THE BLESSING OF BEING MEEK--THE INTERIOR WORK OF GOD IS THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE CAUSE OF THE MEEKNESS upon which the Lord Jesus pronounces blessing. It is that kind of meekness. Such meekness springs from the resultant self-abomination: the hidden depths of the soul lie all exposed in unfolded rows like furrows, all the dark creeping things brought to light by this work. With this ploughing of the Lord, the soul thereby loathes what it sees of itself, hitherto quiescent beneath the surface. The Hebrew word for meek is both specific and characteristic. The root of the word Anav finds its source originally in the toil and labour of an agricultural people: it is rooted in the soil. ‘To bestow labour on anything; to exercise oneself in anything; specifically as it appears, ‘to till the ground, or, cultivate the earth, furrow.’ This humble toil produces a natural meekness, and behind the Hebrew word describing the humility, lie the natural, laboring, cause. BUT IN A CHOSE PEOPLE OF GOD, EVERYTHING, DOWN TO THE LEAST, IS TAKEN AND TRANSFERRED TO THE DIVINE SPHERE, GIVEN A DOUBLE MEANING BY ALLUSION FROM THE NATURAL TO THE SPIRITUAL REALM. Things are spiritualized to refer to the work of God. And the word Anav, meek, is no exception. It is in this sense that it is used in Psalm 37:11, to which the beatitude refers. The interpretation of context must determine when the word is intended to be read spiritually, and usually this presents no difficulty. So it is that the meaning ‘to be afflicted, subdued by labour, tamed by toil, ploughed under, furrowed’ developed a spiritual connotation when it was transferred to apply to the work of God on the soul as producing this effect in the character. When the Lord convicts the sinful soul, and slays the stout arrogant spirit, by ploughing the furrows of inward conviction, and planting the seed of the word within, there you have the meek in the spiritual sense. When God ploughs up the fallow ground of the heart, when the word of the Lord is as fire and a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces, then a sound work and a good foundation is inwrought within the soul. Not a swift work. It takes time, like clearing, uprooting, ploughing and harrowing take time. And labour. -- end quote.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 23:09:17 +0000
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