Waiting on Peace

The Absence of Peace

We return this week to our first century village. We have had a difficult week of work, toiling away in the field. It is the spring, planting time. You spend all day in the hot sun behind the ox, as your plow is pulled through the hard. As you work and sweat you think of the stories you grew up with of creation. You think of Adam and Eve’s decision and how God promised to make your work so much harder because of their disobedience. You will have to sow the seeds but that will be for a different week because today is the Sabbath. It is the day you wait for all week. It is the day you and your family will get to spend with the Lord. You will worship together with your community at the synagogue. You will listen to the Scriptures read, you will listen to the Rabbi interpret and teach on them. Then you will return home and spend the rest of the day resting with your family, sharing your week, sharing your hopes, sharing your God.

We know that you as a first century Hebrew are a person of Hope. But what are you hoping for? You have been promised much by God. He promised you a country of your own. Not ruled by another country. Especially not one that was so far away. Your people had been promised prosperity. Not only a nation where you would just survive but a nation where your people thrived. But more than anything God promised you Peace. Not fragile peace that could easily broken, not a peace that was only secured through your nations military power. But a peace peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that is eternal, a peace that is not just the absence of war but a peace that you never fear will end. An absence of war and a peace of mind.

The Hebrew people have never been a people of peace. From the fall of humanity they knew very few years of peace. The first children born of this world took sibling rivalry to the extreme when Cain murdered his younger brother Abel because he was jealous of him. Then by five generations the violence in the world had increased exponentially when Lamech declared Genesis 4.23-24

Genesis 4:23–24 NIV

Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Then only three generations later the world had become so corrupt God saw no choice but to completely destroy the all of the in great flood. Only Noah and his family were left. They were tasked with repopulating the world.

After the flood the patriarchs of the Hebrew people experienced violence on a regular basis. Abraham feared for his life because of the beauty of his wife Sarah so he lied about her being his sister. He also rescued his nephew Lot from danger several time. The first time was when Lot and his family were taken prisoner by a coalition of five kings. The second time was when God was about to destroy Sodom because of their evil. Abraham’s descendants did not have it any easier. Isaac’s sons fought each other for Isaac’s inheritance. Jacob’s son’s attempted to murder their younger brother, then sent him to slavery. Life was hard for the founders of your people.

Then after four hundred years in slavery your people had been rescued by Moses the great prophet. But it took violence to lead you out of slavery in Egypt, including the death of every Egyptian first born. And in the desert your people faced great hardships, they hungered, they thirsted, there were times they longed to return to their lives of servitude. Then when they finally were given permission from God to enter the Promised Land it had to be taken by conquest. The Hebrew people were an army of the Lord, it was not a peaceable migration, but rather a conquering force.

They had hoped that once they entered the Promised Land they would be given a life of peace. But that relied on two things. First, they had to completely expel the inhabitants not one was to be left. The second was, the people had to worship God alone, he had to be not only their God, but their king and leader. To most of the cultures around the Hebrews their gods were there to help them, they worshiped them, but their gods did not rule them. Most cultures lived in fear of their gods. This was not the relationship God wanted with His people. God longed for a loving relationship where he could be their Lord and king. Where the people would look to no one or nothing besides God.

The problem was the people could not do either of these things. They could not expel the people living in the land, the invading army grew tired of war and eventually gave up. They also began to forget the one true God and they worshiped the gods of their neighbors. This lead to God removing his protection from the people and they were invaded time and time again. They did not know peace.

It was in this climate the people cried out for a king. A human king, like their neighbors had. God new that with a human king there could never be peace. But He obliged their misguided desires and gave the people the king they desired. Their first king Saul was a man of war. He longed to fight and lead the people of Israel into conflict after conflict. He turned out to be a man more worried about his own power than leading the people to God. So God removed the blessing given to him.

The second king of the people was a “man after God’s heart.” King David was a good king, but he too was a warrior king. He spent his years in combat, David did not know peace for all of his days.

After David’s son Solomon ruled for 40 years that were mostly peaceable his son caused immense turmoil in the land. He imposed taxes on the people causing them to rebel and the nation of Israel to split. At this point any chance of peace was lost. The nations of Judah and Israel spent the 200 years at war with each other. It wasn’t until the northern Kingdom was conquered that the war ended. Then the southern kingdom of Judah found themselves at war with their neighbor and eventually the great Babylonians.

The people of Judah, the remanence of the Hebrews, were conquered and taken to exile where they would once again be prisoners in a foreign land. They spent the next seventy years in exile waiting on the Lord.

Finally, the Hebrew people were allowed to return to their country but they were no longer free, they were a client kingdom. They could worship God but they were not free to be his people. The Hebrews were clients to the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally, now they were a client kingdom to the Romans. There was no peace for them and there would be no peace for them.

The Promise of Peace

You once again walk with your family to the town synagogue. As you walk you sing a psalm of peace. Psalm 72.1-7

Psalm 72:1–7 NIV

Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. May he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; may he crush the oppressor. May he endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. May he be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.

Psalm 72:18–19 NIV

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.

You think of the peace you have longed for. The days when we can beat out swords into plowshares. The days when we can beat our spears into pruning sheers. A day of perfect peace. This is not just something you have longed for. This is something God has promised you. He promised you this perfect peace.

You are amazed as you sit down in the synagogue. As your neighbor Aaron, who was named for that great hero of your people, who stood with his brother Moses in presence of Pharoah, who was the first priest of the Hebrews, begins to read from the Torah scroll. He unrolls the scroll to the great prophet Isaiah and he reads: Isaiah 11:1

Isaiah 11:1 NIV

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

You know this is your people. Your little town of Bethlehem is the same village of Jesse’s people, the village in which the great king, David, was born. You take joy in knowing that God’s great gift of peace will come from your own people.

Aaron continues: Isaiah 11:2

Isaiah 11:2 NIV

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

You know that when God sends his chosen one peace will be upon him.

The prophet Isaiah told of a perfect Messiah, one who would bring peace to the people. The people who had not known peace, would one day know peace. But this would not be a peace like other nations enjoyed.

From time to time the Romans had times of peace but it was always a peace that was fostered by their military might. The kingdoms they had conquered were too afraid to stand up to them. There was only peace because there was fear. It was through the power of the sword and the spear that there was an absence of conflict.

This was not the peace the Hebrew people were promised. They were promised a peace that would come from wisdom and understanding. Probably the greatest catalyst of conflict is misunderstanding. People argue, people get angry, wars instigated, and battles are fought many times because of misunderstanding. But God promised the Hebrew people a messiah that would not conquer through war but through wisdom and understanding. This was the prophet that would offer the people a great peace. This is how God’s peace will be spread throughout the world.

The Character of Peace

You have enjoyed an amazing message of peace in the synagogue today. You and your family walk back through the streets of Bethlehem invigorated by the message of peace you recieved today. You enter your home hungry from your time of worship. So you are ready to eat. First, you washed your feet and your hand in ritual cleansing as was customary before any meal, you would never think of eating a meal with dirty hands. Then as you sat down your wife ladled the lentil stew, that had been prepared the day before, into a bowl for you. You were also blessed because today was the sabbath so you had a more significant meal, including fish, something you didn’t normally eat during the week.

As you and your family sat at the table lounging and eating, enjoying the cool shade of your roof top eating area your children began asking questions about what the Rabbi taught today at synagogue. The Rabbi had spoken about the peace that we were expecting as a people but your children did not understand what that peace was going to look like. What was it going be like when your people got to experience that peace?

The Hebrew people were longing for a peace that was unlike anything the world had seen before. As the Apostle Paul would later write it would be a “peace that passes all understanding.”

The prophet Isaiah told the Hebrew people exactly what this peace would look like. Isaiah prophesied that Isaiah 11:3-4

Isaiah 11:3–4 NIV

and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

The messiah that comes to bring people will not look at people’s outward appearances. In 1st century culture people were judged by their strength, they were judged by the extravagance of their dress, by their accessories, by the weight of their purses. But Isaiah says that God doesn’t care about all of that. God looks at the heart of the person. True peace comes from people who live together in righteousness, not from people who are constantly competing with one another for who is the best.

Isaiah also prophesied that when the world knew true peace born opponents would no longer fear or prey on one another. Isaiah 11:6-7

Isaiah 11:6–7 NIV

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

These animals are enemies by instinct. They do not harbor hate for one another, they do not fight because they hate each other. There is no racism between them. They are simply predator and prey. They are in constant turmoil because that is their nature. But Isaiah tells us when peace comes to the earth even most basic of predatory instinct will be no more.

If a wolf can live with a lamb, if a leopard can lie down with a goat, if a calf and a lion can all get along, how much more will people who can make rational choices be at peace with one another. God’s peace is not only for the Hebrews, it is not only for humanity, but God’s peace means creation healed. Even the first great enemies will be restored to a loving relationship Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 NIV

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

but in God’s perfect peace we are told Isaiah 11:8

Isaiah 11:8 NIV

The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

This is a peace that the serpent and the offspring of woman will once again live together in peace.

As you sit with your family, in the fading light of the lamp, as you admire your beautiful wife and children, you remember the peace that is prophesied. That one-day your people will be the agents of peace. Peace will come from the Hebrew people, peace will come from the tribe of Juda, peace will come from the root of Jesse, the house of David, in your little town of Bethlehem. So for tonight you will enjoy the hope that one day from your town God will send the agent of peace to heal the earth. Let us Pray