Thursday 7th May

Matthew 5 vs 5 
“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”

For meek, read weak, at least that’s the common understanding of the word and it’s not a characteristic we long to exhibit. Do you remember Walter “the softy” in the Beano kids’ comic, who was always the target for Dennis the Menace and his pranks.  For people of a certain age Walter is the personification of meekness. To be fair though the Oxford Dictionary does give the origin of the word as soft or gentle, and gentleness, evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, comes close to the mark.

In the bible the word meek does not hold the meaning it commonly has today and a quick search of an on line concordance reveals two other occasions where the word is found.  Psalm 37 where the context is faith in the face of evil and the encouragement to the faithful is not to act in wrath or take the law into their own hands but to look to the Lord to establish their right. So in v11 it is not the mighty but the meek who will inherit the land. The word occurs again in Zephaniah 3 where the arrogant and the boastful are removed from the remnant of Israel and once more it is the meek and the humble who inhabit the restored Jerusalem.  Again meek seems to describe those who consciously who look to the Lord for help. 

​So there appears to be a clear link between those who trust the Lord for their vindication and those who are described as the meek who then inherit what is granted by God. The ultimate inheritance of the meek then is described in this Beatitude. It is not the broken earth decaying through human sin, but the new creation secured by Christ and given by God. In a world that is increasingly cold toward Christian believers hard though it may be, we must learn to trust the Lord to establish the truth of the gospel and the reality of our hope in Jesus. When Jesus comes again God’s own people will inherit the new earth.

PRAYER
Lord I thank you today that I have the hope of this great inheritance in Christ, that one day by grace your people will fill the new creation.

LISTEN