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Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
The Beatitudes
За New Christian Bible Study Staff
These verses, the opening phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, hold some of the Bible’s most beautiful and best-loved poetry. Part of its beauty, though, lies in the fact that the meaning is not quite clear. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? What does it mean to “inherit the earth” or to be called “the children of God.” The fact that there are many possibilities causes us to linger over the phrases, pondering them.
Understood in the internal sense, these blessings show the spiritual states of the various people who could be receptive of the Lord and the new church he was launching. On a deeper level it shows that states within ourselves that can lead each of us to the Lord and to a deeper understanding of His truth today.
The “poor in spirit” are those who know little about spiritual things, but want to learn. Those that “mourn” are those who want to be good, but see no desire for good in their church. The “meek” are those who love to care for and serve others. To “hunger and thirst after righteousness” shows a desire to rise up, to learn about what’s good and to come to desire it.
The “merciful” are those who love their fellow people. The “pure in heart” are those who love only what is good. “Peacemakers” are those who are in harmony with the Lord, gaining knowledge from Him and wanting what He wants. And to be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” means acting out of love and care for others, even though you are condemned by others for it.
There’s something of a progression there, from those who simply want to learn to those who actively want to be good people to those who actually are good and acting out of love for others. None of it, though, describes those who are learned in the Jewish traditions, or even necessarily observant in terms of ritual; they are, rather, those who sense that it is possible to be a good person and are willing to make the effort.
And they are promised their rewards! The “kingdom of heaven” is the understanding the angels have of the Lord; “comfort” represents ideas that lead to the good of life; “inheriting the earth” is a state of loving others and being loved by them in return. The overall message is simple: If we truly wish to be good people, and are willing to let the Lord teach us how to be good people, we will end up filled with love and wisdom from Him. And that’s what we need to focus on: The desire to be good, and openness to ideas from the Lord. It’s not about ritual and intellectual “correctness”; it’s about ideas that lead us to be good.
But what of being reviled and persecuted? This depicts temptation, when the hells attack our newborn good desires and true understanding. They cause us to doubt our ability to be truly good and question the ideas that are leading us. And they can do it in many ways, reminding us of the fun we’ll be missing or reminding us of all the bad things we’ve ever done to render us hopeless. They will even attack the Bible and the ideas that come to us through it from the Lord; that’s represented by the idea that people also attacked the prophets.
These states, however, are blessed in their own way; only by battling these evils, which are rooted inside us, can we finally fully embrace the good life we have been striving for. That’s why it is pictured last, and that's why it leads to the “great reward” in heaven.
Genesis 2
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The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their vast array.
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On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
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God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.
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This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
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No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
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but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
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Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
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Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
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Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.
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The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
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and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone.
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The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
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The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
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Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
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Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
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but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die."
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Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
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Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
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The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.
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Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
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He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.
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The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called 'woman,' because she was taken out of man."
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Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
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They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
