God will provide (Beatitudes)

My Indian friend despairs of beggars filling the streets with their poor children, living their mantra “God will provide”.

The psalmist speaks in wisdom of a time when the Nation of Israel demanded that God provide for them, while Moses was leading the Nation out of Egypt.

 

“ Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
 

This demand cost the Nation forty years in the wilderness!

 
 

Jesus talked plainly of what God will provide

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

 

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

 

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me.

 

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

 
 

 

There isn’t really another passage like the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, except for the other account of these ideas in Luke 6.

 

The reverse logic of the Beatitudes is glossed over as people pray for the things they desire in this world. But the emotions and experiences we have at the times when we receive the blessings are what we should expect from our faith – poverty, mercy, meekness, mourning, purity and persecution. Not the things we normally desire, and not the things we usually pray for, except hunger for righteousness and the will to make peace which are less unusual.

 

These moments are all blessings because we know God closely in these times, and that is the point of the Christian faith. Poverty is the bottom line. Blessed thankfulness is about accepting God’s Blessings from a position of poverty. We are what we have been given and we will return to the dust that we have temporarily risen above. Humility is a hard lesson.

 

In the end we are justified because God loves us. The universe has not come into being without us, and we have a place. Best of all, we are forgiven. “God is good to the ungrateful and the wicked, Be merciful as your Father is merciful”.

 

Don’t rush any meditations on these verses, they can easily take years.

 

Our attitudes to the desirable things of the world are explored in the post – Cargo.

 

Another aspect of what God provides for us in this life is the subject of the post – The Cross.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is also the basis for another post – Sin of the Heart.