A Little about the Horse in History

Having just read The Horse, A Galloping History of Humanity, by Timothy C. Winegard, it is now my purpose to share with you [and you may find it interesting] the fact that wars and commerce were all done via horseback, more than 3,500 years before Christ. The horse was a major component even up to and including World War I. The horse ignited a revolution in transportation, trade, traction, and war. Only a century ago, horses ruled the global village they helped to create.

Around the time WWI was ending, the City of New York was building the famous “Brown Stone Houses” to make sure the living quarters on the streets of the City were higher than the manure piles that lined its streets.

Thus, when Henry Ford created the car…it was the car that became ‘the solution to the manure pollution and to all the diseases that resulted from having millions of tons of horse manure and urine on the streets. Today it is the car that is the polluter. As you know, horses are still around, and horse racing is expected to be a $794 billion dollar business by 2030.

Jesus Used the Horse Culture in the Beatitudes

I mention this to you to say: The horse also plays a significant role in the New Testament. I find in studying Biblical Hebrew & Greek, that there are no words that mention the ‘horse,’ but there are ‘horse’ words. One such word is the word MEEK. Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the meek.’

I am not sure what people think this word means but allow me to share with you something I know regarding the word ‘meek.’

Horses, by their very nature, are scared to death of fire.  Fearing some things may save your life and thus they should frighten us. What are you afraid of? Fear can make us ‘run’ or take ‘flight,’ or to simply ‘paralyze’ us. I think we all understand fear and what it can do.

How does this relate to the horse? The issue for the trainer of horses, one of the highly skilled and respected professions of the ages, was to train a horse to respect its master rather than its own nature. How they did this is beyond my understanding and I know only about the final examination.

After their training, the horses were lined up in a row, at nighttime. In the darkness, a torch was lit. That torch was then walked in front of all the horses. When the horse understood that its master was relaxed and not in fear, then it too could relax and not be in fear. It was then, and only then, that the horse was declared to be MEEK. It had the ability to stay calm amid fire and battle.

Like the horse, the meek person is the one who is powerful and obtains their power from beyond themself. The meek are blessed because they do not fly off the handle, get immediately angry, throw a fit, get into a fight, run away, feel insulted and want revenge.

I would suggest seeing what David says in Psalm 63 (below) considering the above horse story. He is praying to gather his strength and to take his cue as to how to handle his situation from his Master rather than his own nature.  Whatever you read from Jesus, you will see the same line of thinking:  Respect your Master rather than your own nature.

by Frank Leeds III, D.Min. S.T.M.

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Relevant Scripture

Psalm 63 – A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

¹ You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
⁷ Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

⁹ Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
    they will go down to the depths of the earth.
¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword
    and become food for jackals.

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God;
    all who swear by God will glory in him,
    while the mouths of liars will be silenced.