{"id":335,"date":"2014-07-28T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=335"},"modified":"2014-07-13T21:38:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:38:29","slug":"matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Matthew 5:3-9, Jesus describes seven characteristics of people who are blessed. According to theologian, Herschel Hobbs, those descriptions symbolized \u201cthe nature of the kingdom citizen.\u201d He interpreted them as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The<\/em> <em>Poor in Spirit<\/em>. \u201cThose who recognize that they are sinners, who possess nothing which merits their approach to God.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>Those Who Mourn<\/em>. People who feel deep sorrow \u201cas for the dead\u201d over their own sins and the sinfulness of others.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Meek<\/em>. \u201cThe teachable ones who submit themselves to God.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness<\/em>. People who are \u201cnever satisfied with their achievements,\u201d but who instead constantly desire to see God\u2019s perfect will on display in life.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Merciful<\/em>. A person who is able to figuratively \u201cget inside another\u2019s skin so as to see his needs as one\u2019s own.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>The Pure in Heart<\/em>. Those who are \u201cclean, sincere\u2026with nothing between the soul and the Savior.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>The Peacemakers<\/em>. Those who work toward reconciliation and harmony \u201cbetween God and man, and between man and man.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[ILJ, 89-90]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Matthew 5:3-9, Jesus describes seven characteristics of people who are blessed. According to theologian, Herschel Hobbs, those descriptions symbolized \u201cthe nature of the kingdom citizen.\u201d He interpreted them as follows: The Poor in Spirit. \u201cThose who recognize that they are sinners, who possess nothing which merits their approach to God.\u201d Those Who Mourn. People&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13],"tags":[110,16,111],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-symbolism","tag-blessed","tag-jesus","tag-sermon-on-the-mount"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Matthew 5:3-9, Jesus describes seven characteristics of people who are blessed. According to theologian, Herschel Hobbs, those descriptions symbolized \u201cthe nature of the kingdom citizen.\u201d He interpreted them as follows: The Poor in Spirit. \u201cThose who recognize that they are sinners, who possess nothing which merits their approach to God.\u201d Those Who Mourn. People&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-28T12:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-13T21:38:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"In Matthew 5:3-9, Jesus describes seven characteristics of people who are blessed. According to theologian, Herschel Hobbs, those descriptions symbolized \u201cthe nature of the kingdom citizen.\u201d He interpreted them as follows: The Poor in Spirit. \u201cThose who recognize that they are sinners, who possess nothing which merits their approach to God.\u201d Those Who Mourn. People&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-07-28T12:00:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-13T21:38:29+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html","name":"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-28T12:00:02+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-13T21:38:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-51-12-the-beatitudes-symbolism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:1-12; The Beatitudes (Symbolism)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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