“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:5
As the Lord finishes His third beatitude, the Jewish crowd is even more stunned. The Lord tells them “the meek shall inherit the earth”. The typical Jew would think, “Wait a minute. We are God’s chosen people. We are the ones who will live in God’s kingdom, who will rule with Him, who will inherit the earth.”
On several occasions people came to Jesus and asked Him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life”. They were sure God’s inheritance had been left to Israel. They wanted reassurance they
would receive their rightful share in collecting that inheritance. With this third beatitude the Lord turns the eyes of these hearers of His sermon back to the true message of God. With this beatitude the
Jews are confronted with how far away from God they have grown.
Inherit the earth There are many New Testament passages that deal with inheriting an allotted place in the kingdom of God. These passages describe who will and who won’t inherit God’s kingdom. The Lord Jesus in three short verses has stated that receiving that allotment comes from being broken in spirit, mourning over one’s sin against God, and meek in listening to and obeying the commandments of God (depending on God for everything). In other words the Lord is addressing the Jewish misconception of who will enter God’s kingdom. – it is faith in God from their hearts, not their works.
Why is meekness associated with inheriting the kingdom? Because it focuses on God’s holiness. Being poor in sprit and mourning focus us on our sin – our total unworthiness to stand before God. Meekness focuses on God’s holiness and perfection, His absolute right to rule over man and all creation. As we recognize who He is we can respond in one of two ways. We either rebel against His authority to rule over us or in meekness we accept His authority and submit ourselves to Him. If we reject Him and assert ourselves to be the rulers of our lives, it shows that the core sin of pride has not been addressed in our lives. All kinds of sin then flow from that core sin that we are in fact the masters of our fate, That is why Paul writes “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”. (I Corinthians 6:9-10) Paul states no sinner will inherit the kingdom of God.
What can we learn? One does not demand their inheritance. The prodigal son tried that and found himself in the lowest possible position – living with and eating with the pigs. One accepts an inheritance from the one who provides it. Here we are told that the inheritance is the earth. That has a deep meaning. Psalm 24 says “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”
God is both the creator and owner of everything. He alone has the right to say who will live in His creation and He alone has the right to grant the inheritance to what He owns. God tells us believers are “joint-heirs with Christ”. What the Messiah owns is given as an inheritance to those who are poor in spirit, who mourn over their sin and who are meek to the authority of Almighty God.