John Piper explains:
Notice that all of these are promises for the future. "They shall be comforted . . . They shall inherit the earth . . . They shall be satisfied . . . " And so on. But the promise of the first and last beatitude in verses 3 and 10 seems to relate to the present: the disciples are assured that "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
By sandwiching six promises in between two assurances that such people have the kingdom of heaven, I think Jesus means to tell us that these six promises are blessings of the kingdom. In other words, these six things are what you can count on when you are a part of God's kingdom. This is what the kingdom brings: comfort, earth ownership, satisfied righteousness, mercy, a vision of God, and the awesome title, son of God. You don't have to pick and choose among these promises. They all belong to the kingdom. That is the first implication I see in the fact that Jesus begins with the assurance, "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and ends with the assurance, "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven," with six promises sandwiched in between.
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