Peace: The Old Testament

Dear Readers,

I have been thinking lately about three things: peace, unity, and reconciliation. These things must go hand in hand with the Christian, as these are the subjects most important to God. I wish to write to you a series of letters on these things, in hope that you may work towards the goal God has, to create peace, unity, and reconciliation among humanity. The first one that I write to you about will be peace, as it is the central theme to what God works towards.

The Bible as a whole is told as the long history and narrative of God's graceful salvation of mankind. As long as we have been capable of thinking and acting freely we have been at war with God. We onslaught him daily with our defiant acts of turning from him and making ourselves the gods of our minds. It is not his wish for this war to continue or last forever. He took a destructive act to clean the slate the first time through the deluge, but declare peace following it. However, we continued the war.

Given our warring with God, it would not be wrong of God to destroy mankind once and for all, but he didn't. Instead, in the midst of war he declared the universal peace through the birth, life, and death of Jesus. He took the initiative to make peace with humanity, to save us from ourselves. This story begins in the Old Testament which is what I point you to today.

The Old Testament is the interwoven stories of wars, families, parents and children, friends, neighbors, enemies, joy and sorrow, love and hate, and fear and courage. At the center stage is the Kingdom of Israel and it's rise and fall. It can be described as the Tragedy of Israel and the Hope of Men. The amount of sorrow, pain, and brokenness found in this tragedy is one to make the reader sink into depression if we read it only as the history of Israel and it's people. But, behind this sad story is the hope of men.

The temple was leveled, the priesthood disbanded, the kingship fallen, and the kingdom destroyed. Israel was a house of destruction, but God was not destroyed with it. God was not the tribal god of a petty kingdom of the Levant, he is the Universal King. He was not confined to the temple or disappeared when the Hebrews were scattered. He remained, and so did his mercy and love. God promised a future built on the little acts of faith and trust, not kingdoms or powerful monarchs.

The story of the Old Testament is the story of the deep love and mercy that God has for mankind. God's creation of all things is an act of love. God's calling of Israel to be the light of the world was an act of love. Hearing and freeing the Hebrews from servitude was an act of mercy. God not withdrawing from people due to corruption and conquest was an act of mercy. His sending prophets to redirect the Kingdom of Israel back to the right path was an act of mercy. God being in the midst of the exiled and comforting the grief worn people and promising them a new hope was an act of mercy. The sending of Jonah to Gentiles and spreading the message of redemption to all was an act of mercy.

The story of the Old Testament ends with the call of Daniel to find peace through patience and wait with patience the coming of the Kingdom of God. We must live faithfully, mercifully, and patiently trusting God for peace. We also must find little ways to make peace in our lives and refuse to bow before the false idols of warfare and exploitation. These are the continuing acts of God's mercy. Aligning ourselves with God's way is aligning ourselves with the way of peace. We must look behind the curtains of the Old Testament narrative and read behind the lines to find what God is preparing for, the Gospel of Peace and the Way of Life.