PT-2 "The Manifestation of Meekness" (Matt. 5:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2020 11:12 AM

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  PT-2 “The Manifestation of Meekness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

            We continue to look at stories from the Word of God to show us the manifestation of meekness and in today’s SD we begin with a story about David that comes from the book of 1 Samuel 24:1-8.  We will look first at the verses and then we will comment on it for a bit.  “1 Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi." 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3 He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. 4 The men of David said to him, "Behold, this is the day of which the LORD said to you, ’Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’" Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. 5 It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. 6 So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed." 7 David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way. 8 Now afterward David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.”  David was a young man that God had chosen to be King of Israel and after going to work for Saul, Saul tried to kill him on different occasions.  The meekness of David that I see here is that David had the power to kill Saul, but it was not going to bring glory to the Lord as Saul was still the Lord’s anointed. 

            We have a contrast in meekness from the story of King Uzziah who began to reign at the age of 16 years old and he did right in the sight of the Lord.  When he got to be older he became very proud at all of the victories that God had given him and decided to offer a sacrifice inside the temple, something that only priests could do.  God caused him to become a leper and had to live outside of the king’s palace the rest of his life.

            As far as looking at the NT stories of meekness we know that the greatest stories come about our Lord Jesus Christ whose meekness, (power under control) is seen in different parts of the gospel, especially during the time He would be crucified.

            Let us look at the life of Paul who was also a person who was meek.  When it came to education Paul was the most educated of all of the apostles, and the one according to John MacArthur was used most widely and effectively.  Paul refused to put any confidence in himself that is “in the flesh” according to Phil. 3:3.  Paul knew that he could do all things, but only “through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  These stories of the meekness of people from both the Old and New Testaments show me exactly what I am learning from the beatitudes, and that is that I cannot do things that please the Lord in my own strength, but must rely upon the power of the Spirit of God who came to live within me when I became a believer.  The first beatitude gives the groundwork, and that is I am “poor in spirit,” then I am to mourn over sin, and now I am to be meek, have power under control, and to stand up for my God so He receives glory.

My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to trust the Lord for grace in order to learn more about contentment, humility, and to give me joy as I study His Word.

           

"The Manifestation of Meekness" (Matt. 5:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/20/2020 10:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  “The manifestation of Meekness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 Blessed are the gentle, because they will inherit the earth.”

            What do you think is the best way to describe meekness?  Perhaps to illustrate it, to see it in action as we will see that Scripture abounds with instructive accounts of meekness, and I don’t know about you but in my life examples are the best way that I can learn.

            I will not go into all of the details of this story, but I hope that what I do write will be helpful to those who read it.  The first story of meekness is found in the 13^th chapter of Genesis and it is a story about Abraham, who at this time was actually called Abram, but we will use Abraham as that is what the New Testament always calls him.  God called him to leave an idol worshiping nation and go to a place where He would tell him to go, and that was what would be called “The Promised Land.”  Abraham took his nephew Lot with him and as God blessed Abraham with many sheep and other animals the land would not sustain their flocks and herds.  Abraham was the man whom God gave the unconditional covenant to and so one would think that he would be the one to choose where he would live, but because of the meekness of Abraham he allowed Lot to choose.  “5 Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land. 8 Then Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmenand your herdsmen, for we are brothers. 9 “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me: if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left’” (Gen. 13:5-9).

            The next story is about the great grandson of Abraham and that would be Joseph.  Joseph was abused when he was a child by his brothers (not sexually, but in other ways).  God had a plan for Joseph that would require him to be sold into slavery and sent ahead to Egypt.  He was 17 years old when he was sold by his brothers and eventually ended up on Egypt where he ended up a slave of Potiphar and then was accused by his wife to be trying to lay with her, so Joseph ended up in prison where he ended up being the head of the prisoners.  He finally ended up in Pharaohs government as second in command some 13 years later.  As stated Joseph was sent to Egypt as a fulfillment of a prophecy that God gave to Abraham that his descendants would live in a land where they would become slaves eventually but while Joseph was their he interpreted a dream from Pharaoh and found out that the land would have a very bad famine for seven years after a wonderful seven years of great growth.  Joseph stored grain and when his father and brothers ran out of food they went to Egypt where Joseph tested them and finally told them that he was Joseph and that God had took the cruelty they had done to him and worked it out for good.

            Next we see the man Moses who grew up in Pharaohs care, but then killed an Egyptian who was trying to hurt an Israelite.  Moses ran and then forty years later came back to Egypt to bring the people into the Promised Land.  Moses went up on the mountain to receive God’s Law, the Ten Commandments and while up there the people were having an orgy and were worshiping a golden calf built by Aaron, Moses’ brother.  Moses was angry over what the people were doing and broke the Ten Commandments.  Moses’ anger was because what they were doing was against God, which as we have learned is a part of meekness. 

            There are some more examples we need to look at but will do them in our next SD, Lord willing.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to be a meek person, and a part of that is to stand up for what God stands for, and the fight against abortion is what the fight is about in our country today.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue the things that are in the beatitudes along with learning contentment, humility and having joy in studying the Word of God.

4/20/2020 11:17 AM  

PT-3 "The Meaning of Meekness" (Matt. 5:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2020 9:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “The Meaning of Meekness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 “Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole earth will belong to them!” (Phillips).

            We continue in this SD to look at what the “nuts and bolts” of the meaning of meekness is all about.  Remember that meekness is not weakness for Jesus Christ was meek, but He surely was not weak.

            Even though meekness is not weakness meekness is the opposite of violence and vengeance as the meek person, for example, accepts joyfully the seizing of his property, knowing that he has infinitely better and more permanent possessions awaiting him in heaven as Hebrews 10:34 states “For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.”  The person who is meek as died to self, and therefore he does not have to worry about injury to himself, nor about loss, insult or abuse.  The meek person does not defend himself, first of all because that is his Lord’s command and His example.  Second because he knows that he does not deserve defending.  Being poor in spirit and having mourned over his great sinfulness, the (meek) “gentle” person stands humbly before God, knowing he has nothing to commend himself.

            John MacArthur writes “Meekness is not cowardice or emotional flabbiness.  It is not lack of conviction nor mere human niceness.  But its courage, its strength, its conviction, and its pleasantness comes from God, not from self.  The spirit of meekness is the spirit of Christ, who defended the glory of His Father, but gave Himself in a sacrifice for others.  Leaving an example for us to follow, He ‘committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:21-23).

            The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was sinless so therefore He never deserved criticism or abuse, He did not resist slander or did He repay injustice or even threaten His tormentors.   Jesus, the only human being who did no wrong, the One who always had a perfect defense, never defended Himself.  This was not weakness, but surely meekness.

            Now we read that when His Father’s house was profaned by moneychangers and also sacrifice sellers that “14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers seated. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables” (John 2:14-15).  Jesus would scathingly and also repeatedly denounce the hypocritical and wicked religious leaders as He twice cleansed the Temple by force, and He fearlessly uttered divine judgment on those who forsook and corrupted God’s Word. Again this shows that meek people are not weak people as there was not a one who would try to stop Jesus as He was cleansing His Father’s Temple as I have to believe that there was a Holy Fear on those around Him as He did this two times, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at the end of His ministry.

            MacArthur concludes this section of the meaning of meekness by writing “But Jesus did not once raise a finger or give a single retort in His own defense.  Though at any time He could have called legions of angels to His side (Matt. 26:53), He refused to use either natural or supernatural power for His own welfare.  Meekness is not weakness, but meekness does not use its power for its own defense or selfish purposes.  Meekness is power completely surrendered to God’s control.”

4/19/2020 9:59 AM

PT-2 "The Meaning of Meekness" (Matt. 5:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/18/2020 11:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “The Meaning of Meekness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

            We begin with a question and that question is what do most fallen men throughout history have done to get into heaven?  Well the answer is that they try and do it on their own, and this is the audience that Jesus was speaking to at this time.  These people were trying to justify their own ways, defend their own rights, and serve their own ends.  Not much difference from people today, in fact no difference.  MacArthur writes “The way of meekness was not their way, and therefore the true kingdom was not their kingdom.  The proud Pharisees wanted a miraculous kingdom, the proud Sadducees wanted a materialistic kingdom, the proud Zealots wanted a military kingdom.  The humble Jesus offered a meek kingdom.”

            Because meekness has always been God’s way for man let us take a look at some examples from the Old Testament and we begin with the book of Job where we are told that God “sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety” Job 5:11).  We learn the following about Moses who was the Jews’ great deliver and law-giver but we read from Numbers 12:3 “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)”  Next we look at David and we know that David was the supreme military hero of Israel, but let’s look at Psalm 25:9 “He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.”  David did know gentleness or meekness as we have to believe this because he wrote about it.

            Now as we move to the New Testament we can see that Jesus is being taught about meekness in these beatitudes, and then as we move on in the NT we see that Paul entreated the Ephesians to “1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,” (Eph. 4:1-2).  Paul told the Colossians in Col. 3:12 “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  One more from what Paul wrote to Titus “1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2  to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men” (Titus 3:1-2).

            We are not going to get to the heart of the matter of what meekness is and what it is not.  If I had to come up with a good definition of meekness I would say that “meekness is power under control.”  Meekness does not connote weakness, as in extrabiblical literature it was referred to the breaking of an animal, something I believe we talked about earlier.  Proverbs describes a person with meekness in Pr. 25:28 “Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit.”  Pr. 16:32 states “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.”  MacArthur adds “An unbroken colt is useless; medicine that is too strong will harm rather than cure; a wind out of control destroys.  Emotion out of control also destroys, and has no place in God’s kingdom.  Meekness uses its resources appropriately.” 

            We will look more into this subject in our next SD, Lord willing.

4/18/2020 11:50 AM

PT-1 "The Meaning of Meekness" (Matt. 5:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/17/2020 11:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “The Meaning of Meekness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (AV).  “5 “Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole earth will belong to

them!” (Philips).  “5 "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (NASB).

            In John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of Matthew he mostly used the NASB because the NASB95 had not yet came out as his messages from Matthew were being preached in 1978 and later.  I say this because in the NASB the word “gentle” is used whereas in the KJV the word Praos was translated meek.

            Praos basically means mild or soft as the term sometimes was used to describe a soothing medicine or a soft breeze.  It was also used of colts and other animals whose naturally wild spirits were broken by a trainer so that they could do useful work.  I can’t help think of a verse in the 32^nd Psalm where David talks about a hours or a mule having a bit in their mouths “9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you” (Psalm 32:9).  Now as we move onto a human attitude it meant being gentle of spirit, meek, submissive, quiet, and tenderhearted.  The following quote comes from a note in my Greek/English dictionary on my Online Bible Program:  “Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice. Thus, meekness toward evil people means knowing God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He is using them to purify His elect, and that He will deliver His elect in His time. (Isa 41:17, Lu 18:1-8) Gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God’s goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. (Ga 5:23)”

            A couple examples from Scripture showing meekness, and the first one is seen in Matthew 21:5 “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (KJV).  “Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!” (2 Cor. 10:1) (NASB95).

            John MacArthur writes “The essential difference between being poor in spirit and being meek, or ‘gentle,’ may be that poverty in spirit focuses on our sinfulness, whereas meekness focuses on God’s holiness.  The basic attitude of humility underlies both virtues.  When we look honestly at ourselves, we are made humble by seeing how sinful and unworthy we are; when we look at God, we are made humble by seeing how righteous and worthy He is.”

            I continue to mention that we can see logical sequence and progression in the Beatitudes.  The poor in spirit (the first) is negative, and results in mourning which is (the second).  Meekness (the third) is positive, and this results in seeking righteousness (the fourth).  Being poor in spirit cause us to turn away from ourselves in mourning, and meekness causes us to turn toward God in seeking His righteousness.

            We will continue this SD with another quote from MacArthur’s commentary:  “The blessings of the Beatitudes are for those who are realistic about their sinfulness, who are repentant of their sins, and who are responsive to God in His righteousness.  Those who are unblessed, unhappy, and shut out of the kingdom are the proud, the arrogant, the unrepentant—the self-sufficient and self-righteous who see in themselves no unworthiness and feel no need for God’s help and God’s righteousness.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I continue to think about how these beatitudes are linked with each other, which is similar to some verses in 2 Peter chapter one which we studied a number of years ago.  It is my desire to truly understand the sequence of the beatitudes as we continue to go through them.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It seems to me that all of the sequences in the Beatitudes have the common inspiration of humility and to that I also desire to have contentment and joy as I study God’s Word.

4/17/2020 12:32 PM

           

PT-2 "Intro to Matt. 5:5" (Happy are the Meek)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2020 11:03 AM

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  Intro to Matt. 5:5 Happy are the Meek

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

            In today’s SD I want to continue to quote from John MacArthur’s sermon introduction to Matthew 5:5.

            “So, you see, the hope of the political religious restoration was nothing but a pipe dream.  Israel lay in the grip of the grim power of Rome and Caesar wouldn’t allow them any independence.  And yet, in their hearts this hope burned, and it burned, and it burned, that a Messiah would come.  Frankly, people, the hope burned so strong in their hearts that it produced a pile of false Messiahs like rash on a body.  They were everywhere as false Messiahs came by the boatload.

            “The Zealots, in anticipation of what needed to be done would just say, “Well, we can’t wait for the Messiah.”  And along with the Sicarii who were the assassins in their ranks, they would strike at Rome.  They would assassinate some important person or they would pull off some revolutionary act, and all that did was bring about Roman reprisals.  And finally in 70 AD, the Romans got so sick of the reactions of the Zealots, they got so sick of this kind of stuff, that  they sent Titus Vespasian in 70 AD and the Roman army, and they came down and they literally destroyed Jerusalem.  They smashed the city, the crushed the people.  They killed 1,100,000 people.

            “But that wasn’t the worst.  Between the year 132 and 135 AD, it’s about 60 years later, a man named Hadrian came from Rome and he went throughout the entire land of Israel and slaughtered all the people and destroyed all the cities and he literally wiped out the nation of Israel in terms of national existence.  Now, I say all of this to give you a picture of what they wanted.  They wanted somebody to overthrow Rome.  The Zealots believed it could be done militarily, and the Pharisees and the other religionists thought it could be done miraculously by the Messiah, but they were wrong. 

            “You see, they were wrong.  Jesus didn’t come with that in mind.  Before there could ever be Jewish independence, there had to be Jewish salvation, and that had to come first, and they were about to bend at that point.  So God’s plan was not what they thought.  And when Jesus started talking the way he did in the Sermon on the Mount, you can imagine their reaction.  They expected Messiah to come in on a white charger.  They expected Messiah to come riding in with one slap of his sword and all of a sudden wipe out the enemy.  And here he comes and he says, “Happy are the poor in spirit.  Happy are the mourners.  Happy are the meek.”  And they’re saying to themselves, “What kind of a Messiah is this?  What kind of crowd is he going to collect?  Who wants a bunch of sob sisters?  A bunch of meek people?  They’ll never handle Rome.” 

            “And so he disappointed the political activists, because he wouldn’t pull off a revolution.  And he disappointed the religionists, because he only healed people.  He didn’t destroy Rome with cataclysmic miracles.  He didn’t do it.  And that’s why, you see, when they finally saw Jesus captured by the Romans, when they finally saw Jesus up there, and they looked at him standing next to Barabbas, and they saw this pathetic person whom Pilate had battered, and beaten, and bruised, and scourged, and smashed a crown of thorns on his head, and there was no beauty in him that man should desire him, and there was nothing about him that was attractive - Read Isaiah 53.  “There was no form or comeliness that we should desire Him.” - and they took one look at that and they said, “Forget it.  That’s not the Messiah we want.” 

            “And so they screamed, “Crucify Him.  Crucify Him.  We’ll take Barabbas.  We’ll take Barabbas.  He’s closer to a Messiah type than this guy.”  And they hated Him for it.  You know, they hated Him because he disappointed them.  They hated Him because he didn’t fulfill their expectations.  And once he died, they were done with him, and that was really the final straw.  When the rest of the people came around and said, “Well, he was the Messiah,” they said, “Look, he died on a cross.  The Old Testament says, ‘Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.’  Don’t tell us our Messiah was crucified a curse.  Don’t tell us the Messiah came and went and didn’t overthrow Rome.  Don’t tell us the Messiah came and went and didn’t change our circumstance in the world.  That’s no Messiah.”  And they wouldn’t even believe his resurrection, though it was true.  And though 500 people saw it, they wouldn’t believe it. 

            “When the apostles stood up to preach, you see they had to preach always on the resurrection and they had to say always, “You see, Messiah had to suffer.  He had to suffer.  He had to die.  This is what the Old Testament taught.  It had to be this way.”  Jesus on the road to Emmaus said, “If you’d have known the scriptures, you’d have known this had to happen this way.”  But they were disappointed really wretchedly disappointed with Jesus. 

            “And it all started right here, because the first time they heard him speak, he said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” What kind of a deal is that?  The spoils belong to the strong, not the meek.  That countered their whole philosophy of life.  But he came as a servant.  You see, they were ignorant of Isaiah 40 through 66, that whole section of Isaiah 40 to 66 presents the Messiah as a suffering servant.  They didn’t even know their Old Testament; a whole huge section.  In fact, when he announced who he really was, he quoted from Isaiah 61.  And, you know, he identified with a pretty crummy bunch. 

            “He says – Luke 4:18 - “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor -” oh, brother, “- To heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to set a liberty them that are bruised.”  Now that’s a pretty sad bunch:  The blind, and the bruised, and the poor, and the maimed.  And what in the world kind of bunch is that? 

            “The apostle Paul said it in 1 Corinthians, “Not many noble, not many wise, not many mighty.”  He’s chosen the foolish of the world.  He was a servant.  He didn’t come to overthrow Rome.  He came to wash the feet of unloving disciples.  His whole life was an illustration of humility and service.  He said, “The Son of Man has come not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his live a ransom for many.”  They missed the whole point.  They didn’t even know what he came for.  Humility, self denial.

            “Now this set the stage for what he said in this sermon.  And what he said here is this - now watch.  He said, “It isn’t the self sufficient.  It isn’t the self righteous.  It isn’t the proud, and the strong, and the arrogant, and the confident, and the satisfied.  It isn’t the religious who enter my kingdom.  It is the broken, and the mourning, and the meek, and the hungry, and the thirsty, and the merciful, and the pure, and the peacemakers, and the persecuted, and the reviled, and the slandered who never retaliate.  They’re the citizens of my kingdom.”  And man, he shot them right off their pins.

            Lord willing tomorrow we will begin with the subject “The Meaning of Meekness,” and then “The Manifestation of Meekness,” next “The Result of Meekness” and finally “The Necessity for Meekness.”  This is the order of subjects we will be looking at as we move through this third beatitude from the “Sermon on the Mount.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My prayer is that the Lord will continue to bring great joy as I study this fifth verse, the third beatitude.  In the beginning of his sermon John MacArthur wrote something that is near and dear to my heart when he wrote “I always think that the book I’m studying at the present time is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever studied, and I definitely feel that way about Matthew.”  Each and every book of the Bible that I have studied over the past 25+ years I have felt that same thing including Matthew.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  My desire is to continue to be taught contentment, humility and have continued joy as I study God’s Word.

4/16/2020 11:28 AM

PT-1 "Intro to Matthew 5:5 (Happy are the Meek)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2020 10:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Matt. 5:5

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:5

            Message of the verses:  “5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (AV)

            I mentioned yesterday that it was my plan to listen to a sermon from John MacArthur yesterday on this verse.  It was a very long sermon, over an hour, and the first part where he gave his introduction took up about 15-20 minutes as he was speaking about how much of a shock that this verse in particular would have been a shock to those Jews as they listened to Jesus, a shock because they thought that meekness was weakness and it was their desire to have their Messiah bring them out from the oppression of Rome. 

            Instead of taking a few days to develop this introduction I think that I will quote different parts of MacArthur’s sermon on this verse so we can better understand it and then not take a long time going over his introduction.

            “Let me set the scene for you.  A little over a half century before Jesus was born in 63 BC, Pompey had annexed Palestine for Rome.  And thus Jewish independence came to an end.  And by the way, that independence had been gained in a blood bath revolution called the Maccabean Revolution.  And they had fought to be free from Greece.  And it wasn’t very long that they knew that freedom until they were under the bondage of the imperial power of Rome.

            “From then on, from 63 BC on, the land was ruled partly through Herodian kings.  The Herodians were a family.  It’s like a last name.  They were a family of kings appointed by Caesar.  And in addition to the Herodian kings - and he gave the people in Palestine kings because they were big on kings, but in addition to that - he gave them procurators or governors, the most famous of whom is, to us, Pilate. 

            “And so they were all this time under Roman domination of these puppet kings, and the Herod family, and these procurators, and governors.  At the same time, virtually all other land with which the New Testament is concerned was also under the subjection of Rome.

            “And this was an oppressive, sad day for Jewish people.  They literally despised this Roman oppression.  In fact, to be honest with you, they wouldn’t even admit it.  When Jesus was talking to them in John 8, talking to the Jewish leaders, it was amazing, because he said to them, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  And they answered, “We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to any man.”  Pretty stupid statement.  They wouldn’t even admit it that they were slaves to Rome.  “We’ve never been in bondage to anybody,” they said.  They wouldn’t even acknowledge it.  They were proud.  They despised the Roman yoke. 

            “The whole story of Jesus then, you see, falls within the framework of a nation in bondage to Rome.  The shadow of Caesar literally dulls all of the light that scatters itself over the New Testament.  You see Caesar on every page.  And at the same time - now watch this - there was a movement in the hearts of the Jews to believe that the Messiah was coming.  There were some people who wouldn’t experience death until he came.  Remember Simeon and Anna?  There was the feeling that there was something about to happen.  The Messiah was about to come.  The kingdom of God would be established and the Old Testament was clear on this and there was this feeling that it was going to happen.  And then this individual called Jesus Christ arrived on the scene and he opened his mouth in Mark chapter 1 and look what Mark tells us he said.

            “Mark 1:14.  “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying - ” watch “ - the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe the gospel of the good news.”  And man, they got excited.  They had known this Roman domination and this Roman oppression.  And now all of a sudden here came a wonder worker, a miracle worker, a man who spoke like never another man spoke, a man who did things like never another man did.  Maybe this is the Messiah.  And when he had fed the multitude on the side of the hill, they were ready to believe it and they wanted to grab him and make him a king and begin a political military revolution that would throw off the yoke of Rome.

            “They were excited about it.  They were looking for a Messiah to overthrow Rome.  They were looking for a great general who could set up a Jewish revolution that would bring about independence by military action.  Now watch this.   Primarily the military overthrow, the military concept of Messiah belonged to a group of Jews called the Zealots.  There were four basic parties in Judaism:  Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes.  The Essenes were the mystics who lived out in Qumran where we found the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They were the ones who copied those.

            “The Zealots were the political activists who weren’t too concerned about religion.  They were really concerned about politics.  The Pharisees were the religious conservatives and the Sadducees were the religious liberals.  But the Zealots really wanted the Messiah to come and they believed that he would be a great General who would come and build a military power that would overthrow Rome.  So theirs was a military kingdom. 

            “On the other hand, the Pharisees were equally anxious to overthrow Rome, only they weren’t looking for a military kingdom, they were looking for a holy commonwealth.  They were looking for a restoration of the Old Testament theocracy.  They were looking for Messiah to rule in religious fashion.  And so you might look at it this way, the Zealots looked for a military Messiah and the Pharisees looked for a miraculous Messiah.

            “The Zealots probably believed that the Messiah would make a military action and the Pharisees probably believed that the Messiah would do something miraculous and just throw Rome off by a great supernatural divine miracle.  While both were waiting for catastrophic intervention of God and the coming of the Messiah, they knew what Daniel said in 7:13-14.  They knew the Messiah would come in clouds and great glory and they didn’t know how it would happen, but they each had their own ideas. 

            “And even the apostles, the twelve apostles, expected it.  In Acts 1:6, they said, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”  “When are you going to do it?  When are we going to see either the military or the miraculous?”  But this was not Jesus’ purpose.  And that’s why in John Chapter 18, when Jesus was talking to Pilate and Pilate was trying to figure out what kind of a king it is that doesn’t have a kingdom, what kind of a king it is that doesn’t have a throne, what kind of a king it is that doesn’t have a crown.  And so he was talking to Jesus about whether he was a king or not.  And he said to Him, “Are you a king?”  And he said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

            “You don’t understand what kind of king I am.  It isn’t my approach to function militarily.  And I’m not even about to pull off a miraculous coup and overthrow Rome.  That’s not my purpose.”  He said, if he wanted to, he could have called legions of angels, legions of them, thousands of them.  And by the way, if one angel can slay 185,000 Assyrians in one shot, a legion of angels could handle anybody.” 

            I don’t want to put too much on one SD and so we will continue this introduction from MacArthur’s sermon in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I trust that the Lord will use this rather long introduction to set the stage for the importance of what this verse means.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I continue to desire to learn and grow in the Lord as I study these different beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount by asking to Lord to use them to teach me contentment, humility and then to give me great joy as I study His Word.

4/15/2020 11:08 AM