PEACE ON EARTH! – PIPEDREAM OR PROMISE?

December 2006 article by Robert Kay

Where?

Presidents Bush and Putin, and Prime Minister Blair, the leaders of the world’s superpowers, are proving themselves incapable of achieving it. Peace is elusive - undeliverable, nationally, internationally and personally. Wherever we look, we see more unrest, dissatisfaction, instability, aggression, crime, violence, immorality, chaos and warfare.

If we refer to our Bibles the Hebrew word for peace is shalom and has the meaning of being safe, well, happy or at rest - hardly words that describe the status prevailing in our world today when we open our newspapers or watch the news.

As we approach the end of another year, following the daily Bible reading planner (the Bible Companion that the Christadelphians follow) we will be reading 3 majestic areas of scripture - 1) The Book of Job, 2) The Minor Prophets and 3) The Book of the Revelation. In their own way, each of them has something directly to say to us in these “last days” as they are biblically termed. So what can we gather from them? Some brief points in turn.

Job in chapters 38 to 42 was given one of the most cognitive lessons from the Lord God concerning the balance or the interdependent detail of the animate and non animate creation in regarding of the world around us. Today this still confounds us.

Where were you (Job) when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have understanding? The Lord God enquired an answer from Job. (Job 38 v 4) If we read these 5 chapters the detail we find is extraordinary and astounding. It proves 2 points about the Lord God Almighty - His omniscience (infinite knowledge), and omnipotence (all powerful) - the attributes of a Creator God. Read this passage, and consider that even today in our technological and scientific driven world when we have discovered so much, there is still so much undiscovered. It’s an irony that now when we have developed the means to appreciate how finely balanced the ecosystem really is, we are also beginning to appreciate the damage we have done. Damage at a level probably beyond repair, humanly speaking. In a number of aspects we are so like Job, not fully understanding how the world and our universe works, has been made, is renewed and sustained.

The prophecy of Zechariah toward the end of the Old Testament has been described as the Revelation in miniature. It contains many of the figures that appear in fuller detail in the Revelation of the Apostle John (i.e. the 4 horses, the flying roll, the angels, the plagues, etc). However, if we want to put a context on the politics in the Middle East there is no better place to look than Zechariah for a ‘situation analysis’. Chapters 12 and 14 describe the present distress associated with the delicate issue of the ownership of Jerusalem. Jews, Moslems, and Christians all have their claims to it, seeking to influence a political outcome. It is described in the Bible as ‘the controversy of Zion’. The present situation has all the hallmarks of being the prelude to the events described in the last chapters of Zechariah’s prophecy. All there needs to be is a slight move in the centre of gravity of events. At the time of writing (06 December 2006) on the BBC PM radio programme it was reported that UK Prime Minister Blair had recognised that the key to peace in the Iraq and Afghanistan required a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

In Zechariah ch 9 v 9 the solution to this problem is defined. Rejoice greatly’ O daughter of Zion: shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. We know from the gospels how this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter in the circumstances leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. The prophecy continues in verse 10 ….and he shall speak peace unto the nations, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river, to the ends of the earth. The events of the first part of the prophecy give to us no reason to doubt that this second aspect of the prophecy will happen at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will appear in the last days to bring deliverance and salvation and the peace, so longed for and needed.

When?

Revelation ch. 11 v 7 gives to us another of those wonderfully telescopic prophecies penned nearly 1900 years ago which reads,

We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty, which is and was, and Is To Come because thou hast taken to thyself thy great power, and hast reigned. And continues,

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants THE PROPHETS, and to THE SAINTS and them that FEAR THY NAME , small and great; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.

Interestingly, the word ‘destroy’ when compared with usage in other Bible passages means to corrupt or rot! What an amazing statement from the book that speaks of things which must come to pass, and in the context of one coming to reign as Lord of Lords and King of Kings - a description of our world, corrupting, rotting away like a disease beyond healing.

So the book of Job, the prophecy of Zechariah, and the Revelation given through the apostle John speak with unanimity concerning the problems of these last days.

Peace is coming. We are assured of this in the Bible. The further assurance is that if we are interested we can work out from the prophets and apostle where and when this will be delivered through the return of the Lord Jesus.

Peace on earth is no pipedream - it’s a promise from the Highest!

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,… Peace be within thy walls, ….I will now say peace be within thee. Psalm 122 v 6.