The Unseen Meaning of “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5)

 Dear Dr Lim Ju Boo

I remember some months ago you briefly and casually mentioned in one of the WhatsApp chat groups that human civilizations here on earth would be overtaken by the meek and have-nots. But I could not quite understand what you meant.

I happen to come across this verse many times in the Bible that the meek shall inherit this Earth, but could not understand its meaning. This evening someone in the church also asked for the interpretation of this verse. Everyone was silent.

I have also asked many church leaders, pastors, preachers from various churches I attended to explain, but none could. I have also never heard it preached or explained before in any church I have attended as they, as well as everyone else, tries to avoid this verse. They all think that it is the rich and privileged who are blessed, and never the poor, meek and have-nots.

But Jesus spoke and foretold this in Matthew 5:5.

Then how come Jesus spoke the opposite, that it would be the meek and not the rich as we all agree and think who would be blessed and shall inherit this Earth? We don’t quite understand.

Can you explain it all over again as I could not find your brief mention of this anymore in my mobile phone?

Thanks, in anticipation. It would be a blessing to all of us if you can explain.

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Thank you for your question. I shall make this explanation as brief and as simple as possible as I have already casually and indirectly explained this some 7 or 8 months ago in the “My Friends” WhatsApp chat group.

I shall post this explanation inside this blog of mine so that I need not explain it all over again if somebody else ask the same, the meaning of this verse:

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5)

I was also told the difficulty that many people including learned church leaders have tried to explain what Jesus meant by that verse. Various versions have been forwarded and I do not wish to comment on their interpretation which were all entirely different from mine.

I shall forward mine independently according to my training in sociology, biological evolution and population genetics. We shall briefly explain two reasons.

Firstly, I think the major reason is adaptability and resilience to hardship together with declining birth rate among affluent societies.

We can easily see some countries like China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, and Mexico have the highest populations, while countries with the highest birth rate per 1000 people are in the poorer African countries like Niger, Angola, Mali, Uganda, Benin, Chad, Congo, South Sudan.

It is in these poorer countries like in Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh where the people are meeker and more underprivileged than those in richer nations. It is in these poorer and meeker countries where the population shall explode in the years to come. But are they blessed with such an explosive population in poverty? We shall answer this, not in the myopic eyes of the rich general society, but through the eyes of a scientist.

If left unchecked their population is going to creep over the surface of this Earth in par or probably overtake the wealthier countries like the United States, Russia, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan where their populations are on the decline.  

In wealthy nations like Singapore for instance, with their rich lifestyles, most people there do not wish to be married but follow an independent self-centred living where they feel their careers take precedence over family responsibilities. That selfish act is far from being altruistic and far from being blessed by God.

If they do get married, and do not wish to have children, this inevitably results in a declining population of their kind. It would then be the poorer countries who are blessed with large families to secure their continuing existence and personal securities at old age. They would then take over those who are wealthy with their declining birth rates due to their rich, selfish, self-centred lifestyles.

Hence, we can see it is the poor and the meek who are more blessed than their rich enemies as God promised Abraham  

“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies” (Genesis 22:17).

The second reason is not just the meek, deprived and underprivileged societies multiplying themselves much faster than all other richer countries like in Europe, China, United States, Russia, but they shall become more adaptable, hardier and a more resilient race or species to poverty and hardship.

This complies to the biological laws of natural selection God gave them to adapt to ensure the “survival of the fittest.” This law applies to all living creatures and life on earth including the human species. It is just part of natural evolution when all life emerged from the oceans 4.5 billion years ago.

In humans for instance, as in China today, she has been lifted out of poverty within eight years according to the BBC quoting Chinese President Xi Jinping as saying his country has achieved the "miracle" of eradicating extreme poverty.

His government President Xi says that over an eight-year period, nearly 100 million people have been lifted out of poverty which he described was a "complete victory" that would "go down in history".

We know that for thousands of years China and the Chinese people have suffered untold hardships from extreme poverty to foreign invasions and internal wars even within the country. Even without the foreign onslaught, nineteenth century China faced enormous difficulties, many of them causing an escalating population for their individual family reassurance, and their overall societal securities.

By the mid-nineteenth century China's population reached 450 million or more, more than three times the level in 1500.

These events resulted in land shortages, famine, and an increasingly impoverished rural population. Heavy taxes, inflation, and greedy local officials further worsened the situation.

The foreign exploitation and mistreatment exploitation worsen the country’s social and economic fabric.

Even without the foreign onslaught, nineteenth century China faced enormous problems, many of them resulting from an escalating population.

Rebellion, lawlessness, and foreign exploitation sustained as plague to China until the Revolution of 1911 ended China's imperial tradition.

That period was the first stage of their political and social evolutionary reforms that changed China and her people toward a totally different approach in handling their problems.

That social-political evolution was for the better in turning China’s internal hardship that gave the Chinese people a blessing-in-disguise.

That growth within less than 35 years from abject poverty and adversity made the Chinese an entirely socio-economic race today. The people became a super race who have adapted to extreme adversity, causing their ‘social genes’ so to speak, to change for the better, being more adaptable, hardy, stronger and more resilient now as a race than previously.

Their previous adversity and challenges have changed them biologically, socially and economically for their continuing survival. Today, the Chinese in China are far wealthier leading them to live a more modern and affluent lifestyle. This seems like a blessing, or is it? Yes, no? Let’s try to answer.

Unfortunately like all rich and developed nations and societies, this social evolution may backfire. They tend to have lesser children today.

For instance, the birth rate per population in modern China today has not risen significantly despite allowing them now to have more than one child in a family even after the abolishment of the one-child policy on 1 January 2016 as compared to their rampant population escalation in the tens of centuries previously due to their biological, economic, political and social adversities   

This socio-economic tendency if persist may cause China to spiral into a population decline in the tens of decades to come due to affluence and current modern lifestyles as seen in most wealthier countries in Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore where population growth are in decline, and probably in Vietnam and in parts of wealthier S.E Asia too such as Brunei.

When any species of life including the human race becomes comfortable with the environment they thrive in, they weaken biologically and socially as they become less adaptable to changes.

Sequentially, they will be replaced by the hardier and more resilient species who were exposed to confrontational and harsher environments. In such an event, they may self-destruct through suicides for failures, unblessed with declining offspring to give way to their more resilient hard-wearing, and durable species.      

In short, it would be the meek and the poorer in greater numbers who would be more blessed to overtake and to replace the rich who are now less adaptable to poverty and hardships. It would then be the poor and the meek who shall inherit this earth as foretold by Jesus.

In sophisticated technical language we describe this in population genetics as the best way to explain trends in genetic composition of populations, including distributions and changes in genotype and phenotype frequency in response to the natural laws of evolution, their adaptability, natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow for the better or for the worse.

But we shall not go into technical language as this simple explanation and dialogue here is only meant to share with my other gentle lay readers who may also be interested in the interpretation of this verse in response to your question.

I hope this helps to clear the meaning of:

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5)

It may also be helpful to all your learned church leaders, pastors and acclaimed and elite preachers - perhaps?  

All the best!  

jb lim