God’s Favor Is On Those Oppressed

In this session, Dr. Josh Olds unpacks the third Beatitude: “God’s favor is on the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Rather than reading meekness as weakness or passivity, Josh reframes it as the strength of the oppressed who continue to trust God in the midst of unjust systems. Drawing on Moses’ life, he shows that meekness is not being a pushover, but a deliberate, faithful endurance in circumstances you did not choose, grounded in the conviction that your story is part of a larger work of God. Josh connects Jesus’ words back to Psalm 37, where the humble are promised the land and urged to “do good in the face of evil” while trusting God for vindication. For an occupied, land-stripped people in Jesus’ day, this Beatitude sounds like a promise of restoration and a direct challenge to empire: the powers may dominate now, but God’s kingdom will outlast them. From there, Josh explores how meekness becomes a posture of both patient waiting and active resistance—rolling our anxieties, fears, plans, and even our anger onto God, while working furiously for God’s kingdom in the middle of the world’s empires. Ultimately, this episode invites listeners—especially those who feel marginalized, powerless, or worn down—to hear Jesus’ words as good news: God’s favor rests on the oppressed who trust, endure, and refuse to mirror the violence of the systems that harm them. Their patient, hopeful faith is not forgotten. In God’s time, the meek will inherit the earth, and the quiet strength of the kingdom will overturn the loud, brittle power of human empires.

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