"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."
The theme of the whole Bible is that God's purpose is to call out for Himself a holy people, set apart from the world to belong to Him and to obey Him. This people's work is to be true to its identity—to be holy and to be different from this world in outlook, attitude, speech and conduct. To this end He has called us to be "in Christ" and to grow to the measure of the stature of His fullness through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Undoubtedly, Jesus lived His life just as He instructed His disciples to live when He spoke from that mountain 2,000 years ago. The principles He enunciated are eternal. They apply just as surely to us today as they did to His original audience.
Notice what God tells Israel just after He brought them out of Egypt:
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, : I am the LORD your God! So don't follow the customs of Egypt where you used to live or those of Canaan where I am bringing you. I am the LORD your God, and you must obey my teachings. Obey them and you will live. I am the LORD. Leviticus 18:1-4
Because He was their God, the covenant God, and they were His special people, they were to be different from everybody else. They were to keep His commandments and not take their lead from those around them.
God thus admonishes Israel in Deuteronomy 12:29-31:
" When the LORD your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land. After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” You must not worship the LORD your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods! "
But the centuries of history that God records in the Old Testament testify that Israel kept for-getting their God-intended uniqueness. They kept becoming assimilated to the peoples around them.
As Psalm 106:34-38 says of them:
"They did not destroy the peoples, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them, but they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works; they served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood."
Israel did not merely neglectfully drift into worldliness. Some individuals undoubtedly did, but Ezekiel and Samuel make it plain that Israel as a whole greatly desired to be like the nations around them. Ezekiel 20:32 says:
"What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, "We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone."
Notice Samuel's experience with this desire:
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make for us a king to judge us like all the nations." . . . The people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." (I Samuel 8:4-5, 19-20)
God pleaded with them, "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles" (Jeremiah 10:1-2), and through Ezekiel He cried out to the same generation, "Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God" (Ezekiel 20:7).
No matter what area of communal life- whether religion, government, economics, national defense, entertainment, fashions or education, Israel persisted in turning a stubborn neck and deaf ear to God while openly seeking the ways of the nations around. It is no mystery why God allowed His judgment to fall on both Israel and Judah:
"For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. . . . Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight." (II Kings 17:7-8, 19-20)
Israel and Judah, rather than being different by living God's way, had conformed to the world around them. They were worldly. Thus, Israel first and then Judah many years later fell in military campaigns and the people were taken into captivity. Israel remains scattered and virtually unknown among the nations. It has not returned to the land of its birth. Judah has returned a few people to the homeland so it is at least known, but its greater number are likewise scattered among the nations. It is a clear picture but not a pretty sight.
The prophets provide instruction about what we should do in times like these:
Therefore say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.'" (Ezekiel 14:6)
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
Jeremiah 3:6-10 clearly shows Israel's and Judah's response.
The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: "Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.' But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense," says the Lord.
In the Context of Our Time:
We must see the Sermon on the Mount in this sort of context. It is set in the beginning of the first gospel account just after Jesus began His ministry. It is the first thing our eye falls upon after the introduction sets the stage. Matthew 4:17 says, "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" The very reason Jesus had come was to inaugurate the Kingdom.
The Sermon on the Mount portrays the repentance, the complete change of mind, and the righteousness that belong to the citizens of the Kingdom. It describes what human life and human community (as in a church) looks like when they come under the gracious rule of God.
Do we not look and act differently from the world or do we copy the customs of the world? We are to be holy, different, set apart from the world! We are not to take our examples from the people around us but from Him, and thus prove to be genuine children of our heavenly Father. A key statement is found in Matthew 6:8: "Therefore do not be like them," reminds us of what God says in Leviticus 18:3, quoted above.
Our character, as described in the Beatitudes, is to be completely distinct from that which is admired by the world. We are to shine as lights in the darkness of this world. How can we shine if we are just like them? and if no distinctive difference exists. Our righteousness in ethical behavior and true devotion to God is to exceed that of the religious people around us - "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. " Matt. 5:20 NIV.
There is hardly a verse in the entire Sermon where Jesus is not contrasting what He wants us to be with the way the world was in His day and still is. This is its underlying theme. Human nature never changes, so the same challenges He placed before the original audience face us. Some-times the contrasts are with the religious Jews and sometimes the Gentiles, but they are always drawn to leave us without excuse about knowing what is expected of us.
The Gentiles love and salute each other, but Christians are to love their enemies. They pray after a fashion, "heaping up empty phrases," but we should pray with the humble thoughtfulness of children to their Father in heaven. They are preoccupied with material necessities, but we are to trust God for our needs and seek first His Kingdom and righteousness. The Jews love to proclaim their charity and piety in fasting, but we must give, pray and fast "in secret" knowing God is aware and looking to Him for reward and not to the praise of those around us . Thus the Sermon on the Mount teaches us we are to be different—different from both the religious and the irreligious secular world.
The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete, single delineation in the New Testament of what might be called a true Christian counter-culture. Christ's Sermon presents us with a true Christian value system and ethical standard our attitude to material things and a network of relationships—all of which are at total variance with this world's.
The Sermon on the Mount is also a trustworthy guide for us. Each of us should urgently examine ourselves against it and with God's help reestablish a strong and loving relationship with Him by humbly submitting to Him in obedience to the Sermon's instructions. We can then be assured we will not be worldly, and God will restore us to a life far better than we ever had before.
Repentance is the key, and the Sermon gives the direction. God expects His children to submit to it. Living it can only produce good fruit.
The Beatitudes describe the character of those who will receive blessings in the kingdom as rewards from eight perspectives. Jesus introduced each one with a pronouncement of blessedness. This form of expression goes back to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, particularly the Psalm (cf. Psalm 1:1; Psalm 32:1-2; Psalm 84:4-5; Psalm 144:15; Proverbs 3:13; Daniel 12:12). These Beatitudes ( Matthew 5:3-10) may describe the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-3.
This beatitude is mentioned in the Old Testament, although not in exactly the same words (Psalms 37:11). Meekness and lowliness are related terms (Matthew 11:29,30). Both Jesus Christ and the patriarch Moses are set forth in Scripture as being meek.
In the Bible the meek are those who have a spirit of gentleness and self-control; they are free from malice and a condescending spirit. The meek are like the poor in spirit who have no re-sources of their own. The meek do not exploit and oppress others; they are not given to vengeance and vendettas, they are not violent, and they do not try to seize power for their own ends. In short, they have emulated the nature of Jesus in their lives. This does not mean that they are weak or ineffective in life.
How does one become meek? What if one’s nature is not meek? The answer to this comes from other passages of the Bible that describe how the Spirit led life works. Meekness and gentleness and goodness are part of the fruit of the Spirit--they are produced in the Christian by the Holy Spirit. So the direction people should follow to cultivate a spirit of meekness would be to walk by the Spirit, or be controlled by the Spirit of God so that the qualities of Christ can be produced in and through them. That instruction alone will call for some study, but that is the way the Bible describes how to develop meekness .
Meekness isn’t a valued quality in our day. The world’s philosophy of success says be assertive / aggressive and go for the throat! Do whatever is necessary to come out ahead. But that isn’t what Jesus said.
It’s vital we clarify what meekness is because some people equate meekness with weakness, but that couldn’t be further from Jesus’ mind. In fact, if you were to tell someone they were meek, I’m not sure they’d take that as a compliment.
If you were to look at a thesaurus it wouldn’t help either. Matters as the typical synonyms for meekness include – docile, mild, tame, soft, passive and spineless. It’s no wonder we don’t want to be called meek. But when Jesus used the term, He was speaking of something completely different. And since this characteristic is part of Jesus’ definition of a disciple, I think that it is in our best interest that we understand what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed are the meek…”
Meek was used with four completely different meanings in the N.T.
1. In the Greek culture, meekness was considered a virtue that was balanced between too much and too little anger. The meek man was neither timid nor given to fits of rage.
2. Greek physicians used the word to describe a soothing medicine. If too little was given, it wouldn’t work; but if too much was prescribed, it could hurt instead of heal. Yet if the proper amount was offered, then it could work wonders.
3. Meek was also used to describe a gentle breeze blowing in from the ocean. Wind can rage and do great damage but when it blows gently, it brings soothing comfort.
4. The most common use of meekness describes a wild stallion that had been tamed. The broken horse was powerful, but his power was under the control of a bridle.
The common thread in these images is that meekness represents different forms of power that can be used for good. Meekness is power harnessed for good.
Yet when you put this statement into the context of Jesus’ setting, the people probably scratched their heads in wonder. They likely thought, “Didn’t Jesus just mention that the kingdom of heaven was near?” If the kingdom is coming, then don’t we need to get ready to fight the Romans?
Let’s not forget, the story of Jesus falls within the framework of a nation in bondage to Rome. While the Jews believed the Messiah was coming, most thought He was coming to deliver them from their physical oppressor and not from their spiritual condition.
They eagerly anticipated that the Messiah would deal gently with them and harshly with their enemies. So when Jesus came on the scene they got excited because they believed the Messiah had come and that He would commend them for their goodness and would, at last, give the Jewish people their rightful place in the world — a position above all other people, because they were God’s chosen people.
But God’s plan wasn’t focused on the temporary but on the eternal. So when Jesus started talking the way He did in the Sermon on the Mount, you can imagine their reaction. They did not understand Him because He disappointed them and didn’t fulfill their expectations. To introduce meekness in a time of oppression was the last thing on their minds.
The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to inform the disciples of the qualities they are to possess and display to a watching world.
Jesus’ aim was to create a lifestyle in his disciples that would be different to that of the world. Jesus does not care about the reformation of manners or the transformation of personalities for their own sake. The first petition of the Lord's Prayer, is, "Hallowed be thy name!" This was the passion of our Lord's life. Therefore it is the passion of ours. And we must ask, What does meekness have to do with God? How does becoming meek and being meek promote the hallowing of God's name?
Probably the best place to begin is in Psalm 37, because it is almost certain that this beatitude is a quotation or allusion to Psalm 37:11. It says, "The meek shall inherit the land and enjoy great peace." In the Greek Old Testament the words of Psalm 37:11 are almost identical with Matthew 5:5. It says, "The meek shall inherit the land." And the word for "land" in Greek and Hebrew also means "earth." So let's try to see what meekness means in this Psalm and what it has to do with Go
David is the author of this psalm and although he had been anointed king as a teenager, he spent the better part of his twenties running from the ungodly King Saul. On several occasions, David did the right thing by sparing Saul’s life, only to watch Saul return to his comfortable palace, while David went back to a cave. During that time, David and his men did right by a man named Nabal, protecting his shepherds and flocks from bandits. But when David asked a small favor of Nabal in return, Nabal said, in effect, “Fly a kite! ” David had many occasions to reflect on the problem of personal injustice.
As an old man now (Ps. 37:25), David wrote Psalm 37 to share his insights on this problem. The psalm reflects the wisdom he had gleaned from years of walking with God. There is far more here than we can cover in one short message. But in skimming it, we can discern some principles for how we should respond to personal injustice:
The central issue of this psalm is “who will inherit the land?” - verses 9,11,22,29. In other words it answers the question ” Who will enjoy the blessings of the Lord ? And the answer is summed up in a recurring theme in verses 37:9, 11, 22, 29, 34. What does this mean? In its context, it applies to God’s covenant promise to Israel, that they would dwell in Canaan, the land of His promise. David is saying that God isn’t going to let the wicked displace the righteous from God’s promised land.
We shall see what "land" means later on.
Will the wicked who :
(a) plot - v 12
(b) scheme - v 7,32
(c) default on debts - v 21
(d) use raw power to gain advantage - v 14
(e) and seems to flourish - 7,16,35
or will the righteous who:
(a) trust the Lord - vs 3,5,7,34
(b) are humble - v 11
(c) blameless - vs 18,37
(d) generous - vs 21,26
(e) upright -v 37
(f) peaceable - v37
(g) from whose mouth is heard the moral wisdom that reflects meditation on God’s Word - vs 30 -31.
It is right to say that Psalm 37 is an exposition of the third beatitude, even though it was written a thousand years before Jesus began his public ministry. It unfolds the character of the meek or trusting person in the face of the apparent prosperity of the wicked.
The reason this question should be uppermost in our minds is that if we don't have an answer to it, we will not be able to fulfill the aim of our Lord in this sermon. He said in Matt. 5 and verse 16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Also Proverbs 25:28 tells us that “losing self-control leaves you as helpless as a city without a wall.” A man who possesses meekness is in control and his life is fortified by his disposition, because he is under the control of the Spirit of God.
Paul goes on to say that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.(Gal. 5:22-23) This verse tells us something – meekness is not a natural ability, but a divine attribute invested by God into the life of every believer through the working of the Holy Spirit. We are the wild stallions being tamed and broken by the Holy Spirit, and the more we submit to God’s bridle the less He has to tame us. A person with meekness is one who responds to the Christ in them and then moves into the world trusting and waiting on the Lord.
But what does it mean to wait for the Lord?
We get a picture again of those who wait for the Lord, that is, the meek, if we read verses 5–8. in Psalm 37.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
What are these people like who, according to verse 11, are meek and, according to verse 9, wait for the Lord? Well, verse 5 says they commit their way to the Lord and trust in the Lord. Verse 7 says they are quiet or still before the Lord and do not fret over others who prosper. And verse 8 says they refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
So let's try to put a together a portrait of the meek from Psalm 37.
1. They Trust in God
Meek people begin by trusting God (verse 5b). They believe that He will work for them and vindicate them when others oppose them. Biblical meekness is rooted in the deep confidence that God is for you and not against you.
2. They Commit Their Way to God
Next, meek people commit their way to the Lord (verse 5a). The Hebrew word for "commit" means literally to "roll." Meek people have discovered that God is trustworthy, and so they roll their "way" — their business, their problems, their relationships, their health, their fears, their frustrations — they roll all this onto the Lord. They admit that they are insufficient to cope with the complexities and pressures and obstacles of life, and they trust that God is able and willing to sustain them and guide them and protect them.
3. They Are Quiet Before God and Wait for Him
Next, according to verse 7a, meek people are quiet or still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. First, they discover that God can be trusted. Then, second, they commit their way to him. And then, third, they wait patiently in stillness for the work of God in their lives.
This doesn't mean they become lazy. It means that they're free of anxiety. They have a kind of steady calm that comes from knowing that God is omnipotent, that he has their affairs under his control, and that he is gracious and will work things out for the best. Meek people have a quiet steadiness about their lives in the midst of upheaval.
4. They Don't Fret over the Wicked
And so the fourth thing about them (in verse 7b) is that they don't fret themselves over the wicked who prosper in their way. Or, as verse 8 says, they refrain from anger. Their family and work and life are in God's sovereign hands; they trust him; they wait patiently and quietly to see how his power and goodness will work things out; and so the setbacks and obstacles and opponents of life do not produce the kind of bitterness and anger and fretfulness that is so common among men.
So the portrait we have of meekness so far, based on the closest biblical parallel - in Psalm 37:11 - to the third beatitude, is that it begins by trusting God. Then it commits its way to the Lord in the confidence that he will use his power and mercy to do good for us. Then it waits patiently and quietly for the outcome. And, finally, it does not give way to anger and fretfulness when faced with opposition and set backs.
So it is clear already, in this preliminary sketch from Psalm 37, that meekness has very much to do with God. It consists in a peaceful freedom from fretful anger and is based on trusting God and rolling all our ways onto God and waiting patiently for God.
Now let's turn our attention to the second half of the beatitude:
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
What does inherit mean:
The focus of the inheritance concept in the Old Testament is God's promise to Abraham. The land of Canaan was bequeathed to him and his descendants as an eternal possession ( Gen 12:7 ). Each family in Israel was apportioned its own inheritance as an inalienable possession (Josh.13-31) and given the task to occupy the land ( Judges 1:3 ). As the biblical history of Israel unfolds, the promised inheritance specifies a righteous remnant who will inherit the world as an everlasting possession ( Psalm 2:8 ; Isa 54:3 ; Dan 7:14 ).
From the promise of Canaan as Israel's inheritance came other aspects of the concept. The nation is described as God's inheritance ( 1 Kings 8:51 1 Kings 8:53 ; Psalm 78:71 ; Isa 19:25 ; Zech 2:12 ) whom the Lord will never forsake ( Psalm 94:14 ). The Lord is also described as the inheritance of the nation ( Psalm 16:5 ). The privileged position of Israel as God's chosen people placed them at the center of God's plans for blessing.
The dictionary gives the meaning as:
1. To take by descent from an ancestor; to take by succession, as a right or title by law from an ancestor at his decease. The heir inherits the lands or real estate of his father; the eldest son of the nobleman inherits his father's title, and the eldest son of a king inherits the crown.
2. To possess; to enjoy; to take as a possession, by gift or divine appropriation; as, to inherit everlasting life; to inherit the promises.-- (Follow justice and justice alone ) so that you may live and possess the land the Lord thy God is giving you. Deut. 16:20
To 'inherit the land' is to possess and dwell in the specific geographical region that God promised to Abraham.
When we come to the New Testament we find that the focus on "land" fades away and in-stead the idea of "eternal life" and " entering the Kingdom" takes its place. Also throughout the New Testament, a striking promise for believers is simply "the inheritance" ( Acts 20:32 ; 26:18 ; Ephesians 1:14 Ephesians 1:18 ; Col 3:24 ). Generally, the promise refers to the possession of salvation ( Heb 1:14 ). Believers are promised "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you" ( 1 Peter 1:4 ).
Almost all occurrences of the terms for "inheritance" in the New Testament are theological - Luke12:13 ; is the lone exception .And it was common for a person to ask a rabbi, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" ( Matt 19:16 ).
The New Testament is also clear that inheriting eternal life is synonymous with entering the kingdom. At the judgment, the righteous will inherit the kingdom ( Matt 25:34 ) but the wicked will be eternally tormented ( Matt 25:46 ). The finality of the separation of those outside of the family of God is clearly seen in their lack of a share in God's inheritance.
To sum up the rewards are:
(a) eternal life (Matthew 5:5 ; Matthew 19:29 ; Mark 10:29-30 and parallels; Titus 3:7 ),
(b) entering the kingdom (Matthew 25:34 ; James 2:5 ; negatively 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ; 1 Corinthians 15:50 ), and generally (Acts 20:32 ; Ephesians 1:14 ,Ephesians 1:14,1:18 ; Revelation 21:7)
Inheriting is not always the same as entering. A person can enter another's house, for example, without inheriting it. The concept of inheriting involved not only entering but also becoming an owner of what one entered. In this beatitude Jesus was saying that not only the meek will enter the kingdom but also that they will also enter into it as an inheritance and possess it
The Effect Jesus Wants This Promise to Have
What effect does Jesus want this promise to have on the disciples? I think the answer is that He wants the promise to give them strength to continue in their meekness. This is the way the promise works in Matt.5:12: "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you." In other words, the promise of great reward gives the disciples strength to endure persecution with joy.
The beatitudes are produced when, with the Spirit's help, we rightly measure ourselves against the right standards—God and His law—rather than each other, and discover how much we owe to God's merciful grace. Anyone thus convicted and then forgiven and cleansed by Christ's blood is in the position to produce Godly meekness.
The spirit of meekness enables its possessor to squeeze great enjoyment from his earthly portion, be it small or great. Delivered from a greedy and grasping disposition, he is satisfied with what he has. Contentment of mind is one of the fruits of meekness. The proud and the arrogant do not inherit the earth - Gal. 5 : 21. God is a God of justice (Psalm 37:28); He will right all wrongs someday. Have you ever noticed in the Book of Revelation how God lets wicked Babylon go on in sensuality and wealth until the last hour? Then in one day, in one hour, her judgment falls (Rev. 18:8, 10, 17, 19). Right up to the eleventh hour it looks like wickedness will triumph. Don’t be fooled! In that final hour, God will act on behalf of His saints (Rev. 18:20, 24).
God commands us in Zephaniah 2:3: Seek the LORD, All you humble of the earth Who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden In the day of the LORD'S anger.
God never suffers any man to lose by his submission and obedience to the word.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
