected with anger, being the quality of the man who is angry for the right reasons, against the right people, in the right way, and for the right length of time. It conveys not so much the idea of gentleness as it does strength under control.

What a virtuous person it would be who exercised anger only at the right time, one who has every instinct, and impulse, and passion under control because of being in God’s image and under His control. The meek are protectors and will never harm the flock, but are savage to the enemies of the flock. They are like well trained animals which have learned to obey the voice of their master. Meekness is not weakness, spinelessness or insignificance, but has the quality of not only self-control but can also accept the control of another. The strength of those who are meek is awesome and is harnessed and trained to work with men.

The meek, or trained, are those whose powerful impulses have been coupled with understanding and are channeled to encouraging, strengthening and building people’s lives. Such are the qualifications for being kings among men. The meek are the ones who will inherit the earth and rule in God’s Kingdom.

Moses is a good example of one of God’s meek rulers; for he was "...very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." (Num. 12:3). Jesus, of course, was also meek (Mat.11:29) and certainly worthy of His Lordship.

Truth is keen and cuts quick, opening God’s mysteries to our understanding to know that for one to rule, unlike the rulers of the world and the prelates of the hierarchical religious systems — we must be meek! We should, therefore, abhor the very thought of being proud. And if we covet, let us covet to be extremely meek, otherwise, we will never have the mind that was in Christ Jesus, who, although being in the form of God, He did not think to usurp and grasp after His equality with God (Phil. 2:4-6). Without meekness, we will never have what it takes to rule in the Kingdom of God, not even if we are as pure as the driven snow. For without discipline, training, refining, and maturing unto a perfect man, we will be incapable of the responsibility the office requires.

Purity is an essential part of the Kingdom; but without training we would be as unprepared to rule as a sinless, newborn baby. Without training unto meekness, we would be like Adam before his fall. We must, therefore, be trained. We must learn obedience though the things we suffer. In other words, we must become meek lions and wolves to reign with Christ in God’s holy mountain. It is then that the ravening wolf in us, and the conquering lion of self-rule will eat and lay down together with the harmless lamb and calf, which are easily entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. The meek lion and wolf, of course, are always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.

When meek, we have every instinct and impulse and passion of self-gratification under control. It is then that the subtle nature of the serpent will be as a child. We will no longer harbor the lying guile of deceit in our hearts, nor will we have the appetite to rend and devour one another. Being made meek will insure that there will be no hurt in all of God’s Holy Mountain. His Kingdom will be full of meek wolves, lions and leopards. It will be free from all things carnal. (ref. Isa. 65:25, Isa.11:6-10, Mic. 5:8-9).

At the dawn of the ages the man and woman had not been tested. They had not been refined. They had not been trained. They were powerful; but they were not meek! They had the power and authority of the lion: "...let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" - Gen 1:26) — but they were not submissive to God. The first recording of their will being exercised was the act of being self-willed, not God-willed. At the end of Jesus’ life it was the exact opposite. While sweating great drops of blood, He said, "Not My will, but Thine be done" - Luke 22:42. The Lord of the heavens and the earth was completely subservient and meek, which was in contrast to the lord of the earth who was self-serving and far from being meek; for at the beginning of Adam’s death, he said in his heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God - Isa. 14:13.

Therefore, when the serpent lied against the Truth, it was easy for the woman to listen, since she had not been trained. She gave heed to her ravening lust for glory and power, and the man followed her lead, the first born male of the earth laid down his life for her. The wolf and lion of the woman rose up that day, as well as the leopard and the bear, and they slew the sheepfold of the world. The transgression killed and devoured every living thing by the lust of power, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and those deadly lusts still reside and rule to this day in most of humanity.

But praise God! The Lamb of God, the firstborn from the heavens, laid down His life for the lost, and the Lion of Judah followed his lead and came together in Jesus. Where there were the twain, there is now but One in Him.

Through suffering Jesus learned obedience. The One to whom we have been joined became meek and lowly, and we are doing the same. In Him we are being made meek and lowly. Meekness is being worked in us to where we will always be angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. This intensive training plumbs our unfathomable deep. In our union with the Lamb, we are having every instinct and impulse and passion of the wolf, lion, leopard, and serpent brought under God’s control. Perhaps we can now see why it is the meek who shall inherit the earth, and in the inheritance, everything the first Adam destroyed will be restored by the Last Adam. Oh, beloved of the Lord, what a wonder-working power to be found in the meek, in those who lie not against the truth, and who, like Jesus, are angry but sin not. Eph. 4:26.

You see, brethren, the sin is not in being angry. The sin comes by letting anger control you rather than you controlling it. Angry, is translated from the Greek word, orgizo, meaning "to provoke or enrage, that is...become exasperated," which comes from orge, and means "...desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), that is, (by analogy) violent passion (ire, or [justifiable] abhorrence); by implication punishment" (Strong’s Exh. Conc.). Thayer’s definition of orge is:

1) anger, the natural disposition, temper, character.
2) movement or agitation of the soul, impulse, desire, any violent emotion, but especially anger
3) anger, wrath, indignation
4) anger exhibited in punishment, hence used for punishment itself
    4a) of punishments inflicted by magistrates

It is from orge we have the English transliteration, orgy, and when the animal lust of the flesh is unleashed in man, and when the serpent’s head has not being bruised, the height and depth of flesh erupt like a fomenting volcano. Ah, but when the beasts have been subdued and trained, the picture changes drastically.

For instance, in the book of Revelation the wrath of the Lamb is the orge of the Lamb: 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath (orge) of the Lamb. 6:15-16. And it is quite clear that the orge of the Lamb has nothing to do with unchained lusts or uncontrolled, rampaging anger. No, not by any means. His orge, or angered passion, is that of the Lion and the Lamb together. One on hand, He is the king of immutable power, while on the other hand, He is the unpretentious, gentle, sacrifice. Without the lion, how else could a lamb be filled with wrath, with anger and passionate indignation? Anyone who has ever been around a lamb would know that it is impossible. When the nature of the lion is subdued and trained by God, however, we have a meek Lord ruling with absolute power and equity. The two, the Lion and the Lamb, are, therefore, one, and this is brought into focus in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation.

"And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." Rev. 5:5. Herein we see the aggressive, conquering lion pressing toward the mark, prevailing, and loosening the seals of the book. We see a similarity with the first Adam when another book was opened; but at that time it was the lion in the woman working together with the serpent, loosening the seal of death contained in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While in Jesus, we have the (meek) Lion of Judah and the slain Lamb of God coming together, as well as the four living beasts.  "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Rev. 5:6. 7 "And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle." Rev. 4:7. 8 "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." Rev. 5:8.

The beasts, or living beings (Thayer’s), which speak of the sons of God, have contrary natures. The lion is an eater and the calf is the eaten, the man is of the earth and the eagle is of the heavens; but with the meekness of the slain Lamb in their midst they become one, indivisible, unified body.  "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation..." Rev. 5:9. The meek Lion prevailed to open the book and loose the seals, and the Lamb of wrath was worthy to take the book and open the seals. The two, the Lion and the Lamb, are one and the same. The two natures have become One, namely, the King of kings.

Coupled together with the love of God in His slain Lamb is the trained power of the beasts, not to mention the nature of the serpent. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matt. 10:16. People are not quick to identify themselves with serpents. For the very thought of serpents will often make their skin crawl, not to mention how serpents are equated with Satan. However, we should note that being wise and subtle is not only for the adversary, but also for us. Without being a little bit subtle, it is as Jesus said, "...the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Luke 16:8. "And let us not forget that Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness which represented Jesus being lifted upon the cross." John 3:14. Although we do not understand all the ramifications of the serpent in man, we do see that this particular nature is as resident in him as is the lion, the leopard, and the bear. Therefore, it is good to be like serpents, that is, as wise as serpents as long as we are as harmless as doves.

I believe Jesus was saying very much the same as what we have been saying about being meek, and the Lion and the Lamb becoming one, especially since the word wise in the above verse means to be thoughtful, discreet, to rein in or curb. Sounds much the same as training and taming the wild beast unto meekness to me. The power remains; but it is harnessed. It is under control and ready to be unleashed at the proper time against the proper people and for the proper purpose.

The money changers of the temple were firsthand witnesses of God’s "meek" Lion at work:

    "And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." John 2:13-17.

There was another time that the Lion was more like the Lamb, wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove. It was when the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman, presumably Mary Magdalene, taken in adultery. Boiling in their hearts and minds was their deadly law. Notwithstanding, He did not fall into their subtle trap:

"They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.... So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on (Grk. eis, into) the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. John 8:4-11.

The above verses are packed so full of revelation from which volumes could be extracted; but with my limited vision at this time, only a paragraph or two will be presented of what I see, and as you read over the words of those seven verses in John, I venture to say that you are already seeing the same.

First, by all rights of the law the woman should have been stoned to death; for when a person ate the fruit of adultery from the tree of evil, the law commanded their fruit to be plucked from the same tree — they were to die! That is what happens when the law is executed without love.

Albeit, nothing will ever change until the law of the Commandments and the law Life come together as one Law and they dwell together as the wolf and the lamb. There will never be a change to the tree by plucking its fruit. Religious lawyers have been plucking its fruit for six thousand years and the tree is more prolific today than when it was first planted. Plucking the fruit of one’s life will never correct the wrong nor change the person being plucked. Only when the root of the problem is reached will there be any changes. And it was at the root of the woman caught in adultery wherein Jesus wrote — into the ground, into her ground. That was where the problem had its root, in her ground.

Surely we now hear in our ear the words written in the beginning:  "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground..." Gen. 2:7. And do we not see that the woman was delivered from her sin in the same manner that we where delivered from ours? Her deliverance came when Jesus wrote with His finger in the dust of her fallow ground. He did not write among the thorns, or upon stony ground, but wherein His Word would be most effective. The Deep was calling unto her deep, and she heard His call.

In the wilderness the finger of God wrote the law of commandments into the stony tablets of man’s heart; but that fateful day of the adulterous woman, Jesus wrote His law of love into the furrows of her ground. He wrote it into her earthen vessel of clay, into her fleshly heart Ezek. 36:26. In the beginning of creation’s death, God cursed the ground for man’s sake; but in the beginning of creation’s life, we see Jesus blessing the same ground for the woman’s sake. Her parched ground then became a pool, and her thirsty land became springs of living water. Where her land was formerly the habitation of dragons, grass with reeds and rushes grew. Isa. 35:7.

What a wonderful thing it is for our Lord Jesus to write into the ground of the accused — "Not guilty! The price has been paid!" After the handwriting is finished, and His eyes are lifted from the dust, no accuser remains in the courtroom, and there is little wonder why they do not remain; for not only is the accused found not guilty, He writes into their ground as well. Although hard ground, He writes upon their stony hearts:

"And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." John 8:10-11.

The first writing was in the good soil of the woman’s ground, while the second was in the stony ground of the scribes and Pharisees. With Christ’s words written, and also spoken, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone," They were convicted as being guilty. The word of God written upon stone becomes the Law of Commandments, while the word of God written in pliable hearts become the Law of Promises, the Law of Life.

The original law was hard, uncaring, unbending, ravenous like the lion; but together with the Lamb, that pitiless creature became meek. It became a law that was powerful and full of life. Only God could have come up with such a unique combination and insurmountable union! Who could have thought it? No man could have, moreover, neither will man believe it. In his dim view and gelded logic such a paradox sounds preposterous.

"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain (not in a million years), saith the LORD." Isa. 65:25.

Let every man be a liar; but the nature of the wolf and the lamb in man will live from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and the lion will feed from the bountiful harvest of the good Seed of Life, the Word of God, sown into its ground. After the subtle serpent’s nature has received the mortal wound to its head by the death and resurrected life of Jesus, and it becomes subservient and meek, it will eat dust. In the same manner that our Lord’s flesh (the Word) is our meat unto life, so will our flesh (our word) be its meat unto life, and there will be no hurt in all of God’s holy mountain. The nature of the wolf, the lion, the leopard, the bear, and the serpent that God created will be in His Kingdom. They are seen today in the world, but without the cross. The subtle, cunning, wise spirit in man that has been feeding for thousands of years on Adam’s dust, his flesh, will be changed to feed on his living flesh, man’s living word.

All of these ravenous beasts, as well as the wise serpent of old rule in the kingdom of the world, and it is clear that they have certainly not become meek. They are as they were in the beginning; yet they have now become full-grown, and they are awesomely powerful. We read of these meekless beasts in the book of Revelation:

"And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" Rev. 13:2-4.

Without meekness, man is a stalking, swift-killing leopard. He is relentless in his determination to rule, as tenacious as the bear. His words crush life-producing bones like the lion. And regardless of the death-blows it may receive, without the cross of Jesus, the beast will always come back and live again. Men are under the power of these Christless beasts that receive their inspiration from the wise, subtle, cunning dragon. If you do not believe me, take note of those who are swayed by the leaders of nations, their challengers, political organizations, religious denominations and their heads, religious ideals, churches, and every other power which lacks the Meek Spirit of Jesus Christ. All of these inspired beasts of the dragon can become angry, very angry, when riled or disturbed; but their anger is not in righteousness. "For the wrath (orge) of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James 1:20. Rather than giving life, they destroy life. That’s the nature of the beast without Christ, but not so with the meek:

"And when he had looked round about on them with anger (orge), being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other." Mark 3:5.

Are we ready to do the same? I know the answer; but let me be so bold to say — we are not going to manifest one iota of Kingdom power until we are meek, until our anger is trained and restrained, until we can be angry for the right reasons, against the right people, in the right way, and for the right length of time. There will be no power given to us until we can be angry and sin not. Until then, my friends — we can forget about ruling in the Kingdom of God; for until then, we would bring grievous hurt to His holy mountain. But praise God, we know that the until is working greatly in our lives. Every beast of the field which was brought into Adam, wherein they were named (natured) — the lion, the leopard, the wolf, the serpent — shall be made meek. For the lamb, the calf, the kid, and the child were also a part of the first man.

We can conclude that since they were in the man and the woman corporately that they were all of one mind and one accord, that is, until the woman was taken from the man’s side. In the separation, some of the natures stood apart from the others. Some were with the man and some where with the woman, and for six thousand years the lion, leopard, bear, wolf, and serpent have been killing and devouring the lamb, calf, kid, and child. Ah, but in Christ, the slaughter ends. It ends in He who is the End. In Him, the killers are made meek, and justice rules in God’s holy mountain! Hallelujah!

To be continued...

Elwin R. Roach

In The Beginning Directory
 

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