In part 2 of our deep dive into Messiah Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-36), we explore the Beatitudes and discover how we can find true happiness through sorrow over life apart from the Creator and joy over Heaven’s Anointed One who heals the pain.

Yeshua is the ultimate One Who ascends to and descends from Heaven, giving us a true witness of the words of God.

Yeshua is also the ultimate “open space” of freedom and safety, out of the bondage and confinement.

So, when Yeshua expounded upon the TaNaK (Hebrew acronym for Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings), i.e., the “Old Testament”), He indeed spoke accurately that the words of God communicated through Moshe and the prophets point one toward Heaven, closer to the mind of the Maker, rather than back to bondage.

Whether it be the Sermon on the Mount or the the Sermon on the plain, you are seeing two pictures of what the Maschiach is doing.

This same sermon was recorded by both the Apostle Matthew and the physician Luke, who was a protege of the Apostle Paul.

Matthew shows us the coming conquering King while Luke shows us how the Messiah as the Suffering Servant, the God cares about the here and now.

In the message Luke recorded, Yeshua is echoing the teachings of the Prophets, that the sufferings of this world are tough but aren’t eternal, aren’t the way things should be.

God hasn’t overlooked or forgotten the plight of the physically poor, hungry, grieved or persecuted.

The focus on the physical, king among the people tone of Luke’s message has prompted some interpreters to see the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant imagery revealed in the Prophets. Isaiah 53 is not the only picture of the suffering servant.

Matthew’s record doesn’t have woes as part of the his recording of the long message in chapters 5–7.

Yeshua, like the prophets before Him, railed against those who hypocritically getting accolades for piety in the present while storing up wickedness.

Matthew records Yeshua’s “woes” against certain Pharisees is leveled in Matthew 23, which is the chapter before Matthew 24, where Yeshua tells His disciples what will happen in the last days.

Let’s look at some Greek and Hebrew terms which will help us understand today’s reading.

* εὐλογητός eulogētos (G2128) is used in the Septuagint to translate ברוך barukh (H1288). This word, eulogētos, we usually see primarily in the English term, eulogy, which is a term that is usually used in the context of a funeral or a memorial service when you speak some last kind words about a deceased person.

* μακάριοι οἱ makarioi hoi (G3107) is used in Luke and Matthew for “blessed/happy are you.” Makarios appears 68 times in the Septuagint, usually to translate אשׁרי ashrei (H035), or “happiness.”

Uses of makarios in the Psalms sound similar to the “Beatitudes” (Middle English for “blessed”):

* “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!” (Psa. 32:1)

* “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (Psa. 1:1)

This also is hungering after righteousness.

“Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O LORD, And whom You teach out of Your law; That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked.” (Psa. 94:12–13)

This may not sound like a “happy” situation, but it is. The moment of chastening is hard, and the adversity of life is difficult. However, “relief” comes from following the path of the LORD and not deviating toward paths that lead you to the “pit,” of destruction when the LORD finally brings the reign of misery because of wickedness to an end. It’s not a happy time to be chastened by it’s much better than the alternative of eternal death.