It’s commonplace for a verse to fully arrest me—to deliver a pause to my studying and my ideas. Generally a thought from Scripture will maintain me for months; one lengthy, uninterrupted dialog with God, wherein He illuminates reality to me from many angles. In the identical method a gemologist inspects a diamond, by the facility of the Holy Spirit in me, God and I mull over a reality till it washes over my coronary heart and life and turns into part of me as actually as my palms are part of me. I really like these “conversations,” and I really like the impression they’ve on my coronary heart and life.
The seemingly hyperbolic language of Numbers 12:3 has been a type of locations I’ve paused recently. “Now the person Moses was very meek, greater than all individuals who had been on the face of the earth.” After I learn a press release like that, I can’t assist however ask two questions: “What did that appear like?” and “How did God try this in him?”
What Did Moses’ Meekness Look Like?
To watch meekness precisely, we do nicely to first know what meekness is. Matthew Henry mentioned this about meekness: Meekness accommodates the soul to each incidence, and so makes a person straightforward to himself and to all about him.[1] I most frequently hear meekness described as “power beneath management.” If we put the 2 collectively, we may consider it because the submitting of energy to God’s larger functions. Maybe it’s best described as a faith-filled give up of the need, even in troublesome circumstances, in acceptance of God’s higher will.
As a result of Psalm 90 offers us such an intimate look into the center of Moses, and since it’s believed to have been written someday through the 40 years within the wilderness (this positions it after God’s declaration relating to Moses), it’s a splendidly significant place to contemplate simply what that meekness appeared like on this man of God.
The very first thing that stands out is Moses’ consciousness of the greatness of God; He’s eternal and the dwelling place for all generations. Such a easy assertion, however a vastness of reality that takes a lifetime to soak up. In our finite state, can we actually grasp infinity? How will we maintain the realities of an invisible God who’s our dwelling place when we have now properties, cities, and nations which are our tangible dwelling locations? I think meekness is the pathway to this “greedy” as a lot as the result of it. Moses received it and wrote a track for the folks to sing in order that they may start to “get it” too.
The second factor that stands out is Moses’ consciousness of human frailty—his personal frailty. We come from mud and are returning to mud; fragile and temporal just like the grasses that fade away every night (v. 5). The span of our life is in God’s palms, our days are quickly gone, and we fly away (v. 10).
Then Moses’ track flows into the pure response to this knowledge. “Educate us to quantity our days that we might achieve a coronary heart of knowledge” (v. 12). Moses knew that knowledge didn’t come from inside himself—he wanted God. His satisfaction in life got here from the expertise of God’s steadfast love. Having requested to see the work of God, Moses requested God to ascertain the work of his palms out of the favor of God. The work can be futile aside from God. That is meekness—energy beneath management.
Within the narrative of Moses’ life, we see these realities lived out. He knew he didn’t have what it could take to confront Pharaoh (Exod. 3:11) and was absolutely conscious of his personal smallness. However Moses approached him nonetheless as a result of he additionally knew the greatness of God and the scope of His energy and goal. Meekness follows the place God has referred to as, even once we know we don’t have what it takes to satisfy His functions.
How Did God Get Moses There?
The religion-fueled meekness of God is engaging to me. The longer I flip my coronary heart to it as I contemplate the lifetime of Moses, the extra I need it. It’s an expression of the great thing about God that’s compelling. This begs the query, “How did God get Moses to this place?” In fact, this query can’t be answered definitively, however I’ve all the time discovered it useful to contemplate speculatively. What if God was rising meekness within the boy Moses, who lived with the elite of Egypt, all the time realizing he belonged among the many slaves? Possibly it grew out of the burden of realizing he was a assassin who had fled justice? Maybe it grew within the mundane day-to-day of the lowly job of shepherding in a land that was much less his personal than Egypt. Did it develop as he fulfilled a job that he knew was far past his skill to perform? Or it might need been his front-row perspective on the mighty energy of God to make use of nature for His functions within the plagues and the opening of the ocean. I do know that is pure hypothesis, however I’ve learn sufficient of the Bible and lived sufficient life to know that these are extremely believable means by which God may accomplish this very factor.
How Do These Speculations Serve Us?
Questions and speculations are powerfully efficient in turning hearts from the overbearing weight of sorrows and fears to risk. Moses’ meekness is compelling. If God makes use of such means to develop His magnificence in His folks, I’m moved to yield—give up—submit my very own locations of struggling and problem to ensure that God to work such magnificence in me. That is the sort of fruit God has the potential to provide in hearts and lives once we prioritize lengthy, trustworthy, inquisitive conversations with Him.
Questions for Reflection
- Do you enable your self the liberty to marvel what God is as much as in your struggling?
- What one good goal are you able to establish that God has caused by means of your struggling?
[1] Matthew Henry, “A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit,” accessed August 7, 2025, https://gracegems.org/28/matthew_henry1.htm.
