The Beatitudes, Part 1

My 2013 personal Bible Study is being spent in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. I'm taking my time, verse by verse, word by word, phrase by phrase. Reading some books alongside is really adding depth to the study. What I'm not doing is taking these chapters as possibly self-contained but rather as a part of the larger Gospel of Matthew. Good Bible Study always considers a chapter or a verse in the context of the larger whole, otherwise bad interpretations will lead to usually unfortunate consequences. I'm well past the Beatitudes but have returned again to consider them and decided to share.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed = “happy, fortunate"

poor = “destitute, lacking, needy”

in spirit = “draw a breathe,” from the OT “ruach”

= “the life principle springing from God”

My friend, Dr. Bob Utley, wrote some insightful words on the phrase "poor in spirit": 

"It was often used of a beggar who was dependent on a provider. In the OT this implied hope in God alone! Matthew makes it clear that this does not refer to physical poverty, but to spiritual inadequacy. Man must recognize God's adequacy and his own inadequacy."

"Poor in spirit" also seems to be related to a Hebrew phrase. If my research is right (and it may not be because I don't remember any Hebrew from my 4 week crash course in Seminary), this is an abbreviated idiom that refers to the "poor and crippled in spirit" from Isaiah 66:2. It refers to those that have come to the end of their own strength.

When I add this to the definition of "spirit" being the word used for the breathe breathed into Adam, I can hear Jesus' voice speaking to the condition of my soul. To be poor in spirit means lacking in the necessary life breathe that can only come from God. I'm not sure if this is the best translation in my own words but what comes to mind is: "Blessed and fortunate are those who get knocked on their butt and are able to realize they have nothing in themselves that is good. When that happens, you're on your way to the Kingdom."

This is a theme we can follow through the Scripture:

"I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” - Psalm 16:2

I see it in Paul's description in Romans 7:18 "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out."

The good that is in us is there because of the presence of Jesus. We cannot manufacture it. We cannot will it into being. Only through an outpouring of God's Spirit can our "poor spirit" breathe new life.

At Easter I will be starting a new message series titled: "Unexpected." It will take a short journey through the Bible touching on a few of the unexpected things that can happen and what we can learn about ourselves and about God. It's on those unexpected detours and in those delays that we find some new things. Perhaps it's those unexpected things that remind us we are poor of spirit and therefore truly blessed.

Do you know you are "poor in spirit?" What new life is God breathing into you because of it?