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World Peace

World peace… now I’m pretty confident that this is an ideal that almost everyone on this earth wants. Of course, I’m sure there’s some out there that thrive on the chaos, probably a good number that are profiting from the way things are… but, most people (I think), recognise that the current state of the world is not good and we want change.

The problem is, a concept like ‘world peace’ is so out there it’s in the realm of fantasy. I suspect we’d be less surprised to see superman flying through the sky then see the entire world at peace. What would world peace even look like?

Because, let’s think about it. What breaks the peace? Well, we could probably dig deeply here, but it’s usually when people’s desires or ambitions mixed with too much self centeredness, results in people acting in ways that break the peace.

How would you stop that? Well, you almost have to stop humans being humans. You have to take away freedoms.

This is one of the dilemmas that law makers face today. They come up with laws that combat things like hate-speech. If you think about it, the intention is good - it’s an intention to bring peace. But what actually happens? Well, someone has to decide what hate speech is. They might intend well, but freedoms start to erode. I heard the other day, that there is a country that is making a law against cancel culture. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, this is the idea that when a company or an individual does something that goes against values that have been set by a certain part of society, then people ban together to not only boycott a product, but turn other businesses and groups against them. You might think a law against such an idea might be good, but does it just trade one persons freedom for another.

Look, I don’t know what laws are going to be effective, and which ones aren’t, but what is clear, is that no matter how good our legislators are, we’re still going to have problems.

And here lies the fundamental problem. As much as we try, peace is always going to be allusive.

But yet, this remains one of the themes of advent.

I want to suggest that this theme is actually going to present a huge challenge for us. Because to counter the chaos of this world, we will have to act in a way that is counter intuitive.

Shalom

But let me first track the theme of peace throughout the bible.

In fact, I’m going to shift to using the Hebrew word for peace, that is shalom, and as I do, I hope you start to see how shalom means more than just peace in the sense of an absence of hostility.

You see, this theme really starts back at creation. In the first two chapters, I’m going to suggest that we’ve got the very definition of shalom. The world is all as it should be.

Shalom does not last. In fact, it falls quickly after Adam and Eve turned their backs on God by eating the forbidden fruit.

The story of the bible essentially then becomes the quest to restore shalom.

Now we might pause here because perhaps you’re wondering, if God is all powerful, why doesn’t he just create shalom by his miraculous powers?

Well, this is the crazy thing. God is choosing to create shalom, while humanity continue to enjoy freedom.

Well, the plan to bring back shalom, is actually a very surprising plan. It starts with one man - Abraham. Through him comes the nation of Israel. Israel are far from perfect, but they become the vessel in which we will find peace. The whole Old Testament then becomes this story of the nation of Israel trying to find rest.

But it is so much more than just one nation finding rest. You see, this nation was always pointing to something bigger. Something bigger that God is doing in this world.

Well, at times, it looks like Israel find their rest. They come into the Promised Land and settle down. Butt their rest is short lived. Hundreds of years pass, and David becomes king, and again, it looks like they have got Shalom. But this is short lived.

It’s not too long after King David, that we see the kingdom of Israel divided in two. This is not a good recipe to bring about peace, rather it is the cause of a long running bitter conflict.

You see, the Northern and Southern Kingdom are a bit like two bickering brother, only at times, it becomes far more than bickering, it becomes all out war.

As this continues, we get further and further away from shalom. Is it ever going to be possible?

Syro-Ephramite conflict

Well, I want to stop a moment and look at one particular conflict that happened during this time, because it’s during this conflict that we got the prophecy that was read earlier from the prophet Micah.

Now, I’m going to try and explain the goe-political context, and I get that it can get a little complicated, so I want to start by introducing the main players in the conflict.

Players in the conflict

The first two main players are the Northern and Southern kingdoms.

In the South we have the kingdom commonly referred to as Judah. King Ahaz sits on the throne there, and unfortunately, he’s not very good at listening to the prophets sent by God, rather prefers to get his advice from elsewhere.

In the South, the kingdom is commonly referred to simply as Israel, and King Pekah is in charge.

At this particular point in time, Judah and Israel have a rather poor relationship.

The third player in this conflict is Syria, with it’s capital of Damascus. Syria have been one of Israel’s enemies for quite some time.

But there is a fourth player in this conflict. You see, even further North is a new world super power starting to form. This new player in called Assyria. It won’t be long and they will be completely dominating this part of the world.

We were talking about trying to find peace before, well, if this new super power forms, everyone can say goodbye to peace.

Well, these other three kingdoms are paying attention to what Assyria is up to, and they realise that it is cause for concern. They might not exactly have peace already, but things are about to get a lot worse.

The conflict

So, Israel and Syria make a decision to put aside their difference so that they can form an alliance against a bigger enemy. Seems like a good plan.

They even think - if we just get Judah on board, we can have an even bigger alliance and we’ll increase our chances of success.

So, King Ahaz of Judah now has a choice. Does he join the alliance, or keep his distance from him.

It’s interesting to note that the prophet Isaiah has access to King Ahaz at this point, and he is able to speak the wisdom of God to him. Isaiah tells him actually, he should just trust God and him alone.

So what does King Ahaz do? Does he join the alliance, or trust God?

Well, King Ahaz probably thought he was pretty clever because he thought, you know what, there’s a third option in all of this, and it might just turn out better for Judah overall.

You see, King Ahaz decides to make a deal with Assyria. If he can becomes friends with Assyria, then he can get them to wipe out both Israel and Damascus, and there you go, his traditional rivals are gone.

The sad truth is, this is very similar to how we often think we can create peace. We can do a bit of wheeling and dealing, wipe out our immediate threats, and then we’ll have peace.

Well, King Ahaz goes ahead with this plan, and guess what, it works. Well, sort of. Assyria do take out Syria and Israel.

But now surprisingly, there are consequences. Judah is now subject to Assyria. Judah is allowed to survive, but they have to pay a massive tribute on a regular basis.

That’s kind of what happens when we try to force a deal ourselves. We might get one victory, but only to put more restraints on ourselves.

It goes bad

Well, this situation, while not ideal, but for the next 30 or so years, they kind of get by.

The Northern kingdom are now gone, and Hezekiah is king of Judah.

Judah is still paying a heavy tribute to Assyria, but Hezekiah says: blow this, I’m going to stop paying.

You see, there was a realisation that they didn’t really have peace. This was not shalom.

Well, as you might imagine Assyria didn’t just let that one slip. They sent an absolutely massive army down to Judah.

Shalom has definitely gone now.

This army will easily destroy Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

Micah

Well, enter the prophet Micah.

Earlier we read from Micah chapter 5. We actually started in verse 2, but had we read verse 1, we would have read the words: “Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us”.

That siege, is the army surrounding Judah.

In other words, Micah is prophesying directly into this chaotic situation where peace appears no where to be seen.

Now, you might hope that Micah’s prophecy is going to be good news for this besieged nation, and in a sense, it is, but I’m going to suggest it isn’t what they would have been expecting.

You see, Micah starts prophesying about some future time.

Assyria are on their door step, and Micah is talking about someone coming from the small town of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was of course where King David had come from, so there is some pretty significant history from their, but as the prophecy makes clear, it is actually just a small little clan.

Micah starts painting this picture of someone who is going to come from Bethlehem. His origins are from ancient times. This person is going to shepherd the flock. This person is going to bring peace.

Now, we have the benefit of hindsight. We hear these words and we rightfully think of Jesus.

But remember, this prophecy is being given with a giant army on their doorstep.

Now, there is going to be a resolution to their current crisis, and I’ll get to that in a moment, but the reality is, Shalom, this longed for state of being that God has been directing them towards, is not going to be found until this one whose origins are from of old comes.

They might not have known the name of Jesus, but Micah is saying, keep your eyes open, because a shalom creator is coming.

Victory

Now, let me tell you how this siege ends. Remember, we have Jerusalem surrounded by an army that could quite easily wipe out this important city.

Well, unlike King Ahaz who tries to take matters into his own hands, King Hezekiah listens to God, and he hands it all over to him.

Where told that while the army is camped outside the city gates, the Angel of the Lord comes and puts to death 185,000 soldiers. Some scholars have suggested that it might have been the bubonic plague going through the army. Whatever it was, God made it happen, and Judah won a great victory that day without doing anything. God brings about great victories.

But here’s the thing. As great as this victory was, and it was a great demonstration of God’s power, they still didn’t have shalom.

Do not mistake an absence of hostility for peace.

You see, the immediate threat of Assyria was gone, but things were not as it should be.

In just over a hundred years later, they’re going to be sent into exile.

Even when they’re released from exile, they still don’t know shalom.

They needed this one who would come from Bethlehem… whose origins are from of old.

Advent

It is advent now, and we are living in a time when that one who would come from Bethlehem has come.

You see, here’s the thing. We so often look for big victories and think that is where we will find peace.

Sometimes we might get excited when there’s some sort of political victory - let’s say, a Christian value is under threat, but then some legislation gets through that protects that Christian value.

Or I saw recently that some politicians have made a renewed attempt to get scripture classes out of schools. We’ll pray about it, and let’s say their attempt fails - it will be like a victory that we get to keep scripture classes.

Or it might be something on a more personal level. You win a battle in a custody dispute. Or you finally get a payment from the insurance company that you rightfully deserved.

We win these battles and think - finally, we’ll have peace.

Now don’t get me wrong - those victories are great, and more then likely, you will be right to put it down to God’s great love for you.

This victories might be part of things moving towards a state of shalom, but the problem is, we start to misunderstand what we’re seeking after. Peace is not about strength. Peace is not about getting your own way.

Rather than making our view bigger, in some ways, we need to make it smaller (at least, in one sense).

We’re talking about the one who came from the smallest of clans in Judah.

To gain shalom, we need to first abandon our own plans, find Jesus, and only then will we understand the true nature of greatness.

One of the things that I love about Christmas is that at the center of it, is a baby. Jesus of course didn’t stay a baby. He grew into a man. But yet, the image of a baby is helpful to remember. Because in it, is an inherent humility.

I want to make the argument this morning that without Jesus, there is no peace.

It will make no difference how good you can craft new laws… It will make no difference how good you are at negotiating… peace is not found in forcing other people, or manipulating them to do what you want… peace is only found, when in humility, we look to Jesus.

This can be challenging, because we need to accept that we can’t force peace to happen.

We can however, join with Jesus, and find peace in a whole new way.

You see, this side of Christ return, there will be suffering. But yet, as we abandon our own desires, the world starts to look different.

We start to see the world from the perspective of the new kingdom that has come.

We start to see, even in the midst of chaos, there can be peace. It’s the peace of God that fills us in the most amazing way.

We get a foretaste of heaven right now.

Conclusion

At Christmas, when we focus on Jesus, we can experience this peace, no matter what is going on in your life at the moment.

I want to encourage you, however, don’t just try to experience it by yourself. The peace of God is best experienced when we join together with all the saints in unity.

Because Jesus, the one from ancient times, joins us together and unites us as the body of Christ.

You want peace? Don’t try to get it in your own strength. Rather find Jesus, and then you will find peace.

Let me pray...