Our Daily Bread: Remembering 9/11Намуна

War and Peace

Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity. -Micah 4:3–4

Must war be with us always? In the past year alone, human beings have taken up arms against each other in forty-three separate conflicts that each killed at least one hundred people. Thirteen of these wars killed between 1,000 and 9,999 people. And three more are “major wars” in which at least 10,000 irreplaceable human lives have been lost! 

According to the prophet Micah, God will one day take away our weapons of death and create peace. Micah explained that God had sent the Assyrians to punish Israel because of their sins. However, the prophet also promised: “A ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from [Bethlehem] on my behalf” (Micah 5:2). This ruler, the Messiah, “will be the source of peace” (5:5). 

Micah’s prophecy also referred to the second coming of Messiah, who would “settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (4:3). In that day, “Everyone will live in peace and prosperity” (4:4).

We know this ruler to be Jesus, the child born in Bethlehem. We wait for the day when He will bring complete and lasting peace. But until He returns, we can have peace with God by trusting Him as Savior and living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit within us. 

Peace isn’t merely the absence of conflict; it’s the presence of Christ in our lives. 

God, our souls are weighed down with the absence of peace. But they’re buoyed with the anticipation of the day You’ll bring us peace and teach us Your ways.

Marvin Williams