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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Today we are looking at our third blessing contained in the beatitudes.
“5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
(, ESV)
THE BLESSING: THE EARTH/LAND
In my opinion, this is by far the most confusing of the blessings that Jesus promises to kingdom citizens.
He uses terminology that we wouldn’t expect to see given to kingdom citizens.
We would expect Jesus to say something like, “they shall inherit Heaven,” or something like this.
At first glance, it seems like Jesus is promising to give His people a physical land as He did to Israel.
Is this the case?
Let’s dig a little deeper into how this phrase is used in the Bible to find out.
I believe that the best place to begin is probably in the Old Testament.
Turn to Psalm 37.
One thing that we usually don’t think about in regards to the teachings of Jesus is that many of them have some kind of Old Testament origin.
Jesus often repeats promises and teachings that He gave to the children of Israel.
(as well as most of the beatitudes) are examples of teachings that were given before to Israel.
Psalm 37
Let’s begin by reading verse 11 of this psalm of David.
“11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”
(, ESV)
Here in verse 11, you see that Jesus is almost repeating, word for word, this Psalm.
This is especially seen in the Greek Old Testament.
In the Septuagint, the words of are almost identical with .
It says, “The meek shall inherit the land.”
And the word for “land” in Greek and Hebrew also means “earth.”
Verse 11 is one of many instances where there is a promise of inheriting the land in this psalm:
“9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”
(, ESV)
“9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”
(, ESV)
“22 for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off.”
(, ESV)
“29 The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.”
(, ESV)
“34 Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.”
(, ESV)
All throughout this Psalm you have this contrast given by David regarding the fate of the wicked and the fate of the righteous.
The LORD laughs at the wicked and the plans they devise against His people because the LORD knows that the day of His vengeance is coming.
The time would come when the wicked would not bother God’s people forever.
They would be cut off.
They would lose the abundance that they have.
Then you have the righteous in contrast, who David says are blessed by the LORD now and forever.
He gives them peace and security.
He gives them all that they need in life so that they can not only eat and survive, but so that they can be generous to others, even if they do not have an abundance.
He acts on their behalf and defends them from the enemy.
Even though they may be persecuted and suffer, they are not forsaken by the LORD.
They don’t worry about what man can do to them to harm them because they know that God holds them up and they are blessed forever because God is with them.
This is a beautiful contrast given to us by David.
He gives this contrast to God’s people to encourage them regarding how to live.
The verses that we read give us the main idea of this psalm.
This psalm defines what David, and in my opinion, Jesus mean when they say, “they shall inherit the land/earth.”
There is so much more to it than, they are going to dwell or live somewhere.
This is not how the Jews viewed the use of the phrase.
They didn’t look at it in such a narrow way.
The way the phrase is being used is to talk about all of the blessings that come from being where God is.
The blessings of having God dwelling in their midst.
But what is interesting about is the time in which it was written.
As I mentioned a few moments ago, David was writing this psalm to a people who were already inhabiting the land.
They had already received their inheritance.
Israel had been in the land for hundreds of years already.
And even those who Jesus spoke the beatitudes to were living in the land, although they were serving Rome.
But both David in and Jesus in talk about this blessing in a tense that makes it seem like they are both talking about something bigger than just a physical land that Israel dwelt in.
But what about the New Testament Israel of God - the people of the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
But what is interesting about is the time in which it was written.
As I mentioned a few moments ago, David was writing this psalm to a people who were inhabiting the land already.
They had already received their inheritance.
Israel had been in the land for hundreds of years already.
And even those who Jesus spoke the beatitudes to were living in the land, although they were serving Rome.
But both David in and Jesus in talk about this blessing in a tense that makes it seem like they are both talking about something bigger than just a physical land that Israel dwelt in.
What we have here is, in my judgment, what we have described in passages like and .
In , we have Abraham being spoken of as looking forward to living in a country or land that is better than what is given by God in this life.
Abraham and His descendants were promised a land, but what Abraham was ultimately looking forward to was being in the heavenly country.
It does not seem to me that Abraham viewed Israel receiving the land of Canaan as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises.
All of the promises given to David have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus and the Promised Land He offers.
The land of Palestine was the inheritance of the Jewish nation.
God promised it to His people who were willing to faithfully submit to His commandments.
They were given an inheritance, and as long as they were faithful, this was accompanied by God’s blessing of peace, security, and protection from their enemies because God was dwelling in their midst.
What is interesting about is the time in which it was written.
As I mentioned a few moments ago, David was writing this psalm to a people who were inhabiting the land already.
They had already received their inheritance.
Israel had been in the land for hundreds of years already.
And even those who Jesus spoke the beatitudes to were living in the land, although they were serving Rome.
Yes, The land of Palestine was the inheritance of the Jewish nation.
God promised it to His people who were willing to faithfully submit to His commandments.
They were given an inheritance, and as long as they were faithful, this was accompanied by God’s blessing of peace, security, and protection from their enemies because God was dwelling in their midst.
Isaiah 60:21
What we have here is, in my judgment, what we have described in passages like and .
In , we have Abraham being spoken of as looking forward to living in a country or land that is better than what is given by God in this life.
Abraham and His descendants were promised a land, but what Abraham was ultimately looking forward to was being in the heavenly country.
It does not seem to me that Abraham viewed Israel receiving the land of Canaan as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises.
All of the promises given to David have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus and the Promised Land He offers.
What we have in this Psalm, and in the words of Jesus, in my judgment, is something similar to what is described in the book of Hebrews.
David is trying to encourage the people to live righteously in view of something bigger and grander.
They needed to remember that as they are faithful, they have the LORD with them
The land of Palestine was the inheritance of the Jewish nation.
God promised it to His people who were willing to faithfully submit to His commandments.
They were given an inheritance, and as long as they were faithful, this was accompanied by God’s blessing of peace, security, and protection from their enemies because God was dwelling in their midst.
And remember, who is Jesus speaking the beatitudes to?
He is also speaking them to people who were in the land.
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