A Peace to End All "Peace"

The world news is hard to watch right now. The unrest in places like Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Nigeria breaks your heart and stirs your soul. Evil is alive and well. And it moves quickly, often with uncompromising intentions. "Cease fires" are only temporary. They do not represent everlasting peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force -- tension, confusion, or war; it is the presence of some positive force -- justice, good will, and brotherhood." King's words echo the prophet Jeremiah, who called out the shady pundits of Judah who proclaimed "peace, peace," while in reality there was no peace (Jer. 8:11). George Orwell called this type of false prophecy "newspeak" in 1984. God calls it "superficial healing" in Jeremiah 8:11. Why? "The brokenness of My people" (Jer. 8:11)still exists. Injustice is still at work. And so we look through the annals of history and see why so many "peace plans" have failed. Forcing Germany after the first World War to pay years of reparations because of their involvement obviously did not lead to the rise of justice, good will, and brotherhood. It led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. You can't just try to "take out" a negative force and expect everything to be sunshine and rainbows. And you can't replace injustice with an equal or greater form of injustice -- a principle at the heart of King's non-violent resistance movement. Remember what Jesus warned us about the unclean spirit that goes out of a man, but when he returns to his old home, he finds it empty. Nothing has replaced the space he used to occupy. And so he moves back in and invites seven of his buddies to join him (Luke 11:24-26). If the principle is true for individuals, it is true for nations and cultures as well. Evil is overcome and replaced only by genuine good.

And so we are left with the great question that builds throughout Jeremiah: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (Jer. 8:22) Can we ever experience a true peace -- one of real justice, good will, and brotherhood? Even if these wars end, will these people be able to claim an ownership of peace? The Bible's answer is yes -- but ONLY in the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6)and through His Kingdom (Isa. 9:7). For "there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace" (Isa. 9:7). Until my governing principles and your governing principles "rest on His shoulders" (Isa. 9:6), the world will be left searching for Gilead's Balm.               

To His Glory,
Caleb