Verb Tenses

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.  Matthew 5:3

“It is the poor and needy who seek water and there is none, and their tongues are parched with thirst for whom God promised to open rivers on the bare heights and to make the wilderness a pool of water.”

This is where Bible expositors go to the Greek and verb tenses.  Verb tenses are important when talking about the kingdom of God.  This “is” can mean so very many things.  “Is” means Jesus standing in your midst is the kingdom of God.  “Is” means His laws and principles are at work now, restoring what has been broken.  “Is” has a future tense aspect about it in the sense that it is underlined in dark heavy red that this is an assured absolute connection, the poor in spirit, those who willingly assent that they cannot depend on their bankrupt goodness, will indeed with no doubt receive the kingdom of God.  And then, somehow mixed into the implied Greek (apparently “is” does not even appear in the text) there is a future element of what is to come, when all is put into glorious order at the end of time.

(Unfortunately, I remember little of my Bible classes at Wheaton College, but I do remember the day Gilbert Bilezikian talked about the “is” verb and the kingdom of God, thirty years later.)

So this is the beginning of the journey.  The starting place.  Joining with the publican in confessing, “God, be merciful me a sinner.”  It is going to go very slowly.  It was very humbling how so very times even this morning during swim practice, the Holy Spirit jostled my spiritual elbow and noted how I had so very easily slid into the prickly Pharisee mode.  Very humbling indeed.  I am going to have a bruised side before this is done.  Which, I guess is the point.