4.The Earth the Meek Shall InheritBlessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The Earth the Meek Shall Inherit

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Mathew 5:5

 

The literal translation of today’s text is: “Those who are spiritually blessed are meek. They will receive the earth as an inheritance.” I have told you this is exclamatory. It begins with “you who are blessed!” It means that the blessed are proclaimed and they are meek and will receive the earth as an inheritance. Today’s text doesn’t seem that difficult. If you are meek, you will be blessed. And the specific nature of the blessing is the earth. It is easy, right? But do you think that is what today’s text really means? Do you really inherit the earth if you are meek? As far as I know the meeker you are the poorer you get and there is no such thing as possessing land. 

You should not be meek in order to acquire the earth. You need to be tough. Can real estate investors acquire good land if they are meek? That is nonsense. And the meaning of “meek” as it is written here does not mean what it says in the dictionary. If you search the meaning of the word “meek,” it comes out like this: having or showing a quiet and gentle nature. People call that meek. That is what we understand “meek” to be. So we assume if we become soft, warm, and gentle, we become the people of God. 

 

Do you think Jesus meant this kind of “meek” when Jesus said, “The blessed are meek. They will inherit the earth”? As I have said numerous times, the content of the Sermon on the Mount is a phenomenon, a state of being, and a directionality that occurs to only those who are blessed by God. This means that the content of the Sermon on the Mount cannot come out from those who have not received the Holy Spirit, but most of the meek people I have met were non-Christians. How about you? Even around you, those who are like the center piece of Buddha or who could live without the law are mosty Buddhists. I could hardly find people of meek character among Christians. Let me give you an example. There is a “meek” person in the Old Testament. It is Moses. 

 

Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.  Numbers 12:3

 

The Bible lauds Moses as the meekest person among all the people on the earth. That is what it means by “more than all people who were on the face of the earth”. Was it really so? Would such a meek person rise up in anger and beat up an Egyptian soldier to death? Do you call that meek? Was Moses only meek to the Israelites?  Please read Leviticus, Numers, Exodus and so on. Was Moses that meek? If he was so, then I am also meek… hahaha if that is being meek. 

He often chided, reproved, and was angry at them. He even beat the Rock before God and threw and smashed the first stone plate of the Ten Commandments at the Israelites when he came down from the mountain, beacuse they made a golden calf and threw a party. 

 

What if somebody got hit by it? However, the Bible says that this Moses was the meekest man among all men who were living on the earth. 

 

Let’s compromise and say that we might have not seen the real meek side of Moses and only saw what is written in the Bible. Then, why couldn't meek Moses inherit the land of Canaan as an inheritance? Didn’t it say that the land will be given to the meek? Then, why did the meekest person on earth die in the wilderness? Do you think that is what this means? The meekness the Bible talks about is not that kind of character or nature. The Greek word “praus”, which is translated as meek in the text, is an all-inclusive word that contains meanings like “poor”, “oppressed”, “humble”, “crushed”, “low”, etc. It is the same in Hebrew. In the Old Testament, especially in the book of Psalms and Isaiah, the word “anav” was interchangeably used for meekness, poverty, pain, and oppression. So for the Hebrews, being meek is a response or an attitude in coping with a befallen situation, rather than a gentle or kind character.

That is meekness. Praus. Let me explain in more detail.

 

Jesus called himself gentle and humble in heart, right? That is the same word. The “meek” in “blessed are those who are meek” and the “gentle” in “I am gentle in heart” is the same word. 

 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Mathew 11:28-30

 

Here “gentle (meek)” and “lowly (humble)” are written in two different words. But their meanings are the same. The word “gentle (meek)” is “praus” and lowly (humble)” is “tapeinos”, which is used for meanings like crushed, low, shabby, feeling humiliated, mournful, etc.  

Therefore, this word “gentle (meek)” is a word that embraces the poverty in those who are poor in spirit and the mournfulness in those who mourn. The poor in spirit are to mourn for their sins and the sins of the world and thus come to be in the state of being meek. As you will see as we go, the contents of the Sermon on the Mount are all connected and are not individual lessons. In Mathew 21, the word “humble” is written as “praus”, which means meek. Please take a look again:

 

 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey on a colt,[a] the foal of a beast of burden.’” Mathew 21:5

 

“Tapeinos” was used for “humble” in Mathew 11 but here the word “praus” which is the same word used for “meek” in “blessed are the meek” is used. So to the Hebrews, the word “meek” is related to hardship, persecution, oppression, and low places. It is same for humbleness.

Originally, to the Hebrews calling someone humble is not just about praising someone who has learned a lot and has a lot for acting like he has not. To them, being humble means standing before God. Due attitude of a person standing before God. That is humbleness.

 

The opposite is “hubris”, being proud. The created beings having left their place. Jesus is calling those who labor and are heavy laden, telling them to take his yoke upon them and learn from him for He is gentle and lowly in heart, right? He is talking about meekness and He is calling those who labor and are heavy burdened. But Jesus is saying His yoke is easy and His burden is light. What is Jesus’s burden? It is the cross. Is that light and easy? But even so, Jesus is saying that the cross is easy and light. Meekness is sandwiched in between “who labor and are heavy laden” and “my easy yoke and light burden”. Meekness of the heart. Therefore, being meek means a certain strength that makes us recognize both laboring and a heavy burden as easy and light. Where are the meekness, humbleness, and yoke quoted from? From Zechariah 9. 

 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Zachariah 9:9-11

 

Jesus quoted these verses and described himself as meek. A donkey comes out here, right? In other places it is called a donkey, which is yoked with a burden, right? Riding on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. Doesn’t it say so? Burden, donkey, humble, and meek, all these are referred from here.  Here the word “humble” is a Hebrew word “ani” which shares the same root as “anav”, which is meekness. As I said before, this word means meek and humble but it also is inclusive of “abject, poor, afflicted, lowliness, pain, humiliation,  etc.” This humble king is riding on a donkey, which is the foal of a beast of burden and he is going into Zion. The foal of a beast of burden means a donkey that is held by the master. This means a donkey held and used by God.  What is He going in there to do? As written in verse 11, He is going in to accomplish the blood of the covenant, riding on a colt. This means He is going in as Him being the colt. To accomplish the covenant of the blood. So “being meek” is the state of being used as a tool to accomplish the covenant, being emptied out of his own will in the process of accomplishing God’s covenant and pushed by God’s will and power even if the road is a road of pain, persecution, oppression, becoming low, and humiliation. That is being meek. That is not something you can have naturally. It is not something you can build as a character. Listen carefully. 

 

Jesus is God the Son. But He came down into history and could not fulfill His own will using His power, or prove Himself, or boast, right? It’s because that was God’s will. Because He was to reveal God’s glory, power, and grace, He came down, having been emptied of His own existence. He just wouldn’t exercise it. Like this, meekness is a state of someone who confirmed the will of God, being firm in the place of solid faith and calm in whatever kind of persecution, pain, and humiliation, after realizing his own status as tool of God in the process of His will being accomplished.  

The state of your faith becoming firm is meekness. This is not an issue of character or nature.

Meekness is an acknowledgement of their original place, knowing “Ah, I am this kind of existence and God is using me like this. It is not that I pioneer or develop something!” 

Acknowledgment of the original place and the motion of helplessness, and a confession of being at a loss... This is meekness.  I could only accept it if this is how God is dragging me. What comes out from this is meekess. Meekness is a gift created in the saints, who are the people of heaven, by the reign of God as a king of grace. Such meekness is the very earth the saints will receive as an inheritance. You may say what is he talking about now, but you will understand what I mean by the end of this sermon. It is difficult. It is not easy. It is not about simply being blessed because you became nice, gentle, and kind. It is not that kind of story. 

 

Anyways, for such a reason, Jesus placed His meekness as a premise when He was saying He will teach those who labor and are heavy laden the secret to perceive the light burden.

The cross of Jesus, no, the entire life of Jesus, was never easy and light in the perspective of the world. But Jesus came down to earth to do the will of the Father. As we have confirmed in the book of Zechariah, Jesus became a yoked donkey as a tool of God to accomplish the covenant of the blood and came down to earth. This covenant cannot be called off or changed in the middle because it is a covenant of God. Thus the life of Jesus as a yoked donkey, which is the suffering of the cross, cannot be retracted. Likewise, the Bible expresses as being meek the life of everyone, in the promise of God, who accomplishes the will of God by partaking in the process of achieving the covenant. Thus, meekness is brought on by the zeal of God and something men can produce and develop in their diligence. So do not grill yourself or others too much why your personality is not changing much even after believing in Jesus. This is not that kind of meekness. Think about it. The man-made meekness cannot avoid changing morning and night depending on his situations or emotions, despite it coming out from his innate disposition or character. No matter how soft and gentle he may be, it is inevitable to respond roughly when situations or realities that are above his limitation storm in. Sometimes husbands get surprised, don’t they? Wow, when did my wife, who used to be as meek as a lamb, change like that? Right?

Look here. Does that meekness continue on? Is there a consistency to it? Then would Jesus command merely that kind of meekness to us? 

 

The meekness Jesus is talking about is a life of self-denial coming out of those who have become aware of the already-fixed reality in eternity and the changed perspective of the saints on the world and others as a result of it. The more you are confirmed of your reality in the history of returning to the point of completion in the Word, your perspective in the way you deal with others, the world, and the reality of suffering coming your way will be more inclined to be affordable, accepting, tolerant, and open wide. I am not saying it will be completed. I am saying you will be more inclined. That is the kind of work the reign of God as the King of grace would create. This is the directionality that is destined to come out in the life of the saints who must live out the life of self-denial as a process of returing. It is because the kingdom of God, or the saints in the completed kingdom of God, are those who are completely denied of themselves. The state of being in the process of being pulled away in such a way is meekness.

Of course, there is a difference in the degree of meekness. But if a saint, everyone is to exercise the directionality called meekness. 

 

Let’s look at Moses as an example again.  As his name tells us, he was a chosen being to save Israel. His name itself means to pull/draw out. So he was already chosen by God as a person to pull/draw out His people from Egypt, from the Red Sea. Prophets ofen say this. That they were chosen from their mother’s womb. They say so, right? And they get to live exactly as a model for the life of Jesus. From birth, Moses had nothing go as his heart wanted. 

 

Finally, after being the son of a princess of a Pharaoh, Moses was kicked out into the wildnerness, and 40 years of that life was emptied out. He lived as the son of a princess for 40 years and for another 40 years, he lived as a resident servant shepherd in his in-laws' house.

This Moses was dead for those 40 years. He was being emptied out. And didn’t he say that life is 70, 80 if healthy, in Psalm 90? He was at the age of dying when he was called by God and suffered to death in the dessert. And he was used and abandoned in the dessert like trash.

And in the process, he got angry, spoke harsh words, and showed the limitaions of a human being here and there, right? But he is called a meek person because he was helped by the hand of God. He was called the meekest person on earth, among all Israel because he was modeling the life of Israel itself. He is modeling your life. His life was modeling the life of Jesus, right? He lived like that by the will of God. That is called meekness. The life of being led like that is called meekness. 

 

What story also comes out where Moses’s meekness is praised? This man Moses is a meek person. His meekness is above all on earth. Where is this attached to? It is attached to the episode of Moses marrying a Cush woman. An Ethiopian woman. A black woman. Would she have looked like Naomi Campbell? That Cush woman? People, do you think this is why Moses took her as his second wife and got yelled at by Miriam? Why was a Cush woman in the midst of Israel? She was an Egyptian slave. She came out with Israel during the exodus and such a woman was the lowest and poorest woman. And she was a Cush woman. A Black woman.

Then why Moses made her his wife is because God wanted to show that the salvation of Israel is like this. Why would Moses choose that woman and get harshly yelled at? Is it because he has a unique taste?  

 

Miriam is playing the role of a Pharisee in showing this is salvation. Why did you have to choose that woman and dishonor the family? She is coming out like that. Then God enters, rebuking her and making her a leper. Who are you blaming? You, who judge others by the form of right and wrong, are the leper! E-Nyun-Ah (degrading form of calling a woman)! And then He makes her a leper. Haha why? Should I call her a Miss when talking badly of her? It is about this. That is where “Moses is the meekest among all above the earth” is attached to. 

 

So what is that meekness? The one who is living out the will of God, being held by God’s will. And surrendering and giving up knowing that I cannot resist if this is the life led by God who has come to me. This is meekness. It is not being nice, kind, and warm.  Do not demand such things from your husband. Do not demand that especially from your pastor. Hahahah I am a meek person. Do not demand the dictionary meekness from me. I am a person who is living by the word. 

 

Same for Jesus. Jesus entered the temple and flipped off the tables of the money changers and merchants. And on a number of occasions, He cursed at them by calling them a brood of vipers. 

People, do you call that meekness? If we expected the dictionary kind of meekness from Jesus, then Jesus should have controlled Himself in those situations. He should have spoken to them warmly and nicely but He smashed them with a whip. And at that time, “brood of vipers” was the worst kind of profanity. But God is using this kind of profanity. Do not yell at me for cursing… hahaha.  This pastor I respect told me he did this. He used a bit of profanity in his sermons and the church-members trembled in anger saying "how could a pastor curse during the holy worship time?" So the pastor said this. You tremble in anger for the one word I used but why don’t you tremble in anger looking at the evil in your life or in the world? That’s what I wanted to say.

 

Once again I tell you, meekness is not a character or a nature that is shown in the blessed people of heaven but it is a life of surrender that comes from those who are dragged away by God’s zeal. This surrender is not a humiliation that you unwillingly experience by force. It is a trust and conviction in what has already been completed. So something like “I rather feel safe”; a surrender of relief, this is called meekness. Peter explains this kind of meek heart like this. 

 

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle(meek) and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 1Peter3:1-4

The hidden person of the heart means the inner heart. It is translated weird. Inner heart being gentle and calm.  It means this is the heart of the people of God. That word quiet, “hesuchios", means still and uninterrupted. It means something like calm. Something that is immovable or changeable or interrupted by anything in this world because it is already decided. That is hesuchios. That is meekness. It is providing an additional explanation using the word quiet together with it. So Apostle Peter is explanating meekness using wives’ submission to their husbands as an example. Meekness is the state of a bride being pulled away by the groom.

But not that we obey because we want to obey but becoming obedient by the reign of God as a King of grace. We are being made to surrender, aren’t we? That is why it is called being meek. The meekness of the inner heart. The Apostle Paul is using the heart of Jesus as an example to make the saints understand meekness.

 

Have this mind among yourselves, (the inner heart which is calm and cannot be interrupted)  which is yours in Christ Jesus, (meek heart of Jesus, look what this heart is) 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

 

This is the meek heart of Jesus. It says have this heart, right? Shortly before, it said to fill up the inner heart with meekness and calmness, right? That is this heart. This is the rule of existence for the people of Heaven. As we gradually recognize that the works of warranting worth or trust in ourselves are meaningless and finally become empty, we are being completed to be in the state of God fulfilling the “empty me”. 

 

Of course, this will be done in eternity. This is called meekness. The appearance of the life of a saint, which will have become unshakable in whatever desire or external environmental changes. That is meekness. Until He is done taking you to the destination, God does not let you live your life as you please. That is meekness. 

 

Like that, how would those who know their lives are to flow down the designated path towards the place of completion in the covenant of God gradually look at the sufferings or hardships coming onto them or happy or sad events? They wouldn’t be now happy and now sad being heavily affected by those? Saints will come to know that they shouldn’t be now happy and now sad if these things are allowed by God in the journey led by God right now. Actually, you may be feeling that your lives are changing like this. Although the changes may not be that noticeable, you do frequently feel that you are more generous and more understanding than before you knew the gospel, don’t you? How did these changes come about? Because you matured? Not so. Since you have come to know Jesus rightly, you are changing not to fiercly dive into maintaining your own prestige or saving face as you begin to realize trusting your ownself and warranting self worth is useless and foolish. So, you have become more generously understanding when you see others’ shortcomings or their ugliness. Not, “how could you?” That is meekness. 

 

Saints become able to entrust God with much of their life as they learn of God and live a life of meekness by trusting His faithfulness. That is why it is saying “You who are blessed, you will be meek”. It means I will make you like that. Because I blessed you. Meekness comes along with the blessing. 

 

Looking at 1Peter 2:23:

 

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.24 

 

Who? Jesus. To whom he entrusted? To God he entrusted. Entrusted for what? Those who reviled him, those who made him suffer. It says, He did not deal with them accordingly on his own but entrusted himself to God. Why? I cannot punish them because God told me to go down this road. I cannot deal with them accordingly. So I am entrusting to God. That is meekness. 

 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1Peter 2:23-24

 

This was seldom shown in the life of David, who formerly lived and died modeling the life of Jesus. When David was running, being chased after by his son Absalom, Shimei was coming along cursing David, right? What did David do? Go and kill him? Just leave him alone. God sent him to me. Even if you go and kill him, for sure other Shimeis will come to me. So just leave him alone. You call this meekness. 

 

Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.”10 But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.12 It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me,[a] and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”13 So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. 2 Samuel 16:9-13

David just leaves it up to God, right? That is meekness. In God’s will, in God’s intention, in God‘s guidance, just leaving it up to God saying, “God you are right, It is right for me to be pulled away by you like this.” This is not something we can do on our own but this is how God is dragging and taking us. That is why it is called meekness. There are several symptoms coming out from this, right? Gentleness, warmth, tolerance. Why? By losing confidence in yourself and by entrusting the life of your own being to God, that blistering attitude or strength that you used to burst out gradually dies down little by little, doesn’t it? What I am saying is that this could come out as a certain temperament but what you need to know is the root of these symptoms. That is meekness. Meekness by the zeal of God. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth”, he was refering to Psalm 37. Jesus speaks in reference to the Old Testament. If we go there, you will understand today’s message more easily. We won’t read all but just one verse. 

 

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Psalm 37:11

The meek shall interit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. This sentence is quoted and used as is. This verse from Psalms 37. David in Psalm 37 explains the meekness of those who will inherit the land and in verse 3 he says it is to trust in the Lord, and in verse 4, to delight in the Lord. And in verse 5, it is to commit your way to the Lord and in verse 7, to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. All I have said thus far is included here, isn’t it? In Psalm 37? In verse 9, he says it is to wait for him. And after announcing the wicked will be no more in verse 10, he is saying the meek will inherit the land in verse 11. David is contrasting the wicked who will be cut off from God with the meek who will inherit the land. Here.

 

So here, meekness is a word used to name all aspects of the delivered saints who are in the opposite side of the wicked who are to perish. Jesus quoted this and used it in the sermon on the mount. It means they will inherit the land. Psalm 37 says a lot about the land that will be permitted to the blessed. Look at Psalm 37 verse 9. 

 

For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

For those blessed by the Lord[c] shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. Psalm 37:9,22,29

 

It says this land is what those blessed by the Lord will inherit and only the righteous who are blessed by the Lord can live and only the meek can live there. Is there anyone among the numerous Adams that come and go in this history who can live in that land? No one? It is written that there is no one righteous, not even one. Then what land is this land? Jesus is talking about the land which only the righteous could enter in and live in the sermon on the mount, quoting Psalm 37 now. What is this land? The land where only the righteous can enter and live.  

 

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20

 

It means there is no one. No body. There is none.

 

The land the Lord gives is a land where only the righteous can live. And the meek will receive this land. It is a syllogism. People, if so, the meek are the righteous but the Bible says that there is no one righteous in the world, not even one. It means there is no one meek in the world, doesn’t it? So do not carelessly call the people of different religions meek just because they are nice, warm and gentle. There cannot be anyone who is meek on his own or righteous on his own. Despite this, there are many who are called the righteous or meek. How could they be? We know why. Because we know the Bible. The only righteous man in this world, Jesus! Who is this only man who can say “I am meek in heart”? Jesus! The saints, who are saved as being united in Jesus, who is the only righteous man and the only one meek in heart, are called the meek. They are just being considered meek. It is not an issue of characters or temperaments. One does not become righteous based on something he has done. So the land, one becomes a meek person because he has received the land. So it means one becomes a meek person because he has received the land where only the rightoues can live. The land is not given as a reward but it is a tool to make the blessed become meek. Please listen carefully a little bit more. 

If we are inheriting the land as those who have become meek by Jesus, who is the one and only meek and righteous person, then obviously the land the blessed saints will inherit should be the land Jesus has received as an inheritance, right? If we are to inherit the land in meek Jesus, righteous Jesus, wouldn’t we inherit the land together with Him who is the true meek and true righteous man? What is this land? The land Jesus has received as his dwelling place? Do you remember the story of Jesus saying He will go and make a dwelling place? What is that dwelling place? It is the land where God and His people will dwell together, right? That is the dwelling place. Where is that? It is the church. The church. It is not a mansion being built in heaven. Do not be deceived. Thus, the land Jesus received as an inheritance is the church, which is us the saints. This will be confirmed a short while later. 

The saints, who God blessed with the heavenly blessings before the creation, will receive the church as an inheritance and become meek. This is the correct interpretation of today’s text. 

The story of the land also comes out the same in Isaiah 61, which we looked at when we studied about the poor in spirit and those who mourn. The scriptures are all connected. 

 

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified… Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion (Here is the land, in their land); they shall have everlasting joy. Isaiah 61:1-3, 7

 

This land is the land God will give. Land to be given to the people of God. Land will be given to those who are delivered by the Messiah and there they will inherit a double portion. 

Inheritance of a double portion means an unimaginable amount of compensation. Not twice as much. Then, what is the identity of the land that is to be freely given?

 

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. (This is the land. The land I will give you. But at this time, Israel had already received the land of Canaan. However it is talking about another land. It is saying I will bring you into your own land. This is Ezekiel. This) 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a]28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-28

 

In verse 28, it says this is the land that was given to their ancestors. But what land was given to the ancestors? Originally? It was the land of Canaan. Now they are already living in the land of Canaan but it is talking about some other land and about the land given to the ancestors. 

That is why all the ancestors, not even one exception, went into a small plot of grave without being able to take the land of Canaan. It means that land was not it. A certain land modeled by this.  Calling it “that land” and it will be cleansed with water. 

 

Now the Lord said[a] to Abram, “Go from your country[b] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:1-2

 

A land is being given to Abraham, Abraham who is a blessing. This land appears in more detail in chapter 13.

 

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” Genesis 13:14-17

 

God says He will give him offspring as the dust of the earth. What it means is that the dust of the earth and the offspring, the land and the offspring are being identified as the same, and I will give you my offspring, the people of God, as the dust of the earth in the land I will give you. 

But Abraham only had one child till he died. Then what are these promises?

 

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:7-8

 

Here a king is given at the same time the land and the offspring are being given as a covenant, right? He is saying I will be your God, isn’t He? I will reign over you. Right? A king, people, and land are given in His covenant. Of what are these three components? A country! It is talking about the kingdom of God. Yes? The kingdom of God. Aren’t you the kingdom of God? The church is the kingdom of God. That is being given here. Do you know where this story of the land is connected from? Where is Genesis 12 continuing from? Chapter 11. What comes out in chapter 11? The Tower of Babel. The city of Babel comes out, right? The word translated as “tower” means “city”. The city of Babel. It says “Let’s build a city and a tower”. Babel city. The city of Babel is a land of men. The land of humanism where men say they will ascend to heaven with their own power and wisdom. This is called the city of Babel. The land of Babel. After cursing that land and scattering them, I will give you not that land but the land I have prepared. To whom? To the ones I have chosen. This is what it is saying.

 

So here the land of the world and the land God is preparing are being contrasted. What is the tower of Babel, the land of the world? Trying to reach God in the perspective of humanism, still not having abandoned the human possibility and human power. Such fallen Adam. Adam, who picked and ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, is the tower of Babel, right? The land of the world. Constrasting that and the land of grace; God visiting those who used to make and sell uselss idols like Abraham and leading them to that land prepared by His grace. That is being contrasted. I am saying that the new people of God, by His grace, and the crowd of Adam, who ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, are being contrasted. This is the old land and the new land. It is talking about this. That is why the old land, the tower of Babel, and the new land, the land given to Abraham, is beginning here. Among the the line of patriarchs, Isaac is also given land as a covenant by God, right?

 

And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, Genesis 26:2-4

 

A land is promised, right? The land that was given to the patriarchs. It’s talking about this land now. Since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the patriarchs. Take a look at what promise was given to Jacob.

 

And behold, the Lord stood above it[a] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:13-15

 

The land where he used to be. As soon as he obtained the birthright, the father God kicks him out of the land that was given to Abraham? And then, He is bringing him back into it. You are the people of the completed kingdom of God and also the land of the completed kingdom of God. It is so because God dwells with you. Isn’t God inside you? That is the land of God. It is the church; the church in which this is depicted in a big picture. That land coming down to earth, experiencing the reality of the unclean and corrupted land and returning back up to the holy land of God. This story is the history. Nothing more. In a physical sense, the land given to the patriarchs is obviously the land of promise, the land of Canaan. But was this land really given to the ancestors? The Canaan land Abraham gained was a small grave plot in the cave of Machpelah. How about Isaac? He was buried there. Jacob? He could not even be buried there but was taken down to Egypt and died there. Then, look at what kind of promise was given to Israel, who were the descendants of the patriarchs. 

 

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” Exodus 6:7-8

 

Also here, God is promising the land as a possession for His people, right? Israel is a model for whom? Us. The church. It is a model for the saints. To them a land is promised again. The land that He said He will give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is being promised the same way. But Israel cannot take over that land and often gets chased out or taken over by other nations and lives as a colony. Even more, the first generation of Israel that received the promise all dies in the desert. They cannot enter it. Then, what kind of promise is this? So it is clear that the land promised by God, the death of the saints, and the grace of the saints are closely related, right?

Those who have received the promise of a land all die. They cannot actually step on the physical land of this world.

 

Jesus, who said “I am meek in heart”, also died on the cross. That meek Jesus. I am saying that the one who was to receive the land as a possession died. As such, the church which is the dwelling place of Jesus is born, right? Why does Moses, who was to receive the land as a possession, die in the desert? Why would God intentionally kill him when the land of Canaan is before his eyes? 

 

The land God is giving to His people is actually this old land, the land that originally was the new land; those who were the dwelling place of God, which was the holy land, have come down to the world and are now wearing the flesh, the unclean land, right? The land where God cannot go. “Giving the land” means this unclean land dying in this history and being newly created again as a land of a new creation, as a land of God where God can dwell. If we go to Hebrews, it is clearly written what kind of land the ancestors of faith, including the pariarchs, hoped for and lived.

 

 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,  (Isn’t it weird? He dwelled in the land God said He will give but he lived there as in a foreign land. In that land. By what? By faith. What does it mean? It means he knew by faith that this is not the land.) living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Hebrews 11:8-10

 

Look. It is saying that the land and the city are the same thing, right? The city of Babel. You must keep this in mind. The whole Bible is about this. The city that is to be given to us. New Jerusalem. They looked forward to New Jerusalem the holy city. Not anything else. Look how others were.

 

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. (When Jacob went to Egypt from Canaan, would he have returned back if he knew Canaan was his homeland? Would he not have? He would have. But it means he had not. Why? It means he knew that was not the land. That is.) 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:13-16

 

 (Again the land is being contrasted with a city.)

 

If we go to Deuteronomy 11, the detailed characteristics are pictured. 

 

For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,[a] like a garden of vegetables.11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, (it is a land where His eyes are always upon) from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Deuteronomy 11:10-12

 

It means a land farmed with rainwater, the land where you eat if God gives and not eat if He does not, the land of grace. But Israel went into Canaan, and as expected, they trusted their own might. And they wanted a king of this world. They did not treat God as a king. So this land, the land spoken of in Deuteronomy, is you people, the holy city of New Jerusalem, the church that is to be newly creaed by God’s grace, only by God’s grace, the irresistible grace. You are being pulled down to the place of meekness in this history because that land will definitely be given to you for a possession. It is not about a meek character or a meek nature. Do not consider the Bible a moral text book. It is not a character transforming book. You will not change no matter how much you read it. 

 

The identity of the land appears clearly in Isaiah, right?

 

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,(Finally here it comes. Its identity) and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. (Jerusalem and people are mentioned here. This Jerusalem is the people if you go to Revelation) 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. Isaiah 65:17-19

 

The people hoped for the new city called Jerusalem and said “even the land of Canaan is not it.”

 

For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. Isaiah 66:22

 

Like this, the holy city of New Jerusalem, which is being constructed by God’s grace in contrast to the City of Babel, is the new heaven and new earth and the land of God. This is you people. That land is being promised to the saints. The land where God and I dwell together in the Holy Spirit. That is “I”, the church. That land called “in the Holy Spirit.” That land which is called “in Christ”. The reality of salvation, in which the human potential by the law and Judaism is collapsed and the city of grace of God is completed, is the denial of the old land and the right thing to do for the new land. There is a condition attached to the Old Testament that the land will be given if you keep and do this and that, right? But in today’s text, it is declared, “Those who are blessed! You will inherit the land”. It is promised that there are people who have been blessed with a heavenly blessing before the creation and they will be given a land. There is no conditional clause of “You must keep and do something!” What was between the two? The cross was there. The cross of Jesus. Like this, the identity of the land of grace which He said He will give us for free comes out well in Revelation, right?

 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Who? Bride? Church, right? The bride of the wedding feast of the lamb.The church. The people of God is called the holy city of New Jerusalem and then it is called the new heaven and new earth) 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[c]

(Now all being accomplished, right? Land, King, People. Isn’t what has been promised since Genesis being completed in Revelation 21?) 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4

 

What is all this? Mourning, Poverty, Death. What comes out in the sermon on the mount. It’s all these. It means all these will be wiped away. You are experiencing this in this history. You know well that the entire Revelation is the contrast between Babylon doomed to destruction and the new heaven and new earth, don’t you? Also in Genesis, the City of Babel and the land promised to Abraham are contrasted. Thus, Judaism/Humanism and grace are endlessly at war going from Genesis to Revelation. And that is history. Are you getting this?

 

Yes, the meek, they will inherit the earth. This is important. Go back to Ezekiel 36 again. 

 

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Ezekiel 36:24-25

 

It says He will bring you into the land and wash you with water, wash you who are unclean with water and purify. Do you know why? The land cannot become unclean because it’s the land where God will dwell together with His people. So what’s done first is to wash clean the unclean. That is the purification ceremony. Washing with water. There is a cistern of water in the temple, right? Every household had a cistern for a purification ceremony. You have to wash with water what is unclean. Because the land of God is a place where unclean things cannot enter, God is saying He will complete the land of God by washing with water. However, the root of this new covenant can be found in the regulations regarding bodily discharges in Leviticus. It repeatedly says wash with water, wash with water. Shall we look?

 

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body,[a] his discharge is unclean.3 And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness.4 Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.5 And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.6 And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.7 And whoever touches the body of the one with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.8 And if the one with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Leviticus 15:1-8

 

When a woman has her period or continues to have a discharge or bleed, the law decides her unclean but that itself is not unclean. There is a meaning to it. It says even being in contact with them, all become unclean. Yes, even when you touch. How does it say you purify such uncleanness? By washing with water. The same word is coming out in the new covenant. 

The new covenant is being given by washing with water, by going into the land and washing with water. Then why does the law say women with discharge is unclean? The meaning comes out in the book of Numbers.

 

You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.34 You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.” Numbers 35:33-34

 

This is explaining a certain work of the blood of a certain person making an atonement for the land that was polluted with the blood of the unclean and making it clean. With this. So things like period and discharge of blood come out.  It is not talking about the act itself. It says the land of God becomes unclean if it comes in contact with the blood of the fallen men. Why? Because all that is in them is dirty. 

 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

 

What’s inside a man is the dirtiest of all in the world. And because that spills out and makes the land unclean, the law regulates that you must not spill blood on the earth. 

 

That is why it says not to murder. Rather than to teach that killing a man is bad, the land must not become dirty. Why? Because it’s the land where God will dwell together. Because it is the land of promise. That is why God say to wash with water those who are unclean and says in the new covenant that “I will enter the land, that I will enter my land and wash you clean with water”. Because only then He can dwell. That means the land of God is completed by washing us clean. That is why it says go into the land and wash with water. Later it says being born by water and spirit, right? It’s talking about baptism. Later if you go further down the new covenant it says I will cut away your heart, right? That is circumcision. So the baptism, you are being baptized with water and Holy Spirit. Because of that. You are being washed. You are being washed clean. That is making you die, just killing you. Wasn’t that the destiny of those who received the land as a gift, as a possession? Dying in history. Dying in the desert. God is washing away the unclean blood to make His land clean. The land is that precious. That land is the church, which is the bride of God. In the New Testament, it is well illustrated how the illness of bodily discharge is connected to salvation. And that is Matthew 9, right?

 

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, (What is happening now? By the law? A woman suffering from a discharge of blood, a woman suffering from bodily discharge touched Jesus? He came unclean, right? Jesus became unclean, right? Then what happens to the woman?) 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly[a] the woman was made well. Mathew 9:20-22

 

The Bible intentionally records that she became saved instantly. As soon as she touched. Jesus took her uncleanness. He took away her death. 

 

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” Mathew 8:17

 

This is it, right? Jesus takes away the woman’s discharge illness, her uncleanness, and He becomes an unclean man. Then, Jesus must shed His own blood. Where was His blood shed? It was shed on the cross. Thus it is talking about the story of the cross. From Genesis, the story about the land, the story about meekness is to talk about the cross. That is connected to the illness of bodily discharge, continuing to the land by connecting to the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, and finally coming to a conclusion at the cross. The cross of Jesus.

You and I were the ones to die there, cursed and shedding all the blood, being sentenced to death as the unclean. There Jesus is bleeding all His blood. But that blood of His is cleansing us. So the church is being born. At the point of being washed clean and becoming the land where God dwells, the blood of Jesus is being poured down with water. God is showing this as a creation of life in this world. Creation of a new life is, by the spilling out of the blood of those who must bleed and die, completed by the actualization of a new creation by washing them with water, which is the act of the new covenant, washing them clean as the land of God. Women’s child birth illustrated this well. That is why blood and water is shed when giving birth.

 

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. John 2:6

 

This is the story of the wedding at Cana, right? There are six stone jars. What jars were they? Six stone water jars for the rites of purification, holding twenty or thirty gallon. But there was no water in them. It is accusing the true identity of legalism, Judaism, and humanism. They said they keep the law on the outside but when opened, there is no water. Does it mean they washed? Does it mean they were interested in them being pure before God or what? They were not. That water. It’s the water that needs to wash clean those with the illness of bodily discharge. That is the water in the new covenant. This is saying the party is over. This house is having a party no more. This is a hell where you would be destroyed and die! No more wine means that is being declared! 

 

However, these six jars are being filled with wine, the blood of Jesus, instead of water and with Jesus standing there as the seventh jar, the party is up again. That is the marriage banquet of the Lamb in Revelation. So what does “I will bring you into my land and wash you clean” mean? What is it? It means the new creation, the story of the new covenant, that “I will wash you with the blood of the cross of Jesus and I will surely create you to be my kingdom, my church, in which I will dwell with you”. This is the amazing meaning contained in “Blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth”. This is the mechanism of the new creation under the new covenant.

 

Like this, you have already inherited the land where God dwells with you. As a result, it is written that they considered the land in their eyes grass and dust and lived here in a tent and left. Because they knew what the real land was. It is “I”. Me. Do not imagine a heaven of your own. I guarantee that there is no such heaven as you picture it. It is God dwelling with you inside you… This is what is good… Oh happy day~! I heard rumors that the Rapture will happen on May 21? It came on CNN Headline News and I did an interview because Gospel Broadcasting Company asked me. I told them to stop the dog from barking. Hahahha. I told those who do not get raptured to come and see my concert. Let the raptured ones leave. So the interviewer asked “Is that so? That is the concert date?” I got to advertise again like this. Hahahaha. No, if the Rapture happens, that’s really “Oh happy day~!” Men and women here, you are the people who are already living the Heaven inside you. That kind of person is living the end time and judgement already. Then, why would such people care if the end of the world is 5/21 or 22? Why do you fear that? And what will you do when the end of the world comes anyways?

 

The word second coming is “Parousia”, which is “presence.” It is not coming from a far after hiding away in space. Did you not say Jesus Christ is in you? What other Jesus are you waiting for when Christ is here? Do you not believe? Because all those who do not even believe Jesus are sitting inside the church, they are fooled by the heretics when they say something. Did you not say you Jesus is in you? This presence is called second-coming, “Parousia”. Then, what? What second-coming are you waiting for?

 

This is so frustrating. Is there Christianity in this generation? You have already received the land, the Heaven. Didn’t Jesus say this? The kingdom of God has come. Right? Jesus was the kingdom. Why? There was God inside of Him and Jesus emptied Himself upholding the will of God. This is the kingdom of God. You are the kingdom of God. It said so in the book of Peter. We are the holy nation. The royal priesthood. What is that nation? It’s the kingdom of heaven. The land. I am the land. These cannot keep things of their own in this world. Why? Because “you who are blessed, you will be meek”. It is saying “you will never be able to live as you please”.

 

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[a] conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:14

 

It is saying this. Washing clean with water. What is the water? It is the blood. Blood. Being born again by the blood of Jesus. You are the blessed.  You are the meek and you are who inherited the land. Those who know the reality of salvation, walking on, looking forward to the covenant without being moved before the works of God. Just living on. What else can we do? We must just live on. Staying alive. That is it. What can we do? We just gotta stay alive.

 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present[b] help in trouble.2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Psalm 46:1-3

 

Why? Why do we not fear when the land of the world is being moved and shaken like this? Because there is a land that is immovable inside me. This is meekness, being quiet and humble. Let’s pray.

 

God, thank you for the grace. Father God, we are the meek. We are the ones who inherited the land. Then, what other reward would be hoped for and towards what would we be hard at work for? God, please let us hold on tight to the reality already given as a gift from God and live the kingdom of God in it. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.