October 26

The Lord of Peace is Our Peace

“And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” (Isaiah 32:17-18)

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16)

We live in a busy, chaotic world that feeds us news, entertainment, and communication around the clock, twenty-four hours a day. Much of this activity is good, some is harmful, and it is just too much if we don’t filter it and take breaks. I reject the idea that I have to have a response to every news report, an opinion about every political event, or a reaction to every Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram post. Much of what I look at on my iPhone is filtered; I use settings on my feeds and social network sites and text, “STOP” to messages that I have not requested coming from an organization I don’t want to endorse. It used to be that we had to work at getting connected, at church, the store, or in our neighborhoods; now we have to work at getting unconnected to have some quietness.

The good news of 2 Thessalonians 3:16 is that whenever Christians seek Jesus, the Lord of peace, we can have his peace—all the time, in all ways. Christ’s peace is assured to us without connection to any particular circumstances or conditions, except our being born again in faith, belonging to him. Isaiah 32 reminds us that “my people” will have peaceful, safe homes, and places to rest quietly because of God’s righteousness. There is nothing we can do to secure this lovely pasture except to trust and believe in the “effect of righteousness” in Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah.

Matthew Henry comments on Isaiah 32:8-18, “The Jews were the only professing people God then had in the world, yet many among them were rebellious. They had the light, but they loved darkness rather…They did not like to hear of his holy commandments and his hatred of sin; they desired that they might no more be reminded of these things. But as they despised the word of God, their sins undermined their safety…They think themselves wiser than God; but the project by which they thought to save themselves was their ruin…Those who make God alone their confidence, will have comfort. God ever waits to be gracious to all that come to him by faith in Christ, and happy are those who wait for him.” *

The only real peace we have is in, with, and through Jesus Christ. The world whirls, and we will spin with it if we do not stop to consider the righteousness of Christ that should impact how we live in this world. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring…Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4:13-17) When will you spend time with the Lord of peace today?

* Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, Isaiah 32:8-18, https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-concise/