Biblical meekness is not weakness; it is power under control for God’s purposes.

In fact, sometimes meek people in the Bible got passionately angry.  Yet in that anger, they remained sinless and controlled.  Their power (and anger) was under control for God’s purposes.  The Bible does not honor spineless people.  It never says not to get angry, but it does say in Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry and do not sin…”

There is a type of controlled anger that can be used powerfully for God’s purposes.

Moses is one example.  When he came down from Mount Sinai and saw God’s people worshiping idols, he was righteously angry.  In controlled anger, he rebuked God’s people and drove them back to the worship of the one, true God.  Do you know how the Bible describes Moses?  It says in Numbers 12:3, “the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.”

[1] Does that change your concept of meekness?

Jesus is another example.  When Jesus went into the Temple and saw vendors ripping off the people and making huge profits, he was righteously angry.  The purpose of the Temple was for the worship of God.

Jesus, meek and mild, the gentle shepherd, was no pacifist.  John 2:15a, “15And making a whip of cords, he [Jesus] drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen.”  Try to imagine this scene: Jesus purposefully walked through the Temple courts, whipping the vendors and knocking over tables because they were dishonoring God with their greed.

John 2:15b-16 continues, “And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 

Jesus was passionate about the glory of God.  He was consumed with a ‘zeal for God’s house.’ In meekness and in total control, He always used His great power for the glory of God the Father.[2]

 

[1] Numbers 12:3

[2] Psalm 69:6, John 2:17

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Mark Stafford

Senior Pastor