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Episode 853: In this episode of The Bible Guys, Chris and Jeff explore the third Beatitude in Matthew 5:5, unpacking Jesus’ teaching that “the meek will inherit the earth.” They define meekness as strength under control, drawing powerful parallels between Moses and Jesus as examples of humble, disciplined strength. Listeners are encouraged to see meekness not as weakness, but as a Christlike way of living that reflects God’s character and leads to true blessing.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. It's good to be back. We are so excited to be in the middle of a series talking about the beatitudes. Beatitudes, Yes, which which are the the what nine phrases that Jesus used to kick off his sermon on the Mountain? Yeah? And if you think about even the name beatitudes, it's the attitude of how we should be? Is that the technical Yes? Is that the technical discs attitude? Jeff, Okay, I'm fairly certain. But before blessings? But yeah, that's okay, what ye? Beatitude means blessings? Okay? Is that true? I think so? Okay, you think so? Hey, listen, we are actually going to play a game because we're actually launching into a new beatitude today. And so Desiree is calling this this scenario game. She said, here's how it reads, or this how she typed it. Today, we're diving into the third beatitude and it's all about strength under control. So let's kick things off with a scenario game and ask is this real strength or just chaos pretending to be confidence. So she's given us five different scenarios in and I'm not sure how she wants us to play this, but I think we're supposed to just talk about the scenario and decide whether or not. If we don't know how it's supposed to be played, we get to make up the rules. That's correct, right, But I guess we're asking the question is this strength? Is this true strength? Okay? And maybe even let's add to the funny scenario, who do we do this? Okay? Okay? Number one is you can open the pickle jar, but instead you hand it to someone else so that they can feel strong. Never, that's true. Never, I never do that. There you go, yeah, and then look at them like they're so weak. Now, if someone with disdain, would you ever have somebody a pickle jar to make them feel strong? I'm assuming that means that we'd have to pretend like we couldn't open it. Yeah, like kids, kids. Help me out with this, hey, and then they pop it open. You're like, oh, you're so strong. Yeah, maybe maybe, but not legitimately. Maybe you'd never give it to Bonnie and be like, you know, I don't want her thinking she's tougher than me. I'm already scared of her. Have you ever seen have you ever seen there? You go, hey, have you ever seen that clip where the daughter's on the cooking show and she can't and she's racing against like, uh, you know whoever? It is like Bobby fla. Bobby flake, and she can't open the jar and so she's opening she's trying really, really hard, and then she runs over to her dad and the audience and the day goes pops it open really and then and then she runs back. It's like the sweetest father daughter moment ever. That's awesome. We're Dad's still the hero, you know. It's pretty fun. Okay, that's a good one. All right. How about this one? A car is going ten under the speed limit in the left lane. It says you could pass aggressively, but you put on worship music and breathe. Those are options. No, what I do is as I try to tap their left bumper back bumper with my right back bumper and spin them out. Yeah, spin them out like the police, dude, when they pull somebody over, when they take somebody out. Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. This is one of the greatest pet peeves in life. It's the left lane. It's called the passing lane for a reason. Yes, that's right, right, So if you're going you know who does this Canadians, Oh, get out there in that lane and just ride at like ten miles an hour under the speed under the speed limit. Yeah. And by the way, it's I don't care if you go ten on the speed limit. Yeah. And I don't even care if you right in the left lane, just stay over it. If somebody comes behind you and they're right on hotail, just move over, move right, because it's called a passing lane people. And and by the way, it's not your job to determine whether or not, like if it's fifty five and you're going fifty five in the left lane or forty five, I know. But what I'm making another point, So. You're you're driving the speed limit, it's not your job to determine. Yes, whether whether or not I want to go above the speed limit is not your concern. Yes, that's right, right. If you're going to speed limit, it does not give you the right to not let me pass in the passing lists. That's what I'm saying. Yes, I agree, all right, yeah, that one. I'm not very meek. Yeah, so on the road. So this is this is where I'm at my weakest. My most vulnerable at bad attitudes are when I'm driving. And by the way, I'm not saying we're playing this game right, I don't even know if we're playing this right. I don't know. But it would be a lot of strength for me to not pass aggressively and turn on worship. Yeah, okay, so I would call that true strength. Okay, So okay, it would be, but it's not practically how we live. How about this one? Number three? You could correct someone's Bible reference, but you let it go because the moment doesn't need a hero. The moment doesn't need a hero. It's very sounding verse make me a hero. I don't know I need a hero. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I think it's it's dangerous to allow scripture to be misused, are misquoted. So it's pretty pretty rare. Now, if somebody says, you know, Ax says whatever, and it was actually Luke, I'm probably not gonna say anything, right, but if they misuse a scripture as proof of something, then I think you have to correct them. Yeah, yeah, I definitely do for sure, Yeah, because you don't want God's word to be misrepresented. But I don't think she's talking about that though, because she says Bible reference, Bible reference, like, for instance, this happened last week in the Bible. Guys, you said something wrong and I could have jumped in, but I didn't, So I was, I was, I was just. I don't remember saying anything wrong. Yeah you did, No, Yeah, it happened actually in the same week. Ye remember, I remember, I remember, well the Jeremiah one. Yeah, I'm referring to the other one. You Actually it happened twice, but I didn't because I feel good. Doesn't feel good? Chris, Well, well, for every one time and I do that to you, it's got to be five times for you, right, So what was the second one? Uh, you've done this before when you when when you talk about God's laws, you say there's six hundred and seventeen laws, but there's six hundred and thirteen. Oh you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, all that to say, I said that before. I thought about saying six thirteen after you said six seventeen, but I thought number one. The moment was passed because you went right on to something else. And then number two, I guess I decided that the moment didn't. Need to hear you need a hero. You were the hero. And then yeah, well you were a hero without us even knowing it. Yeah, by not saying it. Yeah yeah, yeah, even though I found a way to say it. Okay, yeah, I got it back out. I pointed it out. Not for nothing, but yeah, that's awesome. You've been sitting on that a week. That's so funny. Okay, there's two more more. Someone confidently misquotes a Bible verse, so that's what you're talking about. It's the same in the group chat. You could drop the exact chapter in verse, but you choose silence and let the word handle it. Now, that is where we have to step in, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to step in. You can't let somebody misuse scripture. Yeah yeah, yeah, for sure. Because the Bible is a sword. That's right, it's a two sword. You can't just go willy nilly whipping a sword all over the place. You're gonna hurt somebody with. It, that's right. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, I like that. That's that's pretty good. Walk around swinging swords and cutting people up. Yeah, for no reason? Two knives. Yeah, and then the last one says you resist the urge to clap back in the group chat? Is that when somebody sends the clapping emoji? No that I think clapback is oh just snap just to be aggressive back at somebody. Oh clap back? Am I am I missing out on terms? Did I just show my age? Well? I don't know anyways, Yeah, like like gen Z language, I guess I don't know clap back. I've not heard that. It's a standard phrase. Is it? Is it older than me and you? I don't know. Well, here's what I do know. I also believe that if you resist the urge to quote unquote clap back, I think that is strength. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that takes a lot of maturity. It takes a lot of maturity, a lot of a lot of strength, which is what meekness is. Right, So today we're kicking off this. There's a transition meekness. There's a transition there. It is. Yeah, and meekness oftentimes is mistaken for weakness, right, but meekness isn't weakness. Meekness is strength under control. So let's get a bumper sticker that says, meekness ain't weakness. Meekness ain't weakness. That's right. So here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter five, verse five. Yes, so it says in a New Living Translation it says, God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. And other translations just say blessed are the meek. So the reason why, for they will inherit your So the reason why the New Living Translation is a thought for thought translation, and it's translating it as humble, and like the nasb the King James will translate it the meek is because this the version of this word in Greek leans towards humility. It's a humble strength, right that. That's what we're talking about, as we talked about blessed are the meek or blessed are the humble, it's the humble strong. Well, the actual Greek word is prows, which means strength under control, which is like a trained war horse. Oh yeah, yeah, good. Yeah, it's not timid, but it's disciplined. Yeah, warhorse ready to run in. They're so courageous. You can imagine back in those days when thousands of men are lined up and then they go charging and it's just crash. And the kind of strength and power war horses were well trained. War horses would also fight, which is crazy, right, against the enemies and stuff like that. But so you can just imagine the power and yet that power under control, having a bridle in its mouth and being under control. That's a great analogy. That's a good one. I like that one. Yeah, good job, Yeah, thanks, good job. Hey did you know that in Numbers chapter twelve, Moses was called the meekest man on earth? Yes, I was going to reference Moses. And yet he confronted Pharaoh and led a nation, so he still had, you know, strength under control. Yeah, nobody would say Moses was weak. Right at the beginning, Moses was faking humility with God. Oh I'm not a good speaker, I'm not it right, and God just keeps calling him out. Come on, dude, you're. Well. I think he wasn't faking, and he was just using they were a humble excuse. Oh I'm not a very good speaker. Was not going to listen to me. Yeah, I'm not smart enough. But Moses grew up in Pharaoh's household, he was the stepson of the princess. Uh, there's some evidence in and I just read about this again this week. When I was in Egypt in September, we kept asking our guides and a couple of the archaeologists because we didn't hire just a generic tour guide. We only hired historians and archaeologists on this trip, and so they're more expensive. But man, it was amazing. Like every guy we traveled with could read hieroglyphics. Every guy had had degrees, two guys had PhDs, and one had a master's in egyptology. One guy that we toured with is going to be leading a major, maybe the most major dig in the Valley of the Kings over the past twenty five years. He's gonna lead it this next summer. Right, These guys are geniuses, And we began asking them who was Moses. We started leaning in, was hap chep Suit the princess that found the baby? If so, she had a vizier, you start going down the story. She had this visier who just appears, but he didn't wind up being put in his own tomb. There's all these accusations about her. It looks like that would have been a reasonable time frame. There's another one that might have worked as well, but the point being, either one of the princesses that had Moses were very powerful women. And then he grew up with all of the resources and all of the power of the strongest, most powerful man in the world at his disposal, the education, all these things. He was light years ahead of the average slave making mud bricks. Yeah, I would guess so, right, right, light years ahead even though he was one of them. He was. He was also a Hebrew, Yeah, but his education level. This is a Harvard grad with a kindergartener right right, trying to explain physics, right right. He had every reason in the world to just step into the follow me because I'm a powerful man, right And instead he served his people. He pled on their behalf. He negotiated with God for them, he was willing to He treated them like a father, where he was willing to teach them God's ways. He pled with them to do the right thing. He got mad sometimes too, but yeah, the the the even the idea that he would A guy like him could almost feel like me leading all these imbeciles through the desert for forty years as a waste of my life, right, right, do you know who I am or what I could have been? And this is what I'm doing? And he never you never find him complaining about this, right, And I think that that's the idea of Moses being the most meek person that ever lived. He was so humble that he was willing to serve all of his people, even in almost a dead end kind of an experience. Because he never did make it into the Promised Liane. He wandered on the desert with them for forty years. I wonder what would have happened if he just would have said, find God, I'm done with them, let them find their own way. I'm going into the Promised Land. Well he probably. My guess is he wouldn't have made it. God, Well, there were a couple times when God was done with them too. So if instead if when God's there's one point where God says to Moses, Moses, get out of the way. I'm gonna wipe them out and I'm going to make then fulfill my promise to Abraham through you and your Fami. And Moses is already mad. At the people too, right, but he pleads anyway. But instead he goes to his knees. He begs God, please don't wipe out the people. Please, don't wipe out the people. God just said, Hey, I'm gonna make you the next Abraham, Right, why don't you just leave these people in the desert. I'm going to wipe them out, And why don't you go across into the promised Land? And he could have accepted it. And he's the stepson of a pharaoh, right, his step grandson of a pharaoh, right, And he's like, no, no, God, it's all of us. Are none of us? Right? Take us all. Don't ruin your reputation. People are going to say, you just brought us out here to kill us. So he's concerned about God's reputation in the world. He's concerned about his people. This incredibly strong, powerful, skilled, capable man pleads on behalf of his people and then sacrifices everything about his last forty years to serve these people. So it's really incredible. It's a fair statement to say. Probably one of the reasons why he was called the meat referred to as the meekest person on earth is having meekness is not lacking strength. It's a commitment not to misuse your strength. That's right, right, yeah, yeah, so yeah, which is a great way to say that, right, that that this this idea of Okay. I was having a conversation with a guy who is his trajectory has been towards special forces, okay, and we were he was talking about, uh, is this a reasonable thing for a Christian? Should should I be heading don this row? And I said, within the context of scripture, God sets up militaries for the freedom and protection of the people, right, And so there are some of us that are just wired to be teachers. There are some of us that are wired to be just to love the outdoors and be farmers. There's some of us that are wired to be moms. There are some of us that are just wired to be leaders. And I said, I think that God has made warriors, and people will go, oh, no, I don't think so really, because the most common phrase if I ask you what's the most common analogy for God in the Book of Psalms, most people say, oh, a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. It only mentions him being a shepherd in like three chapters, but it's dozens and dozens and dozens of time. The most common phrase is that he's the lord of Heaven's armies, right, what does Heaven need armies for? Because there's a real spiritual battle going on. The Bible references him as being a warrior of Heaven. That's one of the natures of God. And so, but what does a warrior do. A meek warrior is strong strength, under control for the benefit of others. A bad warrior is one who uses their strength and their power to hurt and dominate. Others or for their own glory. That's right. And I said, so, if you are designed to be a warrior, that also is a reflection of God. As long as you become as skilled and as powerful as you can be, and then you don't use it for yourself. You use it for the benefit of others, to protect them, to provide freedom, guarantee freedom, and serve and protect other people. You do that and that is a reflection of God. Right, So that is that's a meek warrior. And I think that's what you found with David a lot of times. That's what you found with so many others in scripture. But yeah, Moses would be the main one. So so another observation is, so you know, blessed of the meek, for they show inherit the earth. The ultimate example of who was meek was Jesus. Jesus. Yeah, right, so he had all authority and yet he washed the disciples feet and John thirteen he stayed silent before his accusers and Isaiah fifty three talked about that. We saw it with ponscious pilot. Right. He chose the cross instead of calling angels, he humble self phlippings to humbled themselves. Yeah, I mean the cross is the ultimate picture of meekness. Uh, you know, power restrained for the sake of love. Right. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's a really good one. Yeah. So this idea of like blessed of the meek, it's not it's not weakness, it is it is God is saying blessed to those who are willing to submit to God's power, to submit to God's authority, to the people who are willing to not seek out glory for themselves but rather, you know, serve others with whatever influence, strength and power that they have. Yeah. As you go through these couple of chapters, uh, Matthew five, six and seven, thinking about Jesus, it seems like Jesus is only ever disgusted by one group of people. Jesus loves everybody else. He loves the sinners, He loves the children, He loves the widows. He loves the mothers and the fathers whose children have died. He weeps over his own friends, He grieves over the city. Right, Jesus just loves everybody. But he can't tolerate the hypocrites, the Pharisees, he can't tolerate. He blasts them all the time, even in this past we just read or tomorrow we're going to read where he says, you hypocrites, right, he just he or was it a couple days ago? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yesterday we actually talked about how he said the religiosity of the Pharisees. Yeah yeah, and you hypocrites, right, take the beam out of your own eye. Right. So he just has this disdain for these people, and it's interesting because he points them out when he talks about prayer, when he talks about fasting, when he talks about giving, he says, don't be like those Pharisees who do it in front of everybody. Don't pray like those farisies who have to blow trumpets to get everyboy's attention, so they pray, don't don't, don't fast like those pharisees to go around with the sad faces and the weak actions to get everybody's attention. Right, So there's this. The person who could literally get a hold of the throne of God on the whole planet didn't go blow trumpets, say hey, everybody, I'm about to pray. Right. The guy who was more generous than anybody else didn't go around, go everybody, come down, coon, I'm about ready to do a miracle, watch this, right. He didn't do that. As a matter of fact, when he raised the little girl from the dead, he had everybody clear of the room and just kept a couple of the. Disciples Peter, James and John and the parents. Right. Many many times he would turn to people and say, don't tell anybody. He would do an incredible miracle and say don't tell anybody. Right, And so you have this humility that is attacked to this incredible power, and that is that's meekness. Right. And then he was kind of grossed out by, or not grossed out by, frustrated with these people who had weak power but a lot of influence, but and zero humility, right, right, and their pretenders, right, and that's that's what we couldn't stand. Yeah, and you know, most of the time, I always I said this publicly and on the podcast before, I always say that you have a tendency to give the Pharisees more grace than I do, because you're, like, hey, man, a lot of them might have really been trying. That's what they were taught. They were trying. They thought they were trying to obey God. But Jesus so often calls out their intentions. He called them, he's called him hypocrites on the inside. Yeah, every time he calls him, and he calls him out on the inside, not in the outside. Yeah, Yeah, which means that they're you know, their motives aren't great. And as we all know, you know, they were also sort of responsible for plotting against Jesus and trying to kill them and so and so. Yeah, their hearts weren't good and so yeah, I think that the it's it's part of the reason why I remember yesterday we talked about who my favorite Bible character was, and I said, Paul, because I really do. I identify with people outside the church who love God in a lot of ways more than the super religious leaders within the church identify with those people, you know, just like you said before, a beggar teaching another beggar where to find food, right, and showing another beggar where to find food. That's that's sort of how I view that. Yeah, So you never find Jesus busting their chops over their holy living. He busts their chops over their attitude about their holy living, right, right. And so sometimes people want to bash the Pharisee, want to bash anybody who believes in holy living as being phariseical, and that's not true. So Jesus never went after them over their holiness. He went after them over their attitude about their holiness. Which is which is believing they were better than that's right. And then also, but choosing to be holy doesn't necessarily mean that you think you're better than somebody, right, right. And then the practice of either forcing people to be like them to keep their rules, which strangles them, Jesus said, or to look down upon them saying that they're not as good. Right. So it's that superiority pride kind of thing, right. Yeah. But what I hear sometimes in my pushback on those things sometimes is when the Pharisees made rules about rules about rules in order to obey the commandment. Yep, there's already six hundred and thirteen commands. How about just obey those? Right? Right? Right? But I hear people not want to obey the commands that are clear, saying, well, grace is my thing, and you know, only Pharisees are always trying to obey all the rules, and that that's just not true. It's not true. No, Jesus would definitely disagree with that. That's right, And so I think we have to be careful about how we smack the Pharisees. Jesus always smacked them about being prideful and about putting on a show and not having any spiritual power. Not everybody who's holy is a Pharisee, that's right, right. Those who are holy and downgrade others and and think they're better than and flaunt their superiority and pride, those are PHARISI. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And those of us that are choosing to live and sin, we just have to make sure that we're not mad at them because they're holy. That's right, that's right, and we don't want to be that's great. Hey, that's our time so thanks for tuning in and hopefully. By the way, yeah, remember when you ask what beautitude means, it means blessed. Is that what it means. That's what it means. You looked at it. That's awesome, very cool. Okay, all right, Hey, we'll see you next time on the Bible, guys,