Beatitudes: Blessed are the Meek.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Another word for meek is humble.

Most of the  leaders of the world could not be called meek. In the business world a humble man may be looked down on.

Moses, although he stood up to the king of Egypt and led the Israelites through the desert, was called meek. He spoke to God face to face. His strength was in God and he humbly realized this. "Now the man Moses was very meek, more than any man on the face of the earth." Num. 12:3

Psalm 37:11 says "The humble shall inherit the land."

The meek in this world may never own a plot of land. Moses never did. God and Jesus were talking about our life after death when we would inherit not only eternal life but land of our own. In the old testament God speaks of how we will build houses and inhabit them. (Isaiah 65:21) Jesus said he is preparing homes for us in heaven. (John 14:2) When there is a "new earth" it will be ours. (Rev. 21:1 & Isaiah 65:1)

I found this definition of meekness from Biblos.com here: http://bible.cc/matthew/5-5.htm
This is an amazing site that has comments on every verse in the Bible. And if you can't find a verse you are looking for you just have to type in part of it and they will find it.

I know this is long, but I feel meekness is misunderstood for cowardice. Jesus was definitely not a coward. He had a very strong, forceful personality.


The meek - Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries. It is neither meanness nor a surrender of our rights, nor cowardice; but it is the opposite of sudden anger, of malice, of long-harbored vengeance. Christ insisted on his right when he said, "If I have done evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" John 18:23. Paul asserted his right when he said, "They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves, and fetch us out," Acts 16:37. And yet Christ was the very model of meekness. It was one of his characteristics, "I am meek," Matthew 11:29. So of Paul. No man endured more wrong, or endured it more patiently than he. Yet the Saviour and the apostle were not passionate. They bore all patiently. They did not press their rights through thick and thin, or trample down the rights of others to secure their own.

Meekness is the reception of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate us. "Vengeance is his; he will repay," Romans 12:19. It little becomes us to take his place, and to do what he has promised to do.

Meekness produces peace. It is proof of true greatness of soul. It comes from a heart too great to be moved by little insults. It looks upon those who offer them with pity. He that is constantly ruffled; that suffers every little insult or injury to throw him off his guard and to raise a storm of passion within, is at the mercy of every mortal that chooses to disturb him. He is like "the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt."