Yes, everyone wants peace: but every news bulletin tells of war. The list is long and Afghanistan is simply the latest example. No sooner has the fighting stopped in one place when it breaks out in another. When will it end? Everyone says they want peace; but fighting on all fronts is all we see.
Why is peace so difficult to obtain; especially if it's in such great demand? Why is it that in spite of all the efforts of governments down through the ages, mankind is still unable to be at peace?
Man’s Achievements
Man has climbed the world's highest mountains: plumbed the deepest oceans:
penetrated earth's densest forests and caves: unlocked the secrets of the atom
and even walked on the moon. But, we are unable to produce peace on earth. Why is
this? We can store vast amounts of information on tiny silicon chips: catalogue
the DNA code of every criminal in the world: bounce messages off satellites
circling high up in the sky: but we are unable to unlock the secret of peace.
Commenting on the unbelieving mind of mankind as a whole the Bible says:
| Isaiah 59: |
2: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 7: Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 8: The way of PEACE they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know PEACE. |
Why is this? Why can't we find the way of peace? Why is every peace process doomed to failure? Are we trying an impossible task? It's not for want of money, or commitment, or effort, or will. Oh no, man has spent fortunes on trying to make peace on earth. We've attended hundreds of peace conferences, walked tens of thousands of miles in peace marches, discussed peace more often than any other subject on the face of the earth and signed peace treatise by the score. But, still there is no peace on earth.
Places like Korea, Vietnam, Biafra, Cambodia, the Falklands, Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Gulf, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, all remind us, peace is a haunting dream which none of the world's greatest minds can bring about. That is a deflating, painful and undeniable fact. Nations may keep the peace - for a few years - by pointing the barrel of a gun at each others cities - but threatening another's existence can hardly be called peace. Sooner or later the fighting will break out again: trade battles, debt disputes, conflicts over land, tussles for power or prestige; all these things usually end in tension and war!
| Jeremiah 1: | 5: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. |
The Wine Cup of War!
| Jeremiah 25: |
15: For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the WINE CUP of this fury
at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. 16: And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. 17: Then took I the CUP at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: 18: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; 19: Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; 20: And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, 21: Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon 22: And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, 23: Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, 24: And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, 25: And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, 26: And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD, WHICH ARE UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 27: Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 28: And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 29: For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. 30: Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. 31: A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. 32: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. |
The Savior reiterates the same theme when He said:
| Matthew 24: |
6: And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled:
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8: All these are the beginning of sorrows.
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| Revelation 6: | 4: And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to TAKE PEACE FROM THE EARTH, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. |
How true these prophecies are. A great whirlwind of war is blowing up and nation after nation is drinking from that deadly wine cup of God’s Wrath! The ‘SWORD OF WAR’ is sweeping the earth! and there is absolutely nothing the politicians can do about it - absolutely nothing!
| Isaiah 59: |
2: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 7: Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 8: The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. |
As long as individuals, families, communities or nations rebel against the Almighty and His commandments, they will not know peace. That is the verdict of the Almighty God! We do well to pay attention. This fact is repeated in Scripture:
| Galatians 5: |
22:The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, PEACE, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, 23: Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. |
In short, if you want peace you must tune in to the LORD God of Israel, the Creator of the mighty universe. That is the first step we must take if real peace is to be obtained. Refusal to take it is a sure recipe for war!
| Isaiah 27: | 5: Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. |
When you accept Yahweh’s offer of mercy and salvation, He gives you His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Peace. Unless we acknowledge these facts: that peace cometh from the LORD of heaven and earth, that peace is a spiritual product which mankind is not able to produce, real peace will never be ours. Speaking of the king Asa the Bible says:
| 2 Chronicles 14: |
2: And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God: 3: For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 4: And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5: Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6: And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had NO WAR in those years; because the LORD had given him rest. |
Of good king Jehoshaphat the Bible says:
| 2 Chronicles 17: |
3: And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of
his father David, and sought not unto Baalim; 4: But sought to the LORD God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. 9: And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people. 10: And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made NO WAR against Jehoshaphat. |
| Daniel 8: |
25: And through his (the Little Horn) policy also he shall cause craft to
prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by
PEACE shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of
princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
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| Daniel 11: | 21: And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. |
As Hitler did in the 1930s, the Antichrist will arrive on the world scene and give the nations work. ‘Through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand’ and ‘by PEACE shall destroy many.’ But again, like Hitler's peace, work and prosperity plans, the end result will be devastating war and death for millions. That was a counterfeit peace, deadly from concept to conclusion.
| Ezekiel 34: |
20: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge
between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. 21: Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; 22: Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. 23: And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24: And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. 25: And I will make with them a COVENANT OF PEACE, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 26: And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27: And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. 28: And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. 29: And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. 30: Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. 31: And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.
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| Isaiah 9: | 7: Of the increase of his government and PEACE there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. |
These steps will ensure the Almighty’s blessing on your life.
