The עָנָו "Anav" Shall Inherit The Earth

How Good does it feel when someone believes in you? Has Faith in You and wants to serve you, pray for you? If you have met that person you have met someone who is Anav.

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the Anav;" Isaiah 61:1a

"Blessed are the Anav: for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5

" Now the man Moses was very Anav, Anav above all the men which were upon the face of the earth" Numbers 12:3

"For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the Anav shall not perish for ever. Psalms 9:18

And of course Psalms 37:11 " But the Anav shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The word "Anav" in Hebrew may be the most misunderstood word I know of, so I am dropping all its translations for now and just going to the place where I believe we can get some understanding because to be Anav is to hear the good news and inherit the earth.

The first place we find it, (which is critical to Biblical understanding), is in Numbers 12, where God himself describes Moses and the most Anav guy of his time. So in context what is happening is his big sister is trying to bully him and God steps in and lays leprosy on her. In the same chapter verse 7: "My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house." God declares this about Moses, he is a Faithful Servant, again the best God has.

What else do we know about Moses, this guy does not back down from a fight nor lose faith in God or Pharaoh, or his people or Miriam in this case. He does pray for and gain her healing. He is faithful not just in God but in broken people and he is looking to serve them vertically. To look deeply into the word Anav, is to see that.

First letter is an Ayin as you can see, and I do mean see in the picture and title above the first letter, (backward to us in Hebrew) of the word looks like two eyes connected to an optic nerve, in Hebrew it means eyes, to look and see. So what is a Anav looking for, what was Moses looking for? A way to serve his God and his people vertically.

Second letter a Nun, meaning, faithful servant. Some would say poor, but I would say the poor and afflicted part comes from what the enemy does to these kind of people, like Moses they are born with a huge bullseye on their back and Satan is trying to take them out from the beginning to the end of their life, like Moses.

Third letter a Vav, is a connecting letter, especially connecting heaven to earth when it comes at the end of a word.

Now put that all together and I belive we get a much better picture of an Anav person. Someone who is looking to serve others over themselves vertically, both by interceding for them and pointing them to God, His love, and His ways. Such a person was Moses, by no means a door mat, right, he killed an Egyptian, argued with Kings, and with God on more than one occasion, but not for his own benefit, but for those he had faith in.

Once again let me say: How Good does it feel when someone believes in you? Has Faith in you and wants to serve you, pray for you? If you have met that person you have met someone who is Anav. God help us to be Anav.