SCRIPTURE
“Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.” Nahum 1:15
SPOTLIGHT
People are in desperate need of peace! Will you help meet this need?
Too many people live in conflict. Perhaps they are not at peace with family, employers, neighbors, society and even themselves. Outer turmoil describes the way they live. Inner turmoil marked by fear, or anger, coupled with great emotional pain churn within. Harmony and tranquility are absent. Just look at how this has become so evident in our world in a variety of ways. Road rage driving is increasing. Domestic disputes and shootings are multiplying. The threat of diseases, riots and war dominate peoples’ thinking. Inequality, lack of finances, substance abuse, and fears, all reflect how desperate people are for peace.
Outer turmoil always means there is inner turmoil. Internally, people are battling confusion, and conflict, because of two opposing voices within them. They are not at peace with themselves, because they are not at peace with God. Peace with God brings peace in life. Where there is perfect peace, there is God! To have the peace of God, you must worship the God of peace. However, there is a big problem. Pride fights humility. Selfishness opposes selflessness. Want contends with need. Personal opinion collides with truth. Fear fights faith. “My ways,” war against God’s ways. People want to trust themselves rather than trust God.
The remedy is to get peace. But how? There must be an elimination of the problem which produces the conflict, and the turmoil. Most people do not know what the number one problem in their lives really is. The Bible teaches that the primary problem, and enemy of inner and outer peace, for everyone, is the devil. He seeks to destroy lives in the most subtle, unexpecting ways by keeping anyone from knowing God. The Good News is that he has been eliminated. The Bible says that perfect peace comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 states, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” However, before a person experiences this peace that only Jesus Christ can give, Satan will do everything possible to block it from happening. He does not want people to know that God is the giver of ultimate peace. Satan believes “No God, No Peace,” and will do everything possible to stop the message, “Know God, Know Peace.”
Nahum, is a three chapter book written by the prophet Nahum. It provides a prediction of a future time of peace for Judah. Just like Satan does for all people, the Assyrians had presented outer and inner turmoil for the Jewish people for over 200 years. They were a horrific, brutal enemy. Jonah had preached about this in his book when God sent him to Nineveh, their capital city. At that time, the Assyrians repented, but only for a short time. They returned to being brutal and cruel. Outwardly, Jewish life returned to constant conflict and turmoil. Inwardly, Jewish life was marked by dread and fear.
In the Scripture text above, Nahum prophesied, about 150 years after Jonah, that there would come a day when someone would run through the mountains to tell the Jewish people that their long lasting, cruel enemy had been defeated and Nineveh had been destroyed. This messenger would convey to them that they now had peace. Note 2 things about the peace messenger:
- A peace messenger must personally know the problem has been eliminated. Nahum prophesied that one day the Jewish people would meet a person who had witnessed first-hand, the defeat of the Assyrians. A Christian is a peace messenger first and foremost, because of personally experiencing peace with God. He/she knows his/her number one enemy has been eliminated when Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. Satan was permanently defeated. Ephesians 2:14 states, “For Christ, Himself is our way of peace…”[Living Bible]. A believer is convinced that, “No God, No Peace! Know God, Know Peace!”
- A peace messenger senses an urgency. Nahum prophesied that someday there would be a person who would come running with the good news that peace was now to be experienced. The Jewish people would now enjoy a peaceful future which would allow them to freely worship God. A Christian is God’s peace messenger. He/she senses an urgency to share with people how to experience life changing peace. The Apostle Paul spoke of the great need for people to experience God’s peace. Romans 10:14,15 states, “How, then, can they call on the One [Jesus Christ] they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Paul quoted Isaiah 52:7, which states, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Nahum may have been influenced by Isaiah’s word picture when he communicated to the Jewish people, that the long- desired peace that was so desperately needed, was going to come by a messenger running over the mountains.
Today’s Scripture text is so important that it appears 3 times in 3 different books in the Bible. BECOME A PEACE MESSENGER. God has a running team composed of believers who are swiftly carrying the Good News of peace to anyone, and everyone, all over the world. Members of God’s running team know and are personally convinced that life’s number threat has been defeated by Jesus Christ. They sense an urgency to tell people how to experience genuine peace. Are you an active runner on God’s Peace Team? Someone said, “Speak, move, act in peace, as if you were in prayer. In truth, this is prayer.” [Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations].
SOMETHING TO DO
- Recall how you experienced peace with God. Who was your messenger? Remember the turmoil in your life before personally knowing Jesus Christ. Recall the joy you have experienced with yourself, and others, since you have had God’s peace.
- As a member of God’s Peace Team, think of ways that you can increase your speed to communicate the message of peace? What may be holding you back? What can you do to run faster?
SOUL TIME PRAYER
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
― St. Francis of Assisi