Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Who are the meek?
THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Let us set before our eyes the examples of some of the saints who have shined in this grace.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Look at Abraham, and you see a wonderful portrait of meekness―you remember his behaviour with respect to Lot, and how he allows the younger man to assert himself and take the first choice and does it without a murmur and without a complaint―that is meekness. See it again in Moses, who is actually described as the most meek man on the face of the earth, Numbers 12:3. Examine his character and you see the same thing, this lowly conception of himself, this readiness not to assert himself but rather to humble and to abase himself―that is meekness.
THOMAS WATSON: Moses was a man of unparalleled meekness.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): That is a precious testimony which the Holy Ghost gives of Moses.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When Joshua conceived that he was only shewing a commendable regard for the honour of Moses, he desired that Eldad and Medad, who were prophesying in the camp, should be silenced, Numbers 11:28. But Moses reproved him, saying, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets!”
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is perfectly beautiful. Moses was far removed from that wretched spirit of envy which would let no one speak but himself. He was prepared, by grace, to rejoice in any and every manifestation of true spiritual power, no matter where or through whom.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): How was Moses so meek, when we often read of his anger?
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): True meekness doth not exclude all anger, but only such as is unjust, or immoderate, or implacable. Moses was, and ought to be angry, where God was offended and dishonoured, as he was in Exodus 11:8; 16:20; 32:19; Leviticus 10:16; and Numbers 16:15.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Moses could be angry enough when there was cause.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a holy and spiritual anger―a righteous indignation―as well as a carnal and sinful one. Anger is one of the divine perfections, and when the Son of God became incarnate we read that on one occasion He “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” Mark 3:5.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When God’s honour was concerned, as in the case of the golden calf, no man was more zealous than Moses; but, when his own honour was touched, no man more meek: as bold as a lion in the cause of God, but as mild as a lamb in his own cause.
THOMAS WATSON: How many injuries did he put up with? When the people of Israel murmured against him, instead of falling into a rage, he falls to prayer for them, Exodus 15:24,25. The text says, they murmured at the waters of Marah. Sure the waters were not so bitter as the spirits of the people, but they could not provoke him to passion, but to petition. Another time when they wanted water, Exodus 17:3, they fell a chiding with Moses. “Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children with thirst?” As if they had said, ‘If we die we will lay our death to your charge.’ Would not this exasperate? Surely it would have required the meekness of an angel to bear this.
MATTHEW POOLE: The meekest men upon earth are provoked sometimes, yea, oftener than Moses was.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Take Jeremiah. He was called upon to speak the truth to the people—not the thing he wanted to do—while the other prophets were saying smooth and easy things. He was isolated―non-co-operative they would call him today—because he did not say what everybody else was saying. He felt it all bitterly. But he suffered it all and allowed the unkind things to be said about him behind his back, and went on delivering his message. It is a wonderful example of meekness…
Look at it in the case of Paul, that mighty man of God. Consider what he suffered at the hands of the different churches and at the hands of his own countrymen and various other people. As you read his letters you will see this quality of meekness coming out, especially as he writes to the members of the church at Corinth who had been saying such unkind and disparaging things about him.
THOMAS WATSON: Another eminent pattern of meekness was David. When Shimei cursed David, and Abishai, one of David’s lifeguards, would have beheaded Shimei. No, says king David, “Let him alone, and let him curse,” 2 Samuel 16:11. And when Saul had wronged and abused David and it was in David’s power to have taken Saul napping, and have killed him, yet he would not touch Saul, 1 Samuel 26:7,12
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Read the story of David again and you will see meekness exemplified in a most extraordinary manner.
THOMAS WATSON: When Saul lay at David’s mercy and David only cut off the skirt of his robe, how was Saul’s heart affected with David’s meekness? Saul lifted up his voice and wept, and he said to David, “Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil…wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou has done unto me this day.” This ‘heaping of coals’ melts and thaws the heart of others.
C. H. SPURGEON: In Puritan times, when an eminent godly minister named Edward Deering was sitting at a table, a graceless fellow insulted him by throwing a glass of beer in his face. The good man simply took his handkerchief, wiped his face and went on eating his dinner. The man provoked him a second time by doing the same thing—he even did it a third time with many oaths and blasphemy. Edward Deering made no reply, but simply wiped his face and, on the third occasion, the man came and fell at his feet and said that the spectacle of his Christian meekness, and the look of tender, pitying love that Deering had cast upon him, had quite subdued him. So the good man was the conqueror of the bad one! No Alexander was ever greater than the man who could bear such insults like that!
THOMAS WATSON: Meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy.
C. H. SPURGEON: It used to be said of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, “Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn, and he will be a friend to you as long as you live.” That was a noble spirit, to take the man who had been his enemy and to make him henceforth to be a friend. This is the way to imitate Him who prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Of course we must come to the supreme example, and look at our Lord Himself.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “Learn of me,” says Christ, “for I am lowly and meek,” Matthew 11:29.
THOMAS WATSON: Christ was the pattern of meekness. “When he was reviled, he reviled not again,” 1 Peter 2:23. His enemies’ words were more bitter than the gall they gave him, but Christ’s words were smoother than oil. He prayed and wept for His enemies.
