"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts..." -Colossians 3:15
Peace is a HUGE part of Christianity. Jesus made peace in mankind's relationship with God through the cross. God guides his people with peace. Jesus set us free from fear, and gave us the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. We don't have to worry, but have the peace of God that passes all understanding. But despite the Bible's emphasis on peace, we often do not live as if we have truly inherited the peace of God through Jesus' death on the cross. We're worried about tommorrow.
What will I eat?
What will I drink?
How will my family be clothed?
But we should not seek these things, but the Kingdom of God - and peace will be given to us! (Matthew 6).
But here's a big problem. Peace isn't necessarily an easy thing to live in (and Satan knows that), so he attacks our peace, our contentment, and our fulfillment and makes us live in worry or dissatisfaction that causes us to pursue other sin. Those worried about their possessions will serve materialism, those worried about love will serve people-pleasing and lust, and so on and so forth. Satan attacks our peace, and it's time we fight back! But how do we retake the peace of our hearts? How do we allow the Lord to rule?
...Well, this is no new trick of Satan...
He's been doing it ever since the Israelites attempted to retake their promised land! The Israelites crossed over Jordan and experienced mostly victory after victory against the Canaanites; but as time went on, Israel got comfortable, Joshua got old, and the tribes decided they need not fight as hard or follow the Lord's commandments to fully "drive out the inhabitants of the land." In Joshua 16:63, a key verse indicates the beginning of a huge problem Israel would face later in its history: "As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day."
Now, at the time, the fact that Jebusites are living with the Israelites in Jerusalem doesn't seem like a HUGE problem, but further reading into Judges shows the trouble this would end up causing. Early on in the book of Judges, the problem of Jerusalem switches ownership: "And the children of BENJAMIN did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jeubistes dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day."
Now, this switch in ownership has a huge spiritual application. Tracing the word Jebusites back to "Jebu" back to its root leads to the discovery of an ancient Hebrew word that means - "to cast down." Applying this personally, and understanding that Jerusalem means "the teaching of peace," we can see that Satan is attempting to use this stronghold of people to cast down the teaching of peace in Israel. As Israel inherits the promised land, they paint beautiful pictures of the individual's walk with Jesus as they become Christians and are set free from personal sin and strongholds. Back in Joshua, we see that Judah - or the original "praise" and joy a Christian feels when first converting - attempting and failing to drive out Satan's armies in Jerusalem. Over time, this corruption of Satan is changed over to Benjamin. For individual Christians, we may read the progression as "Satan first cast down praise, then he cast down our importance, our direction, and our value. Benjamin was the youngest son of Israel - the pride and joy, the important, valuable son - his name means "son of the right hand" - a position of honor, of respect, of importance, of direction -- no longer are we just forfeiting our rights to praise and to live freely with the Lord to Satan, we're surrendering important aspects of our hearts!
When we fail to obey the Lord and let his praise inhabit the peace of our hearts (Don't rejoice in the Lord alway and the peace of God which passes understanding come hand-in-hand in Phillipians 4?), it gives Satan an opportunity to steal away an important part of our hearts and take a powerful stronghold. The fight to get this Jerusalem back becomes harder than ever. In Judges 20, Benjamin had given themselves over to sin and false gods. In Judges 20:12-13, the rest of Israel tells Benjamin (after recognizing the problem), "What wickedness is this among you? Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put awawy evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brothren the children of Israel."
Whoa. Now, because of the original sin, a huge problem has been created in Israel, a major conflict, and one that could only be dealt with through all-out war. In the verses following, the Benjamites prepare themselves for battle, and go out against the children of Israel. But interstingly enough, God has a special redemption plan in order to make things completely right. In verse 18, the children of Israel ask the Lord who should go up and fight against the Benjamites, his answer? Judah! Time to make things right! Time to restore praise to the teaching of peace in Israel! So Judah goes up against Benjamin, and they get demolished. Broken-hearted and crushed, they come back and wail before the Lord. But yet again, he tells Israel that Judah should go up to fight, and yet again, they are absolutely crushed.
Thankfully, the Lord has a special way of exalting broken and cast down people - these are the sacrifices of the Lord (Psalms 51). In James 4, the Bible says, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mounring, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." So after one more wailing and weeping fit before the Lord, God sends Judah up to fight Benjamin for the third time. This time, Judah overcomes, and destroys the wickedness out of Israel, retakes Jerusalem, and restores peace to the people of God.
Most, if not, all of us as Christians have in some way forfeited our peace to the Jebusites in our hearts. In so doing, we've compramised the integrity of our hearts and sold over importance and validity to this lie that we need to be dependent on something other than God. Maybe you've recognized this, and tried dealing with it, remember, the Lord used PRAISE - thanksgiving, joy, a recognition of the character of Jesus - to drive out the sin in Jerusalem, and it didn't happen on the first try. Sometimes he brings us to a place of wailing and weeping before he restores to us what we forfeited in the first place. But praise be to the Lord who will exalt the humble in due time!
And remember, God has greatly used Judah and Jerusalem since that day. King David came from the tribe of Judah, Jerusalem became his capital, the home of the Lord God, and the destined place of our Lord's return. It is the place from which God has named his coming heavenly kingdom, the place where our Lord was crucified, and the place where we can later find reconciliation with God. Had not Judah overcome the Benjamintes, who knows what would have become of Jerusalem. But God had a plan for that place, and he wants to direct the peace in your heart as well. We must humble ourselves, give ourselves wholly over to the Lord, and let the God of peace rule in our hearts.
Amen.
