Peace, Peace
Notes
Transcript
What is peace?
Well, a dictionary will tell you: a state of tranquility or quiet, freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, harmony in personal relations, a state or period of mutual concord between governments.
All that is great. I suppose a better question would be: when is peace?
We live in a world of chaos. There is still fighting in Ukraine, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, Somali, the Congo, Mexico, and so many other countries. We have school and church shootings, gang wars, and other senseless acts of violence.
On top of the physical violence, we have domestic abuse, relationship abuse, bullying.
And then, there is the war that happens within each one of us, in our thoughts, our insecurities, fears, sins.
When will there be peace?
Twice Jeremiah prophesied to his people the exact same thing:
“From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
when there is no peace.
The wise will be put to shame;
they will be dismayed and trapped.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?
Therefore I will give their wives to other men
and their fields to new owners.
From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.
People cry for peace. But they do not find it, because they are looking in the wrong place.
God answers this prophecy of Jeremiah, before he gave it, through the prophet Isaiah:
I was enraged by their sinful greed;
I punished them, and hid my face in anger,
yet they kept on in their willful ways.
I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,
creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,”
says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”
Peace does not come from this world or the people of this world. Peace only comes through our Creator. The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace.
That is what we see in the last verses of Daniel. Chapters 10-12 are the last vision in Daniel. The longest. The most detailed, spanning from the time of Daniel until the end of time when God makes all things new. Chapter 12 is the conclusion of that vision, when the angel wraps everything up.
But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”
The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”
He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
“From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace, through uncertainty and purification, unrest and understanding.
Before we dive in, will you pray with me?
We are going to focus on verses 9-10 today, as we reference some of the other verses.
1. Through Uncertainty
1. Through Uncertainty
The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace, through uncertainty.
God tells Daniel:
He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.
I’ve given you all this information about what is going to happen in the future and you don’t understand any of it, Daniel, but go your way.
Can you imagine what Daniel was thinking or feeling? He just experienced this crazy dream full of pain and chaos for his people, and then God says: go your way.
But, God, you never really explained any of this to me?
In fact, this verse is in answer to Daniel’s question:
I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”
I don’t know what’s going on, God! Can you help me with all of this that I do not understand?
God’s answer: Go your way, because my marching orders have been given. My royal seal has been placed on them. There is no changing them.
Not the most helpful answer, God.
But, then, God returns to the meat of things and gives some clarification on his vision.
“From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
And no one has any idea what those days mean. Because they are a date range than the previous ones.
Daniel says: What’s the outcome of all of this? God, I have confusion. I don’t understand.
God answers: Okay, here’s some more confusion.
And then he repeats himself:
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
Go your way, Daniel, and rest.
How?
Well, let’s go back to Isaiah:
He talks about pain and destruction and despair:
till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.
The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,
his righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.
Though hail flattens the forest
and the city is leveled completely,
how blessed you will be,
sowing your seed by every stream,
and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
A relationship with God brings peace through uncertainty. We may not know what the future holds. But, we know the God who holds the future. We may not know the timeline of events, but we know the God who sets time in its place. That intimate relationship with God brings peace.
Those famous verses:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace, through uncertainty.
2. Through Purification
2. Through Purification
He gives peace through purification.
That’s part of how he helps us through uncertainty. As we seek him, investing in that relationship with him, he allows us to see what he is doing.
After God tells Daniel to go his way, he says:
Many will be purified, made spotless and refined,
During the uncertainty, God is doing a work. He is purifying a people for himself. We can call it the sanctification process, the process whereby God makes us holy or purified. Or we could just call it suffering.
The life of a Christian is great. There is so much joy. So much fun. So much goodness. But it is not easy.
Through the not-easy parts, we know that God is working.
Paul talks about suffering, relates that suffering to creation under the curse of sin, and then says:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Even through suffering , God is working to bring good to us? What is that good?
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
That we might be purified, made spotless and refined.
That process of purification is hard. But, through it we can have peace. As we see God working, we know what he’s doing. We see it as evidence that we are his.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
There is a purification time coming for the people of God, the Israelites. Those who have not accepted Christ as their savior, the promised Messiah. They are still God’s chosen people, though living in disobedience.
The time that God is talking about in Daniel 12, when he gives those odd timelines, between the daily sacrifice and the abomination that causes desolation, we have named that time the Great Tribulation. A time of testing, a time of purifying. That time is for the Jews, to purify them and call them to ultimately follow their true king: Jesus the Messiah. As they do that, they will experience ultimate peace, even in that time, through the relationship with their king.
The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace, through purification.
3. Through Unrest
3. Through Unrest
He gives peace through unrest.
The angel continues his comforting, confusing answer:
Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked.
That is not necessarily the answer we want to hear from God. “What is going to be the outcome of all of this vision?”
God’s answer: The wicked will continue to be wicked.
Until the end comes, the wicked will continue to be wicked. The world is going to get worse and worse and worse, because God is not going to stop the extent of our sin. In fact, there is going to be a time when the the Holy Spirit and the church will be removed, as seen in 2 Thess.
Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
After that time, the wickedness will be more than we have ever seen. Because we have lived under the season of grace.
Noah and his sons and their wives saw wickedness to that extent. Wickedness so great that God destroyed the world in a flood. And he will destroy the world again. The first time was water. The second time will be fire.
Until then, we are promised a life of unrest, surrounded by this wickedness, outside and inside.
Doesn’t sound very comforting.
But God. He continues and says:
Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
There is an end to all of this. There is a time when that wickedness will be done away with. We won’t struggle with our sin and the sins of those around us any more. Even so come quickly Lord Jesus.
He will bring that end, and blessed is everyone who waits for that end, who is longing for that end.
Jesus says about the pains of this world until he comes again:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
As we are in him, we will have peace, even as the world goes to hell in a handbasket. He gives us that peace as we wait for the consummation of all things.
The God who holds eternity in his hands gives peace, through unrest.
4. Through Understanding
4. Through Understanding
He gives peace through understanding.
That last part of the verse that we are focusing on:
Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
God sets up a dichotomy between the wicked and the wise, those who do not understand and those who do understand.
As Paul wrote:
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
As the world progresses toward the end that is to come, and wickedness gets more an more rampant, and we sit in the unrest, we need understanding of God, and that only comes if we accept the foolishness of God. We give up our wisdom that is tied to our wickedness, and fall down before Jesus and say: I need you, save me.
In that moment, we are made righteous, and through the foolishness of what we believed, we gain understanding.
And as days become more and more wicked, people will yearn for understanding. They see the need within them for something more, and they will try to find out what we know, but as always, they look in all the wrong places.
Amos speaks of this time:
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
That reminds me of what the angel told Daniel earlier in Daniel 12 4
But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
People wandering, searching for knowledge, but not able to find it.
Perhaps this is you. You’ve been attending church for a while, and you’ve been trying to find the answer for something in your life. The problem is for the majority of your life, you have refused to hear the Word of God, the only answer that you need. You have been looking in all the wrong places. Because of that, you have felt lost. You have no peace.
And God reaches out his hand, the one who holds eternity and says: come to me, even if you think it is foolishness, come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, peace. Turn to Jesus and find the understanding that you are looking for.
Perhaps, you are online, watching this service. God is calling to you to, offering you his peace. Will you take it?
If you are his follower, revel in his peace. Don’t seek it anywhere else, no matter the uncertain or unrest of your life, no matter the process of purification or pulling of knowledge. Revel in him, praise his name, and give him glory, as you go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of days you will rise to receive your alloted inheritance. Even so come Lord Jesus.
