Meek is a word used multiple times in the New Testament to describe the way in which Christians are expected to live. We often glide over this word as we read the scripture. Taking it to mean quiet, gentle, or ultimately we view it as a synonym to humble.
While those are proper ways to define the word meek. That is not the only meaning it cares. The word was often associated with the training of Greek war horses.
You see the Greeks would find the wildest horses and then bring them back and break them. Once the horse was broken and found worthy for use as a warhorse they would be described as meek. In this situation, meek would mean that the horse had power under authority or strength under control.
The horse was no longer wild, unruly, rebellious, or out of control. Now it would be able to run into the heat of battle without fearing all the surrounding carnage. While also being able to discern even the whisper of a command from its rider.
Before the horse was put into submission to a master it had the power to do great things. However, it lacked the discipline required to do anything for the benefit of others. Much like we are before we come into a right relationship with Christ.
We have the potential to do great things however in our rebellious state we are unable to do anything well. Instead, we work to do things only for ourselves. Yet once God leads us into submission we are then able to serve God and others like never before.
So when we come across the word meek in the Bible we should not just take it to mean a quite or a lowly state of being. But we should also see it as being in a state of submission that allows us to do things that we never would have been able to do on our own.
Matthew 5:5 (ESV)
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Isaiah 29:19 (ESV)
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Numbers 12:3 (ESV)
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Colossians 3:12 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
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