Meekness of Moses

Jesus who said, I am meek and lowly at heart. Jesus of whom it was said, he came riding on the colt, the foal of an ass, meek and lowly, Zechariah 9-9. He would come so meek. Jesus who seemed so quiet, who avoided the conflict so often. Jesus of whom, blessed Peter, said, when he was reviled, he reviled not again, and when he was persecuted, he did not retaliate or seek revenge. Jesus, that quiet and meek spirit. The same Jesus who when God the Father was dishonored, walked into the temple, made a whip and started whipping men in the back, and started throwing tables over and knocking over chairs and spilling money and chasing animals, and said, get out of here, you have turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves, and it is to be a house of prayer.

The same Jesus, meek and quiet spirit, in dealing with people, who when he confronted the filthy hypocrisy of the Pharisees, blistered them from one side to the other, and called them whited sepulchres, whitewashed on the outside, and inside full of dead men’s bones. Listen, this is the same meek and lowly Jesus. Watch it. The key is this. Jesus never spoke a vengeful word, or a retaliating word, or a word of condemnation or judgment against anyone for something they had done to him. He spoke it only in reference to how they treated God, and he set an example.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2, Christ has suffered setting an example for us. And what is the example? That when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was condemned, he did not become vengeful. Now you see him with a whip in the temple, and he’s cleaning the temple because it is a defiling of the Father’s house. But when his own temple was defiled, hanging on the cross, and the nails were driven through, and his body was dripping with blood and spit and sweat, and they were mocking him, all he had to say to them then was, Father, what? Forgive them.

They don’t know what they do. See? That’s meekness. That’s power under control. It’s total selflessness. Jesus never reacted to that which came against him, only that which came against the Father. In the garden, they came to capture him. In Matthew chapter 26, it would have been so easy for Jesus to have pulled off a wonder of all wonders. It says that he had the power, if he wished, to call the angels of heaven to his aid. Jesus said, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? Conservatively speaking, nearly a hundred thousand, seventy-five thousand angels.

You know how powerful that is? Well, look at the Old Testament. One angel slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians. Listen, Jesus said, I could, with one word to my Father, have twelve legions of angels here in a snap. But not in defence of himself, he wouldn’t do it. Not in defence of himself. That’s meekness. … Meekness will take a whip and defend God against those who desecrate his name. It’ll be angry. It’ll be so angry that its eyes will be fire. But meekness will not as much as lift its own finger for vengeance against that which comes to itself.

You know, it’s so easy this to be tempted this way. When somebody says something about me that’s critical or something, you know, you feel that inside temptation. Boy, you know, I’ll tell them. Who do they think they are touching God’s anointed? You know, hey, you get… See? Or when somebody does something to you, you know, people keep running into our cars lately. You know, your first reaction is, boy, I’m going to get every penny out of that bird. See? That’s what you start to feel inside. And you need to say, that’s not the thing to be angry about.

Not what my neighbour does to me. What happens to me doesn’t matter. Meekness says, I only retaliate. The lion only roars when God is the issue. See? Boy, that’s when you’re living right. You can’t be offended. Meekness cannot be offended. Do you get that? There’s nothing to defend because we’re nothing. Another illustration of meekness is power under control would be David. In 1 Samuel 24, you don’t need to turn to it, I’ll just wrap these thoughts up. In 1 Samuel 24, David was running from Saul. Remember that? Saul was chasing David. David knew he was king.

He was anointed king. I mean, he knew he was to be the king. And Saul was a rotten king, and it was only a matter of time, it was inevitable. And David and his men were hiding in a cave. Remember the story? And in 1 Samuel 24, Saul came in their cave. What an opportunity. You could pull off a coup rather easily. One shot in the old heart, and that was it. David knew he had the right to reign. David knew that Saul had chased him all over the place. Tried to kill him. Tried to destroy the wonderful love relationship he had with Jonathan.

Tried to devastate his whole life. You know, normally, a man would have been so vengeful to Saul, have hated what Saul did to him, make him run like an animal all over the wilderness, that he would have taken that opportunity and figure he had every right of God. He would have said, boy, God, you must have put him in here. I’m going to get him while I got him. And David’s men said to him, do it, David, do it. But David wouldn’t do it. David went over to Saul, took his knife, and cut a piece of his robe off just so Saul would know he was there and could have done it, but didn’t do it.

He had the power. He had the right. But his power was under the control of submission to God. He would never do anything in vengeance for himself. Only would he defend God. And in Psalm 69.9, David said, zeal for your house has eaten me up. He reproaches that have fallen on you are fallen on me. He says, God, when I get angry, it’s because you are dishonored. He never defended himself. In 2 Samuel 16, David’s son Absalom, that evil, rebellious, vile son, tried to defeat his own father as king. And David had to run for his life.

And David is running for his life out in the wilderness. And Absalom is trying to put up a new government and undermine his own father. And David was the laughing stock of some people, because he ran from his own son. And during that time, one of Saul’s men by the name of She-Mai found David, and he started to curse at David. And he mocked David, and he threw rocks at him. David was the king, God’s anointed. But he was so humbled by this, that this man was cursing him and mocking him and throwing pebbles at him.

And Abishai, David’s nephew, said to David, David, you just tell me the word and I’ll chop his head off. David said, let him alone. That’s power under control. Never vengeful for himself, sought nothing for himself. He would act with his army to fight for God’s causes. He wouldn’t touch one person for his own sake, not one. That’s meekness. Now you know as well as I do, that Saul would have killed this guy, Shimmy, if he had been throwing rocks at him. The difference is this, they both had the power. One had it under control, one had it out of control.

One was like a fortified city, according to Proverbs. One was like one with no walls. That’s meekness. You know, at one time, Saul was so out of control at one time. According to 1 Samuel 14, Saul was going to kill his own son on a minor issue just to prove his power. On the other hand, when David’s son rebelled against him, David said he would rather die for Absalom’s sake. 2 Samuel 1833. That’s the difference. Saul wouldn’t let himself be offended by anybody, even his own son. He’d kill him first. David could be offended by everybody, even his own son, and lose his own life first.

That’s the difference. Power under control, the spirit that makes a man bow low before God and think nothing of himself. The greatest Old Testament illustration of meekness is Moses, and I want you to see this as we wrap up our thoughts. Moses, listen to this statement. I’m going to read it to you, Numbers 12.3. You don’t need to turn to it, just listen. Numbers 12.3 says, The man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were on the face of the earth. End quote. Isn’t that great? The meekest man that ever lived.

He was meek. Now, when you think of Moses, you don’t think of Casper Milquetoast. You don’t think of some puny little character going around mumbling under his beard. You think of fearlessness. You think of boldness. You think of combativeness. You think of a confrontive, courageous man with conviction, of a great, dynamic, powerful leader. You see that man with explosions of anger from one end of his career to the other, don’t you? Why his whole career came when he saw an Egyptian person abusing a Jew, and he killed him. Remember that? He blew up at him, and he just took his life.

He was so furious. You see him in the fifth chapter of Exodus, after he’s been refined by God in the wilderness, and he walks right in there into the presence of Pharaoh, the greatest monarch existing in the world. And he wasn’t afraid to face him, and he wasn’t afraid to command him, and he wasn’t afraid to make a demand. Godly fearlessness, godly boldness. In Exodus chapter 32, he finds Israel in idolatry, he finds them in debauchery, and in absolute fury, he smashes the law of God, and he skates and rebukes, fearless man, bold, combative, confrontive.

We see him in the first chapter of Exodus, chapter 32. He was fearless in confronting Pharaoh, he was fearless in confronting the people of God in their sin. He went through his life exercising authority over a couple of million people. He was a bold, strong man. Yet the Bible said he was the meekest man that ever lived. Why? Because his strength was always amassed in reaction to God’s honour, never in defence of himself. Do you see? In fact, he had no confidence in himself. None at all. In the third chapter of Exodus, when God came to him and called him, he said, who am I that I should lead these people? Who am I? And in Exodus chapter 4, God says, you can’t, but I can.

And he gave him a rod. And he had the rod of God in his hand. And he was nothing, but the rod of God was everything. And from that time on, the rod of God was always in his hand. And when he does something with the rod, things happen. Right? It was like a constant symbol of the fact that Moses was nothing and the rod was everything. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the meekness of Moses. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong and continue to shine your light in the world.

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