As we’ve gone through the Beatitudes you will have noticed that we started from a very earthly foundation and one by one we’re getting closer to the presence of God So, in verse 3, for example, was it all the poor in spirit for those of the Kingdom of heaven?

We realize that in ourselves we cannot save ourselves.  We’re completely dependent on God and then the beatitudes go through our attitudes one by one towards God and towards our neighbors.

Last time we looked at mercy, the concept of mercy, but it’s important that we show mercy.

Today we’re looking at the be attitude, which is the following, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”  The only one who has really ever been pure in heart is actually our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ because no sin was found in him.  Then as we get closer and closer to Christ and through repentance and trust in Christ, our thoughts and our intentions become purer and purer until eventually we meet the vision of God where we become more like the image of God.

The true image of God is obviously our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who became fully human.

So that we too could Become truly human.  So, to be truly human is actually to be in a close walk with God.

This happens in many ways.  Although God is the Creator, and we are the creatures.  God sent his only son into the world to die for us.  Jesus didn’t do anything wrong.  He is our true example that we need to follow.

Anyway, what does this beatitude actually mean?

Let’s look at it a bit closer. Blessed; all that means is happy. It’s a very Scriptural thing actually and is found in the Old Testament in various places; “Blessed is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” (Psalm 1)

What’s the opposite of wicked?

It’s being pure being holy doing the right thing in God’s sight.  Do we do the right thing in God’s sight?

‘Pure in heart’.

What’s the opposite of pure in heart? It is having an unclean dirty heart.

Then Jesus says “the pure in heart they shall see God”. The word ‘shall’  is put in the time frame of the future tense.

So, at the end of time at the eschaton we shall indeed see God!

In what contexts have humans ever seen God?

I think it’s good just to have a look at the Old Testament and see what the old.

Testament says, and the best place to start is actually before the fall.  Before the fall, Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned yet, and basically that God would speak with them every single day;  they saw God every single day as a friend.  Although he was their creator He was their friend.  But then sin came into the world, and they had to be kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Well basically they wanted to be like God.  Perhaps I should have said become divine.     

In that state, there can only be judgment, and there was judgment on them, and since then we have not been able to walk in any garden with God.  That’s not the only place we can talk about seeing God.

In our fallen state, we can’t see God face to face because we will be destroyed by judgment because God is completely holy. Moses was granted the privilege of seeing the back of God.  He was allowed to see the back of God and that’s the closest man has ever got to seeing God in his situation which happened after the fall.

Seeing someone is very, very personal.  For example, if you go to visit your mum and dad or maybe a relative or a friend, it’s a very special time for meeting those sorts of people and it is with God as well. Yes it is Mothers Day in the UK today (27 03 2022). (Mum when you are reading this Happy Mothers Days!)

We have this hope that one day we’ll be going home to heaven, which is where our real home is.  It is very interesting that in the Garden of Eden there were two trees.  There was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which Adam and Eve actually ate from, and then they realized that that they didn’t have any clothes on.  There was also the Tree of life.  Now if they had eaten of the tree of life, They would have stayed in a sinful state for all eternity.  It  is an act of mercy that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden.  Even though he kicked them out of the garden, he made sure they had clothes and that was the first sacrifice.  God actually made the first sacrifice, not humans.

This is a hope that we have in the future that after the day of judgment and how things been we have a hope that we will see God.  We’re only able to see God because of what Jesus has done.

It’s only in Christ and in his work at Calvary that we are actually able to see God and the Book of Hebrews says that we’ll be able to walk boldly to the throne of Grace.  The temple on the Earth was only a shadow of the real thing anyway.  The real temple is actually in heaven.  Are you excited to see God?

How do you feel about that that you’ve lived on this earth all these years and you’ve not been able to see God literally? Actually then one the  believers by faith we will see God.  He has a place prepared for us through what Jesus has done. 

To be. Pure in heart also means that we have to live holy and godly lives, and it’s not always easy.

But there’s lots of things that tempters, testers, and sometimes we fall.  We we need God’s grace to put us back on the road. And it’s a daily thing.  I suppose this is what pilgrim’s progress reminds us. In that  story you know that he is on this on this road, and then these different tests come to test him.  Satan and his cohorts would like him to leave the road where he’ll face destruction but God keeps hold of him right up to the end.

Analytic Reflection

This section is not my work but I have taken it from (Jamieson Fausset and Brown commentary on Matthew 5⁸)

“ 8. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God—Here, too, we are on Old Testament ground. There the difference between outward and inward purity, and the acceptableness of the latter only in the sight of God, are everywhere taught. Nor is the “vision of God” strange to the Old Testament; and though it was an understood thing that this was not possible in the present life (Ex 33:20; and compare Job 19:26, 27; Isa 6:5), yet spiritually it was known and felt to be the privilege of the saints even here (Ge 5:24; 6:9; 17:1; 48:15; Ps 27:4; 36:9; 63:2; Isa 38:3, 11, etc.). But oh, with what grand simplicity, brevity, and power is this great fundamental truth here expressed! And in what striking contrast would such teaching appear to that which was then current, in which exclusive attention was paid to ceremonial purification and external morality! This heart purity begins in a “heart sprinkled from an evil conscience,” or a “conscience purged from dead works” (Heb 10:22; 9:14; and see Ac 15:9); and this also is taught in the Old Testament (Ps 32:1, 2; compare Ro 4:5-8; Isa 6:5-8). The conscience thus purged—the heart thus sprinkled—there is light within wherewith to see God. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other”—He with us and we with Him—”and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us”—us who have this fellowship, and who, without such continual cleansing, would soon lose it again—”from all sin” (1Jo 1:6, 7). Matthew 5:8 “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him” (1Jo 3:6); “He that doeth evil hath not seen God” (3Jo 11). The inward vision thus clarified, and the whole inner man in sympathy with God, each looks upon the other with complacency and joy, and we are “changed into the same image from glory to glory.” But the full and beatific vision of God is reserved for that time to which the Psalmist stretches his views—”As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Ps 17:15). Then shall His servants serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads (Re 22:3, 4). They shall see Him as He is (1Jo 3:2). But, says the apostle, expressing the converse of this beatitude—”Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). Matthew 5:8 (Jamieson Fausset and Brown commentary on Matthew 5⁸)

Reflection

Luke does not touch on this beatitude.  Having said that it is indeed a core teaching in the New Testament. For example:

“A New and Living Way

19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:19-25 NASB; Olive Tree Bible Software”

Verse 19 tells us that we will enter the ‘Holy Place’.  Verse 22 tells us that ‘our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience’.   What took Apollos the writer of Hebrews (I believe he wrote it) takes a few verses to explain Jesus explained it in one short sentence.  Our Lord indeed was a great teacher. The Holy Place is the innermost and most Holy Place in which God resides. The High Priest only entered the holy place once in a year.  I read somewhere that on the hem of the garments they had bells.  They had bells in case they were struck down for disobeying God so that they could be pulled out:

   (I pulled the following from the internet. The link is there but you would have to add ‘https’ to the front of the address for it to work)

“… alternating golden bells and pomegranates that were sown to the bottom hem of the long blue outer robe over which the EPHOD and Breastplate were worn.

We were told earlier that that the purpose of these golden bells was so “The High Priest would not die” while he was serving in the Tabernacle.

These dangling bells were much more than decorative jewelry.

In the Temple era, a rope was tied to the ankle of the High Priest when he went into the Holiest Place on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

“A chain was tied to the feet of the High Priest, when he entered THE HOLY OF HOLIES, so that if he dies there they will take him out, SINCE IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER THERE… Then there is joy among the higher and lower beings. If not, they were all in sorrow and all knew that their prayer was not accepted.”-Zohar Vol. 16 Emor, Section 34. Yom Kippur, Par. 251.

Now I was told that while the High Priest was engaged in his purification rituals, the common priests who were standing outside the Sanctuary would be on high alert always listening for the steady jingling of the golden bells.

If that jingling STOPPED for a considerable amount of time, they would assume that the Lord had probably killed the High Priest due to some breach of protocol.

Then, they would pull him out of the Holy of Holies with the rope that was attached to his foot.” (Taken from  //messianic-revolution.com/e39-2-what-was-the-purpose-of-the-bells-attached-to-the-hem-of-the-high-priests-robe/ )

Anyhow I want to bring this blog to a conclusion.  I want to wish all Mothers everywhere a Happy (UK) Mothers day!

This entry was posted on March 27, 2022 at 2:49 pm and is filed under JesusLifeAndTeachings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.