The Beatitudes - Part 2 (Mat. 5:5-7)

by Toms, A. F. | Category: The Sermon On The Mount | Mar 1984

Scripture quotations are from RSV unless otherwise stated.

Blessed are the meek

There is a great deal of confusion about the subject of meekness. Many people are not clear exactly what it means. The Bible says the man Moses was very meek, in fact, the meekest man in all the earth. And it makes that comment at the time when his sister and brother spoke against him because of his wife. Their complaint was completely unfounded and it must have been very hard for Moses to bear. But he didn't attempt to justify himself. There was nothing in him which rose in self-defence. He was content to leave it with God. That was meekness. There is certainly no thought of weakness in it. On the contrary, it is evidence of great spiritual strength.

When the Lord Jesus came to live on earth, He said, "I am meek and lowly in heart" (RV). He showed us meekness in perfection. There was no thought of self in Him at all. "When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He trusted to Him who judges justly" (1 Pet. 2:23). He must have felt keenly the pain of the scourging and beating, for He was a Man like ourselves. And even more deeply He felt the cruelty and mockery that were hurled at Him. But it produced no resentment in His heart. There was nothing within which rose up in self-defence, or even in self-pity. That was meekness in perfection. And Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek." This is the way to real blessing, to the sort of happiness which God loves to give.

But the reward of the meek is "they shall inherit the earth." How and when? we ask. I suppose there's a sense in which they inherit it now, if you take the apostle Paul as an example. "I have all things, and abound" he says (Phil. 4:18 RV). "There is great gain in godliness with contentment" (1 Tim. 6:6). There's no doubt about that, and those who have learned that secret would not wish to change places with anyone else.

But I think the Lord Jesus was speaking primarily of a future day when lie comes to reign, and those who have taken their part in suffering with Him now will reign with Him then. "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" asked the apostle Paul of the Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:2). They ought to have known, but from the way they were behaving I think they had forgotten. Let us not forget. But let Christ's word come right into our hearts today. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

The Jewish leaders of Christ's day were expecting Him to seize the reins of government and set up His kingdom and reign as king. But it didn't work that way. He was coming to reign, but not then. The way to the throne was via the cross. Meek and lowly and riding upon an ass, He came into the capital city to die. And He asks us to follow where He has led the way.

The world around us thinks so differently. They think in terms of strength and aggressiveness. That's the world's idea of conquest. But the Man of Calvary, meek and lowly in heart, is still calling us His way, the way of real happiness. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst

Consider the next blessing the Lord Jesus pronounced in His sermon on the mount. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Notice it is not those who hunger and thirst for happiness there are plenty of people like that, and they're never satisfied. But those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, these are the ones who are satisfied, and that satisfaction brings real happiness. The Lord Jesus said so, and many people the world over are proving His words true.

God speaks about righteousness in two different ways. There is the righteousness which is ours in Christ. It belongs to all who are born again. You remember the apostle Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 5, "For our sake He (that is God) made Him (the Lord Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." In that sense God sees all who believe as righteous in Christ. Then there is the righteousness we show in our actions because we are born again. "If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of Him" the apostle John says (I John 2:29). The first has to do with our justification. God counts us righteous in Christ. The second affects our sanctification which here is a daily experience. "Yield your members to righteousness for sanctification," says Paul in Romans 6:19. In other words we use our bodies to live holy lives.

Righteousness! That is God's standard of what is right. The world cares nothing about it, and the world is not a happy place. Moral standards are crumbling all around us. Men have set aside God's standards but with disastrous results in family life, and with an alarming increase in violence and robbery. Many thoughtful people are wondering what sort of a world our children are being born into. If only men and nations would heed the words of the Lord Jesus they would find the happiness and contentment they are so desperately seeking. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." These are the happy people.

I'll never forget one of our Chinese friends who lived in Rangoon in Burma. His conversion was very real to him and he just fell in love with the Lord and with his Bible. He was like the blessed man of Psalm I who meditated in God's law night and day. No wonder he made such rapid progress spiritually. Everything he read in his Bible he related to his own life. As far as he was concerned all God's commandments were to be obeyed. He literally hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and you couldn't have wished for a happier or more contented man.

It's an interesting expression the Lord Jesus uses, for a hungry man just grows more hungry and a thirsty man more thirsty until he is satisfied. And then appetite repeats the process all over again, for hunger and thirst return, and increase, until once again they're satisfied. "As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for Thee, 0 God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." "But that's not my experience," you may say. "I don't have that sort of longing after God. I only wish I had." Ah! Christian, it will come, if you get to your Bible. Spend time on your knees each day, asking God to speak to you out of His Word, and you will find your appetite beginning to grow. The more you read and meditate, the more you'll enjoy it, until you are hungering and thirsting for more. The only condition is that you obey what God says, for that is where the righteousness comes in. And then you will understand what Job meant when he said, "I have treasured up the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (23:12 RV).

Blessed are the merciful

One of the highlights of our service for the Lord in Burma was a weekly visit to the local jail. The authorities gave us permission to have a Bible reading with as many of the men as wished to come, and great times they were. The message was so new to most of them. You could see the surprise registering on their faces as the story unfolded. That there was a God in heaven who loved them despite their sin was something wonderful. And to lift them out of it and give them power over it, sending H is Son to die, was more wonderful still. Week after week God gave power to His Word, and we marvelled to see it going deep into the hearts of these rough men. In some it worked conviction of sin, and turned them to Christ for salvation.

One of the first to be saved was a college graduate, in for murder. He was naturally quick-tempered and had given the warders a hard time. So when he came to Christ everybody saw the change. Standing up one day in front of the other men he gave his testimony, and we saw the tears trickling down the faces of some of those hardened criminals. "I thought there was no hope for me," he said, "but when I heard of God's love in sending His Son, it dawned on me there was mercy even for me!" How true! There is no limit to H is mercy. "God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive with Christ." It has been said that God's grace reaches men in their sin, and His mercy reaches them in their misery.

It is God's pity in action, reaching down for our help. "When the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love toward man appeared... according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:4, 5 RV).

Reader, has the mercy of God reached you? If so, then God expects you to show mercy to others. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" the Lord Jesus said. The good Samaritan showed it the day he met the man dying by the roadside. The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side. But the Samaritan concerned himself with his fellow-traveller's need, and did all in his power to help him. When he had brought him safely to the inn and made provision for him to be well cared for, he went on his way with a glad heart. How do I know that? Because the Lord Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful." There's no happiness to be compared with this. The world seeks its happiness by getting. The Lord Jesus said it comes by giving.

He told of the servant who owed his master ten thousand talents and because he could not pay his master had mercy on him and forgave him the whole debt. And then he went out and laid hands on one of his fellow-servants who owed him a trivial amount in comparison, and threw him into prison until he paid up. His master was very angry and said "I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow-servant, as I had mercy on you?" (Mat. 18:32, 33).

Of course he should! And the Lord Jesus added this solemn lesson for us all, that we must forgive one another from the heart. Notice that. It must be a heart matter. Not just from our lips but genuinely from our hearts. For if we don't there is the solemn possibility that we shall not be forgiven either. May the Lord's message go deep into our hearts. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Toms, A. F. | Mar 1984
The Sermon On The Mount