Gentleness — Can’t I Get Something More Dramatic? August 4, 2014
Gentleness seems like a good thing, if not very dramatic sounding. Gentleness has a good pedigree; our word gentleman is literally a man who isgentle, not violent.
In the Old Testament, Moses is the premiere example ofgentleness. Numbers 12:3 says, “Now the man Moses was very meek, morethan all people who were on the face of the earth.” This gets moredifficult; “meek” is not thought of as a good thing in our culture. Whatdoes it mean that Moses was meek, and how is that good?
Miriam and Aaron were disparaging Moses by pointing out thatGod spoke through them also. Moses apparently didn’t say anything to thistrue but self-important statement, but God strongly rebuked Aaron and Miriam.
Is meekness timidity? It can’t mean that. Godwas angry when Moses showed timid, toe-dragging self-criticism in response toGod’s call to him.
Meekness also can’t mean that Moses never got angry. Numbers 16 says, “And Moses was very angry and said to the LORD, “Do notrespect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have notharmed one of them.” Here 250 men are telling Moses off, saying that hehad promoted himself but they themselves are at least as worthy to approachGod.
In Numbers 20 Moses is accused of leading the nation to dieof thirst. “He said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring waterfor you out of this rock?’ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck therock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly.”
How do we sort this out?
Moses trying to evade God’s call on him assuming that sincehe was inadequate that would overrule God’s command. That wasn’tmeekness, that was putting himself first.
In Numbers 12, Moses did not respond by bragging about beingchosen by God. He did not get drawn into an argument about how importanthe was.
In Numbers 16 Moses took his hurt to God, didn’t argue thathe was important, but said that God would decide.
In Numbers 20 Moses disobeyed God by striking the rockinstead of speaking to it and by labeling himself as a co-provider with Godinstead of holding up God’s holiness. That was a rare failure in meekness.
What about the ultimate gentle/meek man? Jesus describeshimself as gentle in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Intriguing: the way we get relief and rest is to learngentleness from Jesus.
What about us? We’re probably willing to be gentle,most of the time anyway, to people who deserve gentleness. Jesus calls usbeyond that.
Matthew 12 says, “a bruised reed he will not break, and asmoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory;”
Jesus didn’t show gentleness negating truth; He was quitetough on the Pharisees and Sadducees.
How can Jesus as the perfect Son of God model meekness forus? By this: He constantly pointed people to God the Father.
As Christians, we are called to believe some extremelydifficult things. One of them is this, “It’s not about me.” It’sall about God.