Jesus is meekness. Moses was the forerunner of Jesus. John was the disciple of Jesus. [1]
Of Himself Jesus said, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). The Son of God chose the way of meekness. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). A rich man’s greatest fear is the loss of his riches. Without fear Jesus chose to give up His riches for our poverty. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). The way of meekness is the way of the cross.
The Son of God had a sanctified will wholly in harmony with His Father. He chose to be “made in the likeness of men.” In reality, God “made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). The magnetic pull was to assert Himself. Instead He denied Himself. “Not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He life was a continual cross. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Jesus lived and died by the principle of the cross. Jesus is meekness.
Moses “was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). The Holy Spirit inspired him to write those words because he was in line for the throne of Egypt and gave it up for “the reproach of Christ” (Heb. 11:26). Moses was meek because his will was crucified with Christ.
The world views meekness as gentleness, timidity, and compliance, without strength, power, or resolve. Christian meekness is crucifixion of self-will. Moses gave his will to God. The result was a resolute and forceful leadership which met confrontations with idolatry, heresy, rebellion, and wickedness. Moses met the challenges of criticism and backsliding without taking personal offense because egocentrism no longer reigned in his life.
Moses’ failure in leadership by striking the Rock the second time, was followed by a continual example of deepening repentance and dependence upon God. “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” said, “I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57:15).
What would meekness look like in our Day of Atonement? Would it be the assertion of women’s rights, or a youth take-over, or a controlling male-hierarchy? Would it be the hypnotic drumbeat of repetitious worship ditties that create deep vibrations? Is it user-friendly principles of church growth that employ mediums of culture with a Christian coating for the purpose of lifting people to a higher level? [2] Is it triumphal pageantry at great convocations? Is it statistical progress reports? Perhaps a worldwide sustained recession is teaching us a lesson from the bottom line that this is not the Divine measure of church success.
Meekness is the fruit of righteousness by faith. All self-centered appeals to come to Christ can only result in a religion of selfishness where the principle of the cross is abhorrent. “Babylon ... is fallen, is fallen” (Rev. 18:2). The religion of self is the religion of Babylon, and to the degree that it has been permitted to enter modern Israel, there is the religion of Baal worship. It can only result in lukewarmness.
We are living in the Day of Atonement when carnal minds that are enmity with God will be won by the agape of Christ’s cross. The natural born fear and consequent hatred of God is miraculously changed by the Priestly Psychiatrist’s Spirit of love being shed abroad in our hearts. This can only come about as a result of the principle of the cross. Paul had this experience, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
The “religion” motivated by self-centeredness leads to Spiritualism and self-destruction, because Lucifer become Satan invented it. [3] The religion motivated by the agape love of Christ’s cross leads to the second coming of Christ. When you choose to continually die with Christ in a deepening repentance and consequent obedience to the commandments of God, then Christ’s Day of Atonement ministry will have prepared you for His second coming.
“The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psalm 37:11).
—Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] It is interesting to note the parallels between E. J. Waggoner’s perspective on meekness in 1893 and Ellen G. White’s exposition in 1896. (E. J. Waggoner, “‘Blessed Are the Meek’,” The Present Truth, Nov. 16, 1893, pp. 519, 520; Ellen G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings [MB], International Tract Society, Washington, D. C., 1896, original edition, pp. 28-32.) Waggoner uses the examples of Moses, Christ, and John. Ellen White uses the examples of Moses and Christ. Waggoner’s definition of “meekness is in short the opposite of selfishness, which strikes directly against all the fruits of the Spirit, causing an individual to take to himself that which belongs alone to God. And in taking to self that which is God’s—or attempting to do so—an individual does not in reality get anything, and loses all that which God is able to give him” (ibid., p. 519). Ellen White writes: “... He who learns of Christ is emptied of self, of pride, of love of supremacy, and there is silence in the soul. Self is yielded to the disposal of the Holy Spirit” (ibid., p. 14).
[2] The medium is the message.
[3]“The independence and self-supremacy in which we glory are seen in their true vileness as tokens of servitude to Satan” (MB, p. 14).