What Kind of Peace?

MEMORY VERSE: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” —Matthew 5:9

MICAH 4:1-4

FOR hundreds of years the nation of Israel was accustomed to being ruled by God from Jerusalem, in which Mt. Zion was “Capitol Hill.” For the most part, the prophecies of the Old Testament are addressed first of all to God’s typical people Israel. For this reason there are a number of instances in which the messianic kingdom is likened to a “mountain”—the “mountain of the Lord.” The Israelites would know that this referred to the rulership of the Lord.

So in this first section of our lesson we are informed that “in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.” That this “mountain of the Lord” is established “in the top of the mountains” suggests that it will take a dominating position in the affairs of men.

“Many nations”—Isaiah’s similar prophecy says “all nations”—“shall say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” As the prophecy states, this foretold “mountain” of the Lord consists, really, of the “house” of the Lord, which is a reference to God’s ruling house, consisting of his beloved Son Christ Jesus, and associated with him his glorified faithful followers who also qualify to become sons of God.

Verse 3 indicates that even after the kingdom of the Lord’s house is established there will be “strong nations” afar off to be rebuked. So the Lord will do a judging work among the people, and these strong nations which might still be resisting the authority of the Lord’s ruling house will he rebuked, obviously for the purpose of bringing them into line with the kingdom and its laws.

It will be a time when swords will be beaten into plowshares, and spears into pruninghooks. The people will learn war no more, and certainly if they do not learn war they will not go to war.

Economic security will be provided for the people through the agencies of that kingdom. And how beautifully this thought is expressed: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”

MATTHEW 24:6-8

Matthew, chapter 24, is, to a large extent, answers by Jesus to the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming [Greek, presence], and of the end of the world?” (vs. 3) There have been “wars and rumors of wars” throughout the age, but as Jesus points out, when the time came concerning which his disciples asked, nation would “rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

It is believed by many students of prophecy that nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom is descriptive of world war—and in this instance, the first World War. Certainly there have been famines and pestilences in the earth since that time. The word translated “sorrows” is from a Greek word meaning “the pains of travail”

JAMES 4:1-3

Here the “wars” referred to are among the Lord’s professed people—their personal struggles, perhaps, for favoritism or other advantages. The indication is that these “wars” were being made a matter of prayer. But, as James explains, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

Here James describes selfish prayers, and these will not be favorably answered by the Lord. Prayer is not designed to obtain things from the Lord which are to be used selfishly. This is one of the important points to keep in mind in connection with all our praying.

QUESTIONS

What is the “mountain of the Lord”?

How will it bless the people?

What is one of the signs of the end of the age?

Will selfish prayers be favorably answered?

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