April 2015 - Page 2 of 2 - Kingdom Uprising

Matthew 5.5 [ESV]
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

If Christ knows his followers will end up in heaven with him, why in the world would he teach that the meek will inherit the earth? Is it the case that redeemed people in general will go to heaven, and only these meek ones will find themselves restricted to a terrestrial landscape? The meek are the ones that the proud power brokers of our age squeeze out and out maneuver at every turn. The meek are the very ones that will never take over the earth, yet it is they whom God wishes to inherit his renewed world. Consider these words by the famous Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

They [the meek] show by every word and gesture that they do not belong to this earth. Leave heaven to them, says the world in its pity, that is where they belong. But Jesus says: ‘They shall inherit the earth.’ To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, the very earth belongs. Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who here have utterly renounced it, who were meek to the point of the cross, shall rule the new earth. We must not interpret this as a reference to God’s exercise of juridical punishment within the world, as Calvin did: what it means is that when the kingdom of heaven descends, the face of the earth will be renewed, and it will belong to the flock of Jesus. God does not forsake the earth: he made it, he sent his Son to it, and on it he built his Church.

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (London: SCM Press, 2001), originally Nachfolge published in 1937, p. 63.

Furthermore, comparing the other beattitudes in the same context we observe that each of them ends with a promise of future reward. Putting them all together we get:

poor in spirit -> kingdom of heaven
those who mourn -> comforted
the meek -> inherit the earth
those who hunger/thirst for righteousness -> satisfied
merciful -> receive mercy
pure in heart -> see God
peacemakers -> sons of God
those persecuted for righteousness -> kingdom of heaven
reviled, persecuted, falsely accused -> reward is great in heaven

Putting this altogether we can see that the kingdom of heaven is when the mourning receive comfort, the righteousness seekers get satisfied, the merciful receive mercy, the meek inherit the earth, pure-hearted see God, etc. When the kingdom arrives our reward, currently stored in heaven, will be manifest on earth. This is God’s master plan.

Isaiah 2.1-4 [ESV]
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

All the nations will flow to God’s mountain where he will teach them how to live. A word like “nations” may seem nebulous until we start thinking of specific examples. Just imagine people from Brazil, China, Russia, and Canada traveling to Jerusalem to learn how God wants them to live.

Furthermore during these “latter days” God will settle the disputes between nations rather than leaving it to the armies of the world to use their weapons to do the job. God will make war so obsolete that even the weapons will find better use as tools for agriculture and the academies training soldiers will simply close down never to reopen.

Note that everything described in this prophecy assumes our earth as the arena of redemption.