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Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matt. 5:5.

By now we should know that the meek who inherit the earth are not spineless cowards, but are to the contrary. We understand what it is to truly be meek, that is, not as the world views meekness; but we are grasping just how awesome this great quality is in our lives, and without it we fall short of the mark.

Without meekness, we will be out of balance. We will be either too aggressive or too passive. If we are not meek we will be unrefined, untried, unfinished. When meekness is lacking, our character will be tarnished, we will roughshod and intemperate. Without this priceless jewel in our lives we will not be able to be angry and sin not. Eph. 4:26. Our anger will miss the mark of love's holy passion for creation. Reconciliation cannot be made when meekness is lacking. The whip of wrath may rein people in and force them to sit in subjection to our rule; but such subjugation will not reconcile them to God. No one is drawn to Christ by the whip. It only serves to bed them down in a crib of fear, and eventually will anger and harden them. Without meekness, we may be able to gain control and have dominion over everything in the earth, as it was given to man to have in the beginning. We can rend and ravage like the lion; but in our rending, we sin, and the world loses.

We generally use our scourge of cords much differently than Jesus did when he cleaned the Temple. He, indeed, lashed out in anger; for it says that the zeal of His house had eaten Him up (John 2:17). However, He did not sin in His anger. Jesus was a lion that day. He was the disciplined Lion of the tribe of Judah. He was under authority. He had learned obedience by the things He suffered. He was angry at the right people for the right things, and for the right length of time. And in His anger, He never sinned; for He was meek. He was a meek lion.

"I am meek and lowly," Jesus said, and "the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hands." He knew what it was to be meek and is training the elect to be likewise. In the same manner all things were given unto Him, He places the same in the hands of those He trusts, and it is not the soulish beasts of religion. It will never be the proud lions who will inherit the earth; but rather, the meek ones. They inherit the earth.

Let us note the insight a Franciscan friar, Francisco de Osuna. In his book, The Third Spiritual Alphabet (published 1527), he wrote:

"As the former subject is enlarged upon more fully later on, setting it aside let us speak of the last word, which bids us to be meek. According to those who write on this virtue, the meek live in a noble quietude of mind, and are not easily perturbed. They are sober and temperate, control their anger, are not impetuous but very placid; they are gentle and never speak bitterly; courteous and not rough-mannered. They are good-hearted, not malicious, suspect no harm always return good for evil, are healthy and uncorrupted, for those who are by nature meek are naturally healthy, not only in soul but even in body. They are neither provoked nor do they provoke others to evil; they do not hinder people nor are they hindered; they bear no grudges and are generally self-possessed; they are not readily annoyed and usually give place to evil. They overlook many offences; are easily corrected; do not resist though they are struck and wounded; are not cruel nor melancholy but always cheerful; they are extremely docile and sincere, simple and thoroughly straightforward; their face is open and they are full of kindness and patience. They have a noble character, generous and free. Finally, they seem more truly men than those who are not meek. For, according to the wise man, by nature man is a meek animal, as is seen by his face, for furious men look like wild animals without the mercy or the character of mankind. Happy and blessed indeed are the meek, for they possess in the earth of their body a subject and not a rebel, highly tractable and reined in by reason, ready to go wherever it is bidden.

"The souls of the meek being wholly subject to God, their bodies are subject to them and are by them yielded to God. The body obeys the soul which obeys God and opposes the soul which opposes Him. To a meek soul, the body is meek and against the soul which breaks the yoke of the Lord in anger, the body rebels. Therefore, ‘Blessed are the meek,' for they being possessed by God will be entitled to possess themselves as well as the land of the living, which is heaven; for, according to St. Augustine, no one will possess God in heaven unless God possessed him on earth. The meek also really possess earthy things, for when they lose them they do not lose meekness; but they drag this world's goods after them as their slaves, but when they lose them, calmly bid them go in peace, showing that they were detached from such property.

"Blessed are the meek, for God bids them specially to seek Him as a sign that He is ready to give Himself to them, for as ‘birds of a feather flock together,' Jesus Christ, the meek Lamb who for us was led to sacrifice, loves to be with the meek. Bless are the meek, for they will own the thrones of the proud devils on which they will peacefully seat themselves, for it is written: ‘God hath overturned the thrones of proud princes, and hath set up the meek in their stead.' Blessed are the meek, for they are true disciples of Christ who, meeker than Isaac, laid Himself upon the cross to be wounded. He reserved meekness for Himself and called Himself its Teacher, bidding us go to His school, which is the cross, to learn it.

"Blessed are the meek, for they are barricaded from the shots of the devil's artillery and the persecutions of this world by sacks of wool. They are like glass vessels packed in hay or straw to preserve them from jars. Meekness is the strong shield by which the arrows of wrath are broken or turned aside. The meek are clothed in very soft cotton which defends them perfectly without offence to anyone.

"Blessed are the meek, the lodestones that by nature attract iron to them. Nothing can so soften hard hearts as meekness, as we see in the meek David, who often mollified the heart of his great enemy Saul and even made him weep and become merciful.

"Blessed are the meek, for the Lord will always listen to them; they know that He will hear their prayers, for it is written: ‘The prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased thee.' (Judith 9:16). Blessed are the meek, for God is their Defender and Avenger when they are injured, as is shown by Moses. (Exod.2). When Aaron and his sister Miriam spoke against him, God was very angry, though their words were not seriously abusive, because Holy Scripture tells us Moses was the meekest man on earth; therefore he received more grace and was higher in God's favour than any man of his time; for the Lord declared that his grace and sanctity compared with that of others was as truth compared with a dream, or as a body to its shadow.

"Now, brother...if you do not possess meekness, you must seek it before anything else, for it is the greatest preservative of divine grace. It often happens that those who are drawing near to God and who feel His grace in their heart, lose it on feeling the slightest anger. They do not know how grace came nor where it is gone. Harsh words have the same effect on the speaker: they disturb the heart and spill the liquor of grace it held.

"...It is evident that meekness corrects both our own and other people's faults more effectively than (man's) wrath, as the psalm says: ‘For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.' Never is man more fit to judge and reprehend than when he is meek, for he sees the truth clearly regarding himself and others. Those who are prudent, when they know they have lost this virtue, wait for its return and cease to punish meanwhile lest God should punish them; in this they resemble Him of Whom it is said that He judges with tranquillity.

"Others, still more prudent, when they are angry forgive their adversaries in order to overcome themselves, knowing that they sin more deeply by their ire than their foes do by offending them, for they themselves offend against God and the rest offend against man.

"...Counsel given by the sage: ‘Do thy works in meekness, and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men.' He tells us to finish our works in meekness, because he knows where the danger comes in, for many begin with meekness and gradually grow angry. He tells us that then we shall be beloved above the glory of men, for the meek are angels rather than men.

"‘Be angry and sin not,' stands for, ‘ Be zealous, but in discernment: let your zeal keep within the bounds of reason.' I beg those in authority, to remember St. Jerome's words: ‘Nothing is worse than a furious, domineering person in authority. He, who by rights should be mild to all, shouts, frowns, his lips tremble, his brows are knitted, he is insolent, his face is distorted, he is quarrelsome and clamourous, and not only deters the erring from the right path, but by his cruelty plunges them into an abyss of vices.' These are the words of that Saint; how true they are is better recognized by their subjects than by those in authority.

"The devout should be meek-hearted in order to acquire holy fear and patience; and meek in order to pacify wrath of their associates, answering them, as the wise man counsels, ‘peaceable words with mildness.' They should be meek in their actions to gain the love of all and an increase of grace, as it is written: ‘My mildness hath multiplied me.'

"Therefore, brother, I beg you with the Apostle, By the mildness . . . of Christ to be meek, for Jesus was sent to announce salvation to the meek; receive His inspiration meekly, that you may rejoice; never forsake meekness . . . bind it ever to you that you may be always ready to receive His grace. Be meek, if you wish to preserve your soul and be armed with the weapons of our Redeemer. Live worthily with all meekness and humility and patience, bearing with others in charity, being ‘careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." — End quote.

Truly, meekness is the catalyst of the Lion and Lamb's greatness. Meekness will always be the vanguard of the sons' reigning power in the earth, yet we seem to have missed this important point. We are living in a day when we are inclined to strive to be contrary to meekness. We desire to be great, to be recognized, to be somebody, to stand out in the crowd, if you please. If we minister the word, we want it to be the best word. We strive for it to be a word that others will stand up and take notice of what we have. We must be retrained, however, for such are not the inclinations of the meek. Mature sons of God fain recognition. They withdraw themselves from the limelight.

To quote from the Christian Millennial Fellowship magazine: "Dr. Bonar once said that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he himself was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun." And,

"Each day to grow more humble,
Yet stronger in Thy might;
More valiant, Lord, to carry
Thy standard for the right.
"Each day to grow more gracious
More sweet and gentle, too;
Yet braver, more courageous,
More firm, more pure, more true.
"That I may grow more like Thee;
In me Thy Spirit shine;
Transformed from grace to glory,
Touched by a power Divine"

M. E. Kendrew

What a wonderful thing it is to be touched by His Divine power. We have all witnessed the transforming glory of our Lord in people's lives, and even in our own. We have heard God's voice thundering from the heavens while we stood in awe upon the high mountains, apart from the clamor of humanity's daily grind. Such wonderful things we have heard, seen, smelled, tasted, and touched. Excitement raced through our veins like charged lightning, and we often felt the need to build a temple on the sunny side of the mountain and bask in God's glory forever. Or else, we would scamper down the rocky slopes to the valleys below and trumpet abroad all those precious things we saw and heard while in those lofty places. More often than not, in all of our seeing and hearing, we did not heed our Lord's words: "Tell no one the things we had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead."

There is a time when we can repeat what we have heard and tell what we have seen; but there comes a day when we are more than messengers. That day is when we are the message. That day is when Christ has risen in us, and it is His glory by which we shine, not our own.

When we decrease and He increases, we are changed inside-out, and the words Jesus speaks become so clear that even a child could understand, and we wonder why we never saw such things before. Of course, there was no way we could grasp them; for certain treasures will be kept from us until we become meek. Otherwise, our untrained lion would abuse them. It would be as Jeremiah wrote: Every man is brutish in his knowledge. . . Jer. 10:14.

Although there may still be many things we cannot bear (John 16:12), this has not stopped us from telling the things we have heard, and some things we have not heard. I had wondered at times, how much do we really know about the risen life of Jesus, that indwelling life that the whole world is waiting for and standing on tiptoe to see? Perhaps not much; but I believe that is changing.

We may have had a hard time keeping quiet about our glorious mountaintop experiences; but is it not better to wait for them to become our reality and live them instead? If the Son of Man has risen in us, we live Christ, and Christ is seen; if not, although He is in us, His resurrection life must be formed and manifested in deed and power before creation is satisfied. In this, we will not have to tell anyone that He is risen, they will see it for themselves.

Is it coming into focus why it is the meek who will inherit the earth? They will not have dominion over the earth as it was in the beginning. They will certainly have dominion; but not as a ravenous lions, leopards, wolves and bears. The lions, leopards, wolves and bears will rule, but they will be meek lions, leopards, wolves and bears. Their dominion will not be with the sword, but with the cord.

The Kingdom of God will come only when we are meek. It is when our angered passion is restrained and trained, and we can be angry for the right reasons, against the right people, in the right way, and for the right amount of time. There will be no power given to us until we can be angry and sin not. Without meekness, we will not expect to inherit the earth; for great harm would be brought to His holy mountain, even as it was brought into the world when the beast in man was unleashed.

No longer will the lion, leopard, bear, wolf, and serpent kill and devour the lamb, the calf, the kid, and the child. But, praise God, in Christ, the killing ends. It ends in He who is the End. In Him, the slayers are made meek, and peace rules forever in God's holy mountain!

To be continued...

Elwin R. Roach

Note: If you have not read publications #171.04 & #172.04, I would encourage you to do so. If you would like to have hardcopies, let us know, and we will gladly send them to you. Following are two letters which refer to them.

Dear Elwin & Margit,
Last evening Carroll finished reading Be Meek And Lie Not Against The Truth (Part 12) of In The Beginning series (#171.04). We both are so grateful to be able to receive and share in the wondrous message God has given you. To say ‘thank you' seems so inadequate. I'm almost speechless and overwhelmed. I can scarcely tell you all that this writing has meant to us both, but will try. (Hope you can read this, my vision is no better).

First of all, to have so much information and answers to questions I hardly knew I had! I've wondered for years about the temple incident and have had many people ask me how Jesus could be gentle and yet behave in such a manner. Well, now I think I could tell them.
Many things you brought up in Part 12 reminded us of other writings that now we understand better. Long ago we read an article by Bill Britton about the difference between wild horses and those who were in harnesses and were obedient (The Harness of The Lord).

Carroll and I feel sorry for those who asked to get off your mailing list. My! What a blessing they are missing. With much love and appreciation,

Adyce & Carroll Tucksen
Henderson, Nevada
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Dear Elwin - The latest Pathfinder (#172.04) is SUPERB! It offers so much for so many. If we truly go by way of the Cross this is the best course in anger (sin not) management. So much packed into 15 pages! We need to digest what is being said and live it unto LIFE! Required reading for all who truly seek "more of Him and less of me (ourselves)." I would dare say this is the best message on meekness out there. I know you won't take this praise unto yourself, Elwin. It is a nourishing word for his hour.
To God be the glory!

Cal Cobb
Farmington, New York
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(With letters such as these, praise could easily be taken to oneself; but we know from where the word comes, so all praise goes to our Lord Jesus, the One Who is truly Meek. Nonetheless, we receive them with thanks giving.)

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