Blessed Are The Meek
1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1–12)
For some reason, this third beatitude is probably the best known of all of them: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Perhaps it is the reward offered: inheriting the earth, that has made this saying so memorable.
In our look at the beatitudes we’ve seen that these statements are paradoxes. They take two items that shouldn’t go together, and then surprise us by combining them. We don’t expect those who are poor, to gain all the riches of a kingdom. We don’t expect those who are mourning to be blessed and happy. And again, here is a paradox: we don’t expect the meek to inherit much at all, let alone the earth. We expect the assertive, the pushy, the domineering to inherit the earth.
That’s because our typical understanding of meekness is that it rhymes with, sounds like, and seems very close to weakness. To be meek is to be the pushover who takes a beating to avoid a longer beating. To be meek, we think, is to accept abuse quietly, with our heads down, our eyes averted, and our mouths closed. That seems to be our typical understanding of meekness.
So let’s begin by trying to understand the meaning of meekness, and then understand the meaning of inherit the earth. A short word in the Greek, only occurs four times in the New testament. Here.
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. (Matthew 11:29)
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” (Matthew 21:5)
4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. (1 Peter 3:4)
A similar form of this word occurs 11 times in the New Testament, translated meekness, gentleness, and humility.
The word has an unusual meaning: “not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance” In other words, you might have a certain high rank, or power, or wealth, or ability. But meekness delights in keeping that advantage, that secret, somewhat hidden. Perhaps one of the reasons the superhero stories are compelling is that the hero usually has some power hidden under the everyday appearance, who doesn’t flaunt that power, or use it on the weak. Or we enjoy the story of the king or prince who disguises himself as a peasant so as to be with his people, and does not demand the royal protection or treatment.
Meekness is resisting the temptation to show off, to act entitled, to demand your rights, to retaliate. The opposite of meekness is the statement, “Do you know who I am?”, or “I have never been so insulted in my life.” Boasting, bragging, bullying, demanding, taking revenge, are all the opposite of meek.
We meet plenty of meek people in Scripture. Joseph does not retaliate, scream, or protest all his bad treatment. And when he is second only to Pharaoh, he does not use his power to torture and destroy his brothers, or Potipher or Potipher’s wife. David has several opportunities to kill Saul, and to exact revenge on his descendants, but does the opposite. And the ultimate example of meekness is the Lord Jesus, who tells Peter who has cut off the ear of a man in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)
Meekness is knowing that we have power, or rank, or ability, or superiority, and deliberately softening our words, actions and demeanour to bear with weakness, promote peace and be careful with other’s feelings. At the heart of meekness is trust in God. We trust God’s timing, God’s vindication, God’s methods, and yield up our personal rights or demands for immediate vindication, or retribution. Meekness says, God knows, God sees, I don’t have to make others know in my own strength.
Meekness is not weakness. It is not being a pushover. It is not a cowardly retreat. Meekness says, “Not now. Not yet. Not this way.”
We’ve seen that each of these is a mini-statement of the Gospel. Those poor in spirit recognise their spiritual poverty and their need of Christ. Those who mourn recognise the sinfulness of sin. But those who are meek accept that others may now say that of me too! Notice how easy it is for us to say to God, I am a miserable sinner; but then how offended we become when others say it of us. So being meek is not just this inward accepting of Christ, but outwardly saying to others, yes, I, too, needed this; I have become a Christian.
Now, what does it mean that true Christians, possessed of meekness will inherit the earth? Well, the wording is taken from Psalm 37 “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth. 10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. (Psalm 37:9–11)
There the psalmist promises the believer that final justice is future. He promises that one day, evildoers will be nothing more than a memory, and will seem like a dream. When is that? The first phase of it will be the Millennial Kingdom on earth, when Christ rules and reigns the world for 1000 years. The final form of that will be when that millennial kingdom eventually becomes the eternal new heavens and new earth.
In the meantime, he says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:3–5)
In other words, be meek. You might have a title deed to the earth, but don’t walk around with a swagger. Trust, delight, obey, pray. Live like royal children in disguise, like princes and princesses dressed in rags.
When the prophet Elisha was approached by Naaman the Syrian for healing from leprosy. After his healing, he wanted to pay Elisha, but Elisha refused. Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, decided that this was too much, and went after Naaman on his own, lying and claiming that Elisha had changed his mind and now wanted some silver. When he came back, Elisha knew where Gehazi had gone, and questioned him. Gehazi lied, but Elisha responded, “Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? (2 Kings 5:26)
Is it time to receive?, is Elisha’s question. The implied answer is no. It is not yet time to inherit the earth. It is time to be meek, to do God’s work, to be useful.
And if you are meek, the promise is, you are blessed. Which means you are both happy and holy. In your heart, you can be blessedly happy, because you are storing up reward which will be given to you at the right time. And in your character, you are a blessing, because a meek person is like Christ.
Blessed are the Hungry and Thirsty
1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1–12)
When you first hear the gospel, step 1 is that you be poor in spirit – you realise your spiritual poverty without God, you see your need and your helplessness. Step 2 is you see your sin and mourn over it, desiring forgiveness. Step 3 is that you embrace the disgrace – you need salvation and you are now going to be identified with Jesus, the one dying on the cross. You are meek.
Step 4 brings us to the next beatitude: we then desire righteousness. We long for it, we hunger and thirst for it.
The Gospel and Christian living is a paradox. If you embrace this poverty of spirit, you get the riches of a kingdom. If you embrace mourning over sin, you will have comfort. If you embrace meekness of being a Christian, you will enjoy authority one day. If you hunger and thirst for this, you will be satisfied, full.
Now here we are given the image of physical hunger and thirst. In the world, there is a lot of hunger and thirst for things besides food. People hunger and thirst for experiences, for states of being that they believe will satisfy the hunger in their souls. They look for soul-satisfaction in becoming famous and well-known, a celebrity, a star. They look for it in power: rising to the top of politics, or the military, or the corporate ladder. They look for it in luxury: the finest and best clothes, jewellery, gadgets, holidays, cars, possessions. They look for it in sensuality: food, sex, sleep, exercise. They look for it in relationships, marriage, casual hookups, children, grandchildren. They look for it in knowledge, ever learning, accumulating degrees, writing books, lecturing, becoming the sought-after expert.
But will they be filled?
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. (Isaiah 55:2)
12 Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the LORD. 13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12–13)
“But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss [inside us] can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, by God himself.”
But there is a promise here, that a certain kind of hunger and thirst will not be disappointed. Desiring this thing will not leave you unfulfilled. So what is that thing?
Righteousness. What is that? It is something of what people mean when they speak about being a good person. At a funeral, when someone says, “He was a good man” they mean something like righteousness.
But in the Bible righteousness means more than being a good person in your own eyes or in the eyes of others. In the Bible, righteousness is being a good person in God’s eyes. Righteousness in the Bible is when God looks at you and says, you have no sin debt, and you have plenty of moral credit. You don’t have penalties you must pay, on the contrary, you have plenty of moral excellence in your account. And since the whole point of the Law is love, a truly righteous Person loves God and loves his neighbour perfectly.
Now we know there are two ways that God can say this of you. The first is imputed righteousness, the second is imparted righteousness. Imputed righteousness is when apart from your works, God forgives you of your sin debt, and then credits to you all the obedience and perfect living that Jesus did. He imputes it, counts it, credits it.
Imparted righteousness is when you already have Christ’s imputed righteousness, now God begins to impart that righteousness to you in your own actions, in your life. This righteousness becomes infused with you, by the inworking Holy Spirit.
Tozer said, A dead body feels no hunger and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. “If you want God,” said the old saint, “you have already found Him.” Our desire for fuller life is proof that some life must be there already.
Now, Jesus says, of all the things in the world to hunger for, you should hunger to have this life, this character of loving God and man perfectly. You should hunger and thirst for it.
Hunger and thirst are not pleasant things when you are not sure that you will be able to satisfy them. When food or drink are scarce or uncertain, hunger and thirst gnaw at you while you try to ignore them.
But when you know there is an abundant supply, hunger and thirst are pleasant pains, making room for the enjoyment that is to come. My wife and I have different philosophies of eating. When we eat a meal we really enjoy, we eat at almost opposite speeds. Her philosophy is, make it last as long as possible, enjoy every bite, savour the taste. Cut it into small pieces, chew slowly. My philosophy is, get as much of that taste into your mouth as possible all at once. And when you’ve swallowed it, do it again as quickly as possible to get that maximum taste again. Either philosophy says, the food is good, we want more of it, we want it to last. Satisfy your hunger slowly, or satisfy it quickly, it’s still a good experience.
The promise here is that people who truly want righteousness, will have it. God desires people be righteous. What He does not want is your self-righteousness, being righteous in your own eyes. If you long to be pleasing in God’s eyes, by God’s methods, your soul will be satisfied.
And once you begin to partake of this righteousness, you have the strange experience of being satisfied and yet hungry for more.
We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
and long to feast upon Thee still;
we drink of Thee, the Fountain-head,
and thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
Tozer summed up in a prayer how we should be in light of this beatitude: “O God, I have tasted your goodness, and it has made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.”