Bible Reading: Genesis 26:12-25
“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness” (Zephaniah 2:3a KJV).
He hit me hard across the face. I smiled back at him and calmly picked up my glasses from the ground where they had fallen. He jumped back as if my smile were a surprise return. The Spirit of God within helped me to not retaliate but to quietly await his screaming and angry departure.
Our key verse says we should seek meekness. Often, we may assume that meekness is weakness when in reality it is actually “power under control.” Meekness is a godly response to an unjust and traumatic situation. Meekness is submitting to God’s sovereign control.
How do you and I respond when others unjustly hurt us? Can we quietly wait for the salvation of our souls? I was able to do so in the situation above by God’s grace. In Genesis we read the account of Abraham’s son Isaac quietly moving on to another location when the locals confiscated the well he dug for his herds of cattle. Instead of fighting back, Isaac moved on and dug another well. This well was also stolen and Isaac’s herdsman ran off. Isaac and his herdsman moved their herds of cattle again and dug a third well. This time the Philistines did not run Isaac and his herdsman off.
We see that Isaac was a good example of meekness. He learned to control his strength, respond well in the face of hurtful situations, and submit to God’s sovereign control.
Jesus, who was God in the flesh, is our perfect example in meekness. The Scriptures say that Jesus “was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”
Our key verse says that we must seek meekness. This insinuates that it doesn’t come automatically to be silent when we are treated wrongly. However, with God’s help we can choose to respond correctly in hostile and difficult circumstances.
~Harold R Troyer
