A promise of Peace - Advent 2

Intro - Peace

As we approach Christmas—this time when we celebrate the coming of God to rescue broken humanity—we reflect on four great themes of Jesus’ coming: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

Last week Graham looked at Hope, and this week I’m looking at Peace.

Perhaps one of the the most famous passages pointing towards the peace that Jesus in particular brings is in Micah. Micah is a difficult little book, but let’s try to tackle this passage anyway, because it turns out to be very beautiful and profound. Let’s read it now.

Bible

Micah 5:1–6 NLT

1  Mobilize! Marshal your troops! The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. They will strike Israel’s leader in the face with a rod. 2  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. 3 The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. 4 And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. 5 And he will be the source of peace. When the Assyrians invade our land and break through our defenses, we will appoint seven rulers to watch over us, eight princes to lead us. 6 They will rule Assyria with drawn swords and enter the gates of the land of Nimrod. He will rescue us from the Assyrians when they pour over the borders to invade our land.

Context of Micah 5: judgement

Hmm...

To understand this passage, we really need to understand the context. Fortunately, this passage has a very specific context: a well-known event.

Micah 5:1 NLT

1  Mobilize! Marshal your troops! The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. They will strike Israel’s leader in the face with a rod.

This first verse is referring to the famous siege of Jerusalem by the armies of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. You may remember the story from 2 Kings, where it ends with God sending an army of angels to defeat Sennacherib’s army. But that’s much later in the story than when Micah gave this oracle, this prophecy.

Over twenty years earlier, the prophet Isaiah—a contemporary of Micah—had been prophesying the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, and, just twenty years before this passage, Isaiah’s prophecy had come true. He had also warned that this justice would be visited on the southern kingdom of Judah, and on its capital, Jerusalem.

In fact, Micah’s own prophecies were very similar to Isaiah’s. He, too had prophesied against the northern kingdom of Israel. In fact, the book of Micah starts with a confronting prophecy about both Israel and Judah, Samariah and Jerusalem. He said:

Micah 1:2–5 NLT

2 Attention! Let all the people of the world listen! Let the earth and everything in it hear. The Sovereign Lord is making accusations against you; the Lord speaks from his holy Temple. 3 Look! The Lord is coming! He leaves his throne in heaven and tramples the heights of the earth. 4 The mountains melt beneath his feet and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire, like water pouring down a hill. 5 And why is this happening? Because of the rebellion of Israel— yes, the sins of the whole nation. Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion? Samaria, its capital city! Where is the center of idolatry in Judah? In Jerusalem, its capital!

It’s pretty clear that Micah’s role as prophet was to warn Israel and Judah about the consequences of their rebellion against God. But what was this rebellion that God was judging? We just need to read on for a few verses to find out. See, Micah’s not that hard!

Micah 1:6–7 NLT

6 “So I, the Lord, will make the city of Samaria a heap of ruins. Her streets will be plowed up for planting vineyards. I will roll the stones of her walls into the valley below, exposing her foundations. 7 All her carved images will be smashed. All her sacred treasures will be burned. These things were bought with the money earned by her prostitution, and they will now be carried away to pay prostitutes elsewhere.”

The people were putting their faith in buildings and idols and treasures. Micah’s reference to “her prostitution” is a common Biblical metaphor for people valuing false gods, including money, wealth, and security, over the true God. That was the problem. If you read through Micah, you’ll find that, like Amos, he rails against the rich and the way they exploit the poor.

Micah 2:2 NLT

2 When you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone’s house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family’s inheritance.

God’s nation is filled with greed and injustice. How can he bring about peace?

First, God must sweep away the wickedness, and so he uses Assyria and its king Sennacherib to sweep away the wicked society that had grown up in Israel and Judah.

Indeed, immediately before the prophecy of peace in our passage, Sennacherib’s army had been approaching Jerusalem from the south-west, destroying all the towns as they went. That included Bethlehem, which Micah prophesied was the source of God’s redemption. And finally Sennacherib’s army laid siege to Jerusalem, with King Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah, and probably Micah himself trapped inside.

That is the context for this passage.

Story - Gardening

Let my tell a story that might help explain what God is doing here, because it’s a long way outside our modern, Australian experience.

A few days ago I took advantage of the wet weather, and the moist soil that results, to do some gardening.

Something that good gardeners know, but which I struggle with, is the idea that gardens need to be dug up regularly. I struggle with this, because I look at the plants that seem to be thriving, and I don’t want to unsettle them. But my approach doesn’t work.

It leads to this. That’s supposed to be a herb garden, but it’s actually a weed garden with some herbs in it. The weed (mostly couch grass) can’t be pulled out without pulling out the herbs as well. But the herbs can’t flourish and be fruitful unless the weeds are dealt with. What to do?

This! I have to dig everything out, leaving bare earth behind. Then I can replant the herbs that remain (the remnant) and nourish them back to life. And also plant new herbs.

This brutal approach is the only way for herbs to have a peaceful, nurturing environment in which to flourish. Anything less than this will simply result in more weeds and fewer, more stressed herbs.

The same is true of wicked people and systems—the weeds—and good people—the herbs.

Fulfillment of Micah 5: peace for all men, not just Israel

With that in mind, let’s continue looking at our passage, because, as I said, it’s quite profound.

Micah 5:2–3 NLT

2  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. 3 The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land.

Micah’s prophecy here makes it sound like God will send a ruler from Bethlehem to rescue the people from Assyria right away.

But from our perspective 2700 years later, we know that didn’t happen. In fact, when Jesus was born, the Jews were still waiting for this ruler, who they now identified as the Messiah. King Herod discovered this after the wise men sparked his interest and the Jewish scholars quoted Micah to him:

Matthew 2:4–6 NLT

4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: 6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’ ”

So, what then does it mean, in verse 3 of Micah 5, when it says that the fellow countrymen will return to their own land? After all, by the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were either hopelessly corrupted (as the Jews believed) or had been in their home land for centuries. There was certainly no possibility of the northern tribes rejoining with Judah as the unified nation of Israel.

Let’s see if the rest of the prophecy can help us understand.

Micah 5:4–6 NLT

4 And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. 5 And he will be the source of peace. When the Assyrians invade our land and break through our defenses, we will appoint seven rulers to watch over us, eight princes to lead us. 6 They will rule Assyria with drawn swords and enter the gates of the land of Nimrod. He will rescue us from the Assyrians when they pour over the borders to invade our land.

Well, it seems both the promise of reunification, and the promise of peace here, turn out to be bigger promises than even Micah expected. It’s quite common for Biblical prophecy to have a small, immediate context, but God is actually pointing to a much bigger reality. Jonah fixates on the miraculous plant that shelters him and then dies, but God is pointing to the grace he is showing Ninevah and, ultimately, the whole world through Jesus. God promises Abraham more descendants than the stars visible in the sky, but he means descendants via faith as well as blood, extending his promise to the whole world.

In fact, Jesus took all of God’s plans and promises for Israel and extended them to everyone, and Christians have followed in his footsteps.

Matthew 5:17 NLT

17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

So when we read Micah’s prophecy we can see how God is bringing the lost brothers of Israel—the Gentiles, the rest of the world—back into unity with him.

In the same way, the promise of peace applies to the whole world. Jesus is the source of peace for us all, protecting us from tyrannies like Assyria’s, even when they seem to be overwhelming us.

Judgement for all men

Of course, if God is extending these promises of peace to the whole world, then he must also extend the threat of judgement to the whole world, right? After all, peace is only possible in the context of judgement.

And, of course, that is exactly what God will do. After many great judgements John’s Revelation concludes with the ultimate judgement:

Revelation 20:12–13 NLT

12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.

And, as you would expect, the result is universal peace.

Revelation 22:3–5 NLT

3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

Experiencing peace today

But, of course, we live between these two realities. Between the time of Jesus coming to save the world and his coming to judge the world. We live in a time when God dwells in our hearts, but not in the world around us.

How then, can we experience peace today? Must we wait for Jesus’ second coming? Praise God that he has given us the possibility of peace today, even in the midst of his, and our, enemies.

Judgement on our own sins

The key to experiencing peace in our lives is the same as the key to bringing peace to the world: we must ruthlessly dig out the weeds, and only then can we replant the herbs.

What are the weeds? In Micah’s time it was the temptation to rely on great homes in the capital city and the temptation of wealth.

Guess what, that’s our weeds too!

Think about it: we Australians are obsessed with building or owning our own homes. They are our refuges, our castles, our protection from the storms of life.

Tragically, while a home can be that, if we value our home over the God of the universe, we become a slave to our home. We become mortgage slaves, or DIY drones, or we have breakdowns because the stress of keeping a roof over our family’s head, or keeping our family under that roof, becomes too great.

But if we place God first, then he promises that he will give us all we need.

Luke 18:29–30 NLT

29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, 30 will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”

If we give up our home Jesus promises us a hundred in its place. This is a weird promise, but how many of us have tried claiming it? All I know is that if we value our home above God, it will rule over us as a cruel slavemaster. But if we value God above our home, being prepared to give it up for his sake, then God will care for us.

I’ve previously mentioned the family in Hong Kong who sold their enormous home in America, in obedience to God, and moved to a tiny, rented apartment in the slums of Sham Shui Po. They found themselves freed, and we can too. Of course, just as in the case of the rich, young ruler, not everyone needs to make such dramatic sacrifices. The point is to let go of whatever we find ourselves enslaved by. It’s only when the weeds take over that you need to dig the garden bed out.

Which brings us to money. In a wealthy society like Micah and Isaiah’s, and, of course, ours, money becomes a greedy god. It is an insidious weed. It’s like the couch grass that grows through my herb garden, setting its roots deep so it’s impossible to easily remove it from the garden and growing tall to choke out the herbs.

Money tangles roots deep into our hearts, and the love of it grows vigorously, choking out all the good in our character, destroying any hope of peace. What is our relationship to money? Does it have control of us like it did of Israel and Judah in the eighth century, the time of Isaiah and Micah? Do we need to dig it out by the roots?

Of course, there are also other weeds—addictions to things like gambling or TV or pornography; laziness; bitterness; pride; impatience; anger and so on. These, too need to be dug out of our lives if we are to experience peace.

So, when you hear that Christmas promise of “peace to the world and goodwill to all men,” remember that it comes at a cost. That cost is judgement on the weeds, including the weeds that grow in our own hearts, so that those who yearn for peace—the herbs of life—can actually experience peace. As we look forward to Christmas, it’s worth looking inside at the state of our souls and perhaps doing a bit of weeding.

Happy gardening, and peace be with you!

Let’s pray,

Dear Lord, we know that you want to bring us peace. You want to set us free from our enemies—greed and selfishness and idolatry. And we thank you that your gift of our Lord Jesus is what sets us free. Help us to join with the Holy Spirit in gardening our souls, tearing out the ugliness that is the opposite of Jesus’ selfless love, and planting compassion and love and patience and gentleness and all good things.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.