“The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 29:19 ESV
Reflection: why does the Lord want the meek to inherit the earth?
If you do a quick dictionary search on the word “meek”, you might find something pretty interesting. Pretty telling, in fact. I looked at the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and found 7 synonyms for meek, namely “demure, down-to-earth, humble, lowly, modest, unassuming, unpretentious”. But when looking at antonyms, there were 77 (!!), mostly centered around various descriptions of being selfish. Just think, in our language we have ten times as many descriptions of antonyms as synonyms for this godly character of being “meek”. We might remember Jesus saying in his sermon on the Mount, ““Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 ESV. Jesus even said even of himself that he was meek; “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29 ESV. Here the word meek being translated to “gentle”.
If you search the Old Testament, the first time we run into this is a description of Moses. “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3 ESV. Keep in mind, this was describing Moses after he had led the Israelites out of Egypt, after he had been on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, after he had built the meeting tent, and so on. Moses, this man of God, on of the greatest leaders of the Israelites, was considered the most meek person on the face of the earth, it says. Fascinating, right? And, if we look at the life of king David through the words of his psalms, we also see meekness, humility, a lowly spirit in reverence of God.
We read in the focus verse today, that “The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 29:19 ESV. Again, the promise is to the meek. So how will this happen? It says that the Lord will do away with the wicked, “For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.” Isaiah 29:20-21 ESV. They will be no more, and evil will be gone.
“Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”” Isaiah 29:22-24 ESV. The Lord watches over His word to make sure it comes to pass “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.””Jeremiah 1:11-12 ESV
So what is the message to us today? Paul wrote to the Galatians “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25 ESV. Meekness is a core characteristic of someone living and walking in the Spirit.
Zephaniah wrote “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.” Zephaniah 2:3 ESV. It is not the prideful, the conceited or boastful, who are full of self, that will inherit the earth. No, it is the meek who live and walk with faith in God. Let us always seek and humble ourselves before the Lord God.